Custom Software
Direct Sicily – From Spreadsheets to a Professional Availability List in 30 Seconds
How a Mediterranean plant distributor digitized their entire catalog and export process
Direct Sicily imports Mediterranean plants from Sicily and distributes them to customers throughout the Netherlands and Europe. Every week, an updated availability list has to go out to customers – with photos, prices, and specifications for hundreds of plants. That process took hours of manual work in Excel, was error-prone, and never looked entirely professional. They needed a system that centralized everything and generated a branded export at the push of a button.
Impact
Resultaten
97%
Time saved per export
From 2-4 hours of manual work to under 30 seconds for a professional availability list with photos
100%
Financial error reduction
Automatic validation of VAT numbers and IBAN numbers prevents errors during data entry
8
European VAT countries
Automatic VAT calculation for NL, IT, DE, FR, ES, BE, AT, and CH per catalog item
<1 min
Export generation time
Professionally branded PDF or Excel with product photos, prices, and company logo
Aanpak
Uitdaging en oplossing
De Uitdaging
- •Compiling the weekly availability list took 2-4 hours of manual work in Excel – inserting photos, updating prices, checking formatting
- •Product catalog fragmented across multiple spreadsheets – no central overview of stock, prices, and specifications
- •Multi-country VAT administration (NL, IT, DE, FR, ES, BE, AT, CH) tracked manually – error-prone and time-consuming for intra-EU trade
- •Customer and supplier data (VAT numbers, IBAN, commission percentages, shipping addresses) scattered across separate documents
- •No structured validation of financial data – errors in VAT numbers or IBAN numbers were only discovered late
Onze Oplossing
- One-click PDF and Excel export: professional availability lists with company branding, product photos, and prices – generated in under 30 seconds
- Central product management system with SKUs, prices in EUR, plant-specific fields (height, width, pot size), and availability status
- Automated multi-country VAT calculation for 8 European countries, directly linked to each product in the catalog
- Companies module for customers, suppliers, carriers, and legal entities – including commission management per relationship
- Built-in validation for European VAT numbers and IBAN numbers at data entry: errors are caught immediately, not only at invoicing
- Image management with Supabase Storage: upload product photos and automatically embed them in PDF and Excel exports
- Dashboard with real-time statistics: total products, available, unavailable – at a glance
Direct Sicily: from Excel chaos to one central business dashboard
Direct Sicily imports and distributes Mediterranean plants – such as olive trees, citrus trees, and palms – from Sicily to customers in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe. Every week, they need to share an up-to-date availability list with hundreds of products, each with a photo, dimensions, pot size, price, and VAT information.
The problem: manual work in Excel
The old way of working was entirely manual:
- Product data was updated in Excel
- Photos were inserted separately
- Prices and VAT were adjusted manually
- Formatting and completeness had to be checked over and over again
This took 2–4 hours every week and was error-prone: incorrect VAT, missing photos, inconsistent formatting.
The solution: a custom business dashboard
We developed a central dashboard that brings together three core processes: product management, company management, and professional exports.
1. Product catalog with plant-specific fields
Every product now has its own record with:
- Standard fields: SKU, price, description
- Plant-specific fields: height (cm), width (cm), pot size, availability status
- Product photos: stored in Supabase Storage and directly usable for exports
This makes the entire catalog centralized, structured, and ready for automatic output.
2. Company management with multi-type support
Direct Sicily works with multiple types of relationships:
- Customers
- Suppliers
- Carriers
- Their own legal entities (DS Netherlands B.V. and Dem Sicilia)
For each company, all relevant data is stored in a structured way: billing and shipping addresses, VAT numbers, IBAN details, and commission percentages for both the customer and supplier side. Each entity automatically receives a unique identification code based on ID and country code.
3. Multi-country VAT administration
As an importer within the EU, correct VAT handling is crucial. The system supports VAT rates for 8 European countries: the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Belgium, Austria, and Switzerland. Country-specific rates are recorded per catalog item, so exports and price calculations are always correct – without manual lookup work.
4. One-click PDF and Excel export
The system's core feature: with a single click, Direct Sicily generates a professional Weekly Availability List as PDF or Excel. The export includes:
- Company branding: Direct Sicily logo and contact details
- Product photos: automatically resized via Sharp for optimal file size
- Full product details: name, SKU, dimensions, pot size, price
- Professional formatting: consistent and ready to send to customers
What used to take 2–4 hours is now ready in under 30 seconds.
5. Image management
Product photos are managed centrally via Supabase Storage. When uploaded, images are automatically optimized with Sharp and stored in a dedicated bucket. From the catalog, they are immediately available for both the dashboard and the PDF and Excel exports – no more manual copying or inserting.
6. Built-in validation
The system validates financial data immediately upon entry:
- European VAT numbers are checked for a valid format per country
- IBAN numbers are validated according to the international standard
- Required fields are enforced via Zod schemas
Errors are caught before they enter the system – not only at invoicing or export.
7. Dashboard with real-time overview
The main dashboard gives Direct Sicily instant insight into their catalog: total number of products, how many available, how many unavailable. This way, they always know exactly what the status of their range is, without having to scroll through spreadsheets.
The result
Direct Sicily now has a system that has fundamentally changed their weekly workflow. The availability list that used to take hours is now generated in seconds – professional, consistent, and error-free. The centralized catalog and company administration eliminate the fragmentation across separate spreadsheets and documents. And built-in validation ensures that financial data is always correct, from VAT number to IBAN.
Stack
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