Order picking is one of the most labour-intensive processes in any warehouse. Collecting items for sales orders takes time, is error-prone and largely determines how quickly you can deliver. If you work with Exact Online, you probably know the challenge: orders are in Exact Online, but the picking process itself is still largely manual. Order picking software solves this — and the Barcode Scan App is specifically built for Exact Online.
The challenges of manual picking
In many warehouses, the picking process still relies on paper lists. An employee prints a sales order from Exact Online, walks through the warehouse, collects the items and ticks them off on paper. Afterwards, the delivery is manually entered in Exact Online.
This process has multiple weak points:
- Search time: Employees have to figure out where items are located themselves, leading to unnecessary searching and walking.
- Picking errors: Without verification, wrong items or quantities are regularly picked. Research shows picking error rates of 0.5-2% with manual picking.
- Delays: Administrative processing in Exact Online only happens afterwards, meaning stock levels are not up to date.
- No prioritisation: Urgent orders are not automatically prioritised. Employees have to determine order priority themselves.
- Paper is fragile: Pick lists get lost, get wet or become unreadable. And when order changes occur, a new list needs to be printed.
Digital picking with Exact Online
The Barcode Scan App replaces paper pick lists with a digital picking process that is fully integrated with Exact Online. Here is how it works:
Step 1: Select orders
Open the app and view all open sales orders from Exact Online. Filter by customer, date, priority or shipping method. Select one or multiple orders to pick.
Step 2: Pick items
The app shows the items to be collected with their location in the warehouse. Walk to the indicated location and scan the barcode of the item. The app immediately verifies whether the correct item is being picked and tracks progress.
Step 3: Verification at every pick
With every scan, the app checks whether the scanned item matches the requested item on the order. Does an employee pick the wrong item? The app immediately gives a warning with a clear signal. This prevents picking errors before they leave the warehouse.
Step 4: Book the delivery
When all items have been collected, you book the delivery in Exact Online with a single tap. The inventory is updated immediately and the sales order is completed. No more manual data entry afterwards.
Multi-order picking: multiple orders at once
One of the most powerful features is multi-order picking. Instead of picking orders one by one, you can select multiple sales orders from Exact Online simultaneously. The app combines the pick lists and groups items that appear in multiple orders.
This saves enormous amounts of walking time. If five orders contain the same item, you walk to that location only once instead of five times. For warehouses with high order volumes, multi-order picking can reduce picking time by 40-60%.
Real-time updates in Exact Online
Every pick is processed directly in Exact Online. This means your stock levels are always up to date — even during picking. If a colleague at another station is also picking, both employees see the available stock in real-time. This prevents the same item from being double-assigned to different orders.
The sales team also benefits. They can see directly in Exact Online which orders are being processed and which have already been shipped. This makes it possible to proactively inform customers about the status of their order.
Pick without delivering immediately
Sometimes you want to pick orders without immediately booking them as delivered in Exact Online. For example, when you are preparing orders for collection or when you want to wait for a carrier. The Barcode Scan App supports this: you can pick orders and stage the goods, and only book the delivery in Exact Online later when the goods actually leave the warehouse.
Time savings in practice
The time savings of digital order picking are substantial. Our customers report on average 3 to 5 times faster picking processes after switching to the Barcode Scan App. A medium-sized warehouse that picks 50 orders daily easily saves 2-3 hours per day. That is time employees can spend on other tasks — or that enables you to process more orders without additional staff.
Additionally, the costs of picking errors drop drastically. Fewer wrong deliveries means fewer returns, less rework and higher customer satisfaction. The investment in order picking software typically pays for itself within a few weeks.
Start picking faster today
The Barcode Scan App is immediately deployable with your Exact Online environment. No implementation project, no modifications to Exact Online — just install and get started. Try it yourself and experience how much faster and more accurate your picking process can be.