Wholesale Portal
Use this page to set up a website where wholesale buyers who don't use Brother POS can see your catalog at their prices and place orders.
Quick steps
- Turn it on. Go to Settings > Edit Settings, Sales & Integrations tab. Under Wholesale Feature Controls, tick Enable Wholesale Portal and click Update Settings.
- Fill the catalog. Go to Customers > More Actions > Wholesale Portal Access and click Catalog. Enter a % of the retail price (for example 60), tick the products, and click Add to catalog and set prices.
- Give a buyer access. Back on the access page, click Generate Code. Type the Code Label (Customer/Business Name), pick their Pricing Tier, set Code Valid For (Days), and click Generate Access Code.
- Send it. Click Copy on the code and send it to the buyer with your portal address (your store address followed by
/wholesale). View Portal opens it so you can check. - Handle orders. Portal orders arrive on Wholesale Orders as Pending, and you're emailed about each one. Approve and fulfil them like any wholesale order.
Prefer each buyer to have their own email and password? Tick Buyers sign in with email and password in the same settings. Then use New Login instead of Generate Code — codes stop working once this is on.
Common questions
The buyer sees an empty catalog, or products with a dash. A product must be in the catalog, active, in stock, and have a wholesale price. The Wholesale Portal Access page shows a red or amber warning when something's missing.
A buyer's code stopped working. Check it hasn't been revoked or expired — you can extend it with Edit. Codes also stop working if you switch to email sign-in.
How do I give a buyer better prices? Edit their access and pick a different Pricing Tier.
Can buyers ask for an account themselves? Yes, with email sign-in on — tick Buyers can apply for their own account. You still approve each one.
More detail: what the portal is, and codes vs. logins
The Wholesale Portal is a web-based storefront for your wholesale customers who do not use Brother POS. It allows them to browse your wholesale catalog, see pricing for their tier, and place orders — all through a secure, access-controlled portal.
The portal is built into Brother POS and lives at your store address followed by /wholesale_portal. For convenience, the short address /wholesale takes buyers to the same place, so you can give them either one.
The portal is now built into Brother POS. The older standalone wholesale portal app has been retired in favor of this integrated experience — there is nothing separate to deploy or host.
What Is the Wholesale Portal?
The wholesale portal serves a different audience than the B2B retailer connection:
| Feature | B2B Retailer Connection | Wholesale Portal |
|---|---|---|
| Customer type | Brother POS retailers | Any wholesale buyer |
| Access method | Brother POS admin panel | Web browser |
| Requires Brother POS | Yes | No |
| Best for | Established retailer partnerships | Walk-in wholesale customers, new accounts |
Think of it as a lightweight wholesale ordering website that connects directly to your Brother POS inventory.
Codes or Logins — One or the Other
How buyers sign in is one setting for your whole store. Everything past the sign-in page looks the same either way.
| Sign-in method | How it works | What you hand out |
|---|---|---|
| Access codes (the default) | Each buyer types a 6-character code | The code itself |
| Email and password | Each buyer has their own account and sets their own password | Nothing — they get an emailed invite |
The portal never accepts both at once. When email sign-in is switched on, access codes stop working — including codes you handed out earlier, and including anyone who is already browsing the portal with one. They are signed out on their next page.
Prerequisites
- Your store must be set up as a distributor account. This is part of how Brother POS sets up your account — contact Brother POS support if your store is not a distributor yet.
- The Wholesale Portal feature must be enabled (see Step 1).
If either is missing, the portal address shows "Wholesale portal is not available."
More detail: setting up the portal, step by step
Setting Up the Portal
Step 1: Enable the Feature
- Go to Settings > Edit Settings > Sales & Integrations tab.
- Under Wholesale Feature Controls, tick Enable Wholesale Portal and click Update Settings.
- Decide how buyers sign in. These options only appear after the portal is enabled and saved:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Buyers sign in with email and password | On: you create each buyer an account and they set their own password from an emailed invite. Off: you hand out six-character access codes. |
| Buyers can apply for their own account | Only shown once email sign-in is on and saved. Adds an Apply for one link to the portal sign-in page so buyers can ask for an account themselves. Nobody gets in until you approve them. See Letting Buyers Apply. |
- Click Update Settings again.
Step 2: Set Up Your Pricing Tiers
Before you let anyone in, decide what they should pay. Open Pricing Tiers — from More Actions on the Retailers page, or from the Manage pricing tiers link on the form where you create a buyer's access — and create the tiers you need (see Pricing Tiers below). A buyer's tier is what decides the prices they see, so it is worth doing first.
Your portal address is your own store address with /wholesale_portal on the end — there is nothing to configure. The View Portal button on the Wholesale Portal Access page opens it, and the Retailers page shows it with a Copy button.
Step 3: Put Products in Your Wholesale Catalog
A buyer can only order a product that is in your wholesale catalog, active, in stock, and has a wholesale price. See Setting Up Your Wholesale Catalog below — it adds products and prices them in one step.
Step 4: Give Buyers Access
Open the access page: go to Customers, click More Actions and then Wholesale Portal Access. What you do next depends on your sign-in setting — see Access Codes or Email Logins.
More detail: setting up your wholesale catalog
Setting Up Your Wholesale Catalog
The Wholesale Catalog page puts products into the catalog and prices them in a single step, so you can't end up with products buyers can see but not order.
To get there, click Catalog at the top of the Wholesale Portal Access page.
What the page shows
Three counts across the top:
| Count | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Buyers can order | In the catalog, active, in stock, and priced — these are orderable right now |
| In the catalog | Everything you have added |
| Missing a price | In the catalog but with no wholesale price, so nobody can order them |
Below that is your product list, which you can search by name or SKU and filter with Show: All products, Not in the catalog, In the catalog, or In the catalog, missing a price.
Adding and pricing products
- Enter a Wholesale price as a % of the retail price — for example
60to sell at 60% of retail (quick buttons for 50%, 60%, 70% and 80% are provided). Each row updates to show exactly what buyers will pay before you commit. - Tick the products you want (or use Select all shown).
- Click Add to catalog and set prices and confirm.
The chosen products are added to the catalog and priced together. For example, a product that sells for $40 retail, added at 60%, gets a wholesale price of $24.00.
- The percentage must be above zero.
- No price is ever set below $0.01.
- The page shows your first 1,000 products; use the search to reach the rest.
Removing products
Tick the products and click Remove from catalog. They disappear from the portal, but their wholesale price is kept, so putting one back later does not mean pricing it again.
Adding a product here is the same as ticking Enable wholesale distribution on the product, so it is also offered to any Brother POS retailers connected to you. Removing it takes it away from both.
Warnings on the Portal Access page
The Wholesale Portal Access page tells you what buyers will actually find:
- A red banner — "Your buyers will see an empty catalog" — when nothing is orderable.
- An amber banner — for example "12 product(s) ready to order · 3 missing a wholesale price" — when some catalog products have no price. Those show a dash in the portal and cannot be added to a cart.
Both banners link straight to the Wholesale Catalog page.
More detail: access codes
Access Codes
Use this when Buyers sign in with email and password is off.
- Go to Customers > More Actions > Wholesale Portal Access (the page is headed Web Portal Access Codes).
- Click Generate Code.
- Fill in the details:
| Field | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Code Label (Customer/Business Name) | Who you gave the code to. For your reference only — the buyer never sees it. | "Mountain View Dispensary" |
| Pricing Tier | Which of your pricing tiers this buyer shops at. The dropdown lists your active tiers, each labelled with its discount ("Preferred (15% off)"), plus Standard — no tier discount. | "Preferred (15% off)" |
| Code Valid For (Days) | How many days the code is good for. Anything from 1 day to 3,650 days (10 years). | 7 days (default) |
- Click Generate Access Code.
- A 6-character access code is created and is ready to use straight away.
- Share the code and portal address with your customer. The access page has a Copy button on each active code.
The tier you choose here has to be one of your active pricing tiers for the buyer to get its discount. The dropdown shows only active tiers, with the discount printed next to each. Standard — no tier discount means exactly that: full wholesale price.
Renaming a tier is safe: the codes on it follow the new name. But if a code's tier is deleted or switched off, the access list says "No such tier — pays full price" under it (and its edit form shows the tier as "(tier no longer available)"). The buyer is paying full wholesale price until you edit the code and pick a live tier.
If the buyer is a Brother POS retailer, you can issue a Pairing Code instead (from the Retailers page). While your portal uses access codes, a pairing code doubles as a portal code, so the same six characters work whether they pair their own POS to you or just sign in to the portal in a browser. It shows on this page as its own row. Deleting the pairing code also revokes its row here, so it no longer signs anyone in to the portal. Once you switch the portal to email sign-in, pairing codes no longer sign anyone in to the portal. See Pairing.
How a buyer uses a code
- Customer receives the access code and portal address from you.
- Customer opens the portal address in their web browser.
- Customer enters the 6-character code and clicks Continue →.
- The portal loads your wholesale catalog with prices for their tier.
Prices in the catalog
Each product shows the price a buyer pays for the smallest order they can place. For a product with a minimum order of 12, that is the price for 12 ("$9.00 per unit at 12+ (the minimum)"), including any volume price break at 12. If you have set volume price breaks, the card lists them as prices ("Volume pricing: 12+ $9.00 · 24+ $8.00") and a green badge shows the most a buyer can save by ordering more. The product page lists the same breaks. See Volume Pricing.
More detail: email logins and account applications
Email Logins
Use this when Buyers sign in with email and password is on. Each buyer gets their own account — no code is issued.
Creating a login
- Go to Customers > More Actions > Wholesale Portal Access (the page is headed Wholesale Portal Access).
- Click New Login.
- Fill in the details:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Business name | Shown to the buyer in the portal as who they are ordering as |
| The address they will sign in with. Required. | |
| Pricing Tier | Decides what this buyer pays in the portal |
| Access valid for (days) | They are locked out after this. Starts at 365 days. You can change it later without affecting their password. |
- Click Create login & send invite.
The buyer is emailed a link to set their own password. Setup links last 24 hours.
If the email already belongs to a customer at your store (a retail customer, for example), that customer record is reused, so their order history stays in one place.
If the email already has portal access, you are told so. Open that access and edit it instead — or, if it was revoked, open it and choose Restore access.
What you see for each login
On the access page each login is headed by the buyer's email, with a badge:
| Badge | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Invite pending | They have not set a password yet |
| Password set | They can sign in |
If a buyer's link expired before they used it, open their access and click Resend invite. Buyers can also get a fresh link themselves — see below.
How a buyer signs in
- They open the invite email and click the link.
- On the Set your password page, they choose a password (at least 6 characters) and confirm it.
- From then on they sign in at your portal address with their email and password.
Forgot password? on the sign-in page sends a new link to anyone you have given portal access — including someone whose setup link expired before they ever set a password. The page always gives the same answer, so it can't be used to find out which emails have accounts.
Letting Buyers Apply for an Account
If you don't have every buyer's email address to invite them, you can let them apply. This needs Buyers sign in with email and password on, and then Buyers can apply for their own account ticked.
An application does not grant access. You still approve every buyer by hand — this only saves you the typing.
What the buyer does
- On the portal sign-in page they click Apply for one.
- They fill in Business name, Your name, Email, Phone, an optional Licence number, and choose a password (entered twice).
- They click Send application.
What they are told next depends on whether you already know them:
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| A new email address | Their account is created with the password they chose. They wait for your approval. |
| Already in your customer list, but never set a password (for example from a register sale) | The password they typed is not used. Instead they are emailed a link to set their password, so only the real owner of that inbox can do it. |
| Already have a password with your store | They keep using the password they already have. |
| Already applied and waiting | They are told you are already reviewing it. |
| Already have portal access | They are told to sign in instead. |
If they try to sign in before you approve them, they see: "Your account is waiting for approval from [your store]. We will email you as soon as it is approved."
What you do
- You get an email — "New wholesale account application — [business name]" — with the buyer's business, email, contact name, phone and licence number, and a link to review it. It goes to your store's email address (or your first admin user's email if the store has none). Replying reaches the applicant.
- On Customers > More Actions > Wholesale Portal Access, waiting applications are listed at the top in an amber box, for example "2 account applications waiting for you".
- Click Approve or Decline.
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Approve | They can sign in straight away, and they are emailed that their account is approved. |
| Decline | The application is closed and shows as Revoked. They are not emailed. |
Set the buyer's pricing tier by editing their access after you approve them; a new application starts on Standard — no tier discount.
If someone you declined or revoked applies again, their new application appears in the waiting list with the details from their earlier application still attached, so you can see they have applied before.
More detail: sign-in messages and managing buyer access
Sign-In Messages
| The buyer sees | What it means |
|---|---|
| "That access code is invalid or has expired." | Wrong code, or the code was revoked or has passed its expiry |
| "This distributor uses email sign-in. Use the email and password you set up." | Your portal is set to email sign-in, so codes are not accepted |
| "Invalid email or password." | Wrong details, the email is not on a customer record at your store, or they have not set a password yet |
| "Your account is waiting for approval from …" | They applied and you have not approved them yet |
| "Your account doesn't have wholesale access right now. Contact the store to get set up." | Their access was revoked, has expired, or was never granted |
| "Your access code is no longer active. Contact …" | They were signed in, and their code was revoked, deleted or expired (or you switched to email sign-in) while they were using the portal |
| "Your wholesale access is no longer active. Contact …" | The same, for a buyer who signs in with email and password |
Managing Customer Access
Viewing Access
Go to Customers > More Actions > Wholesale Portal Access. Each buyer is one row: their Code (or Login email) with the business name, Pricing Tier, Expires (Never for a code with no end date, and in red once it has passed) and Status, then Copy (codes that can still be used), Edit, and Revoke (access that can still be used). Click the code or email to open the buyer's details.
Access people can use comes first. Expired and revoked access sinks to the bottom of the list, dimmed.
Statuses
| Status | Description |
|---|---|
| Pending | An application waiting for your approval |
| Active | Access has been granted |
| Expired | The access has passed its expiry date |
| Revoked | Access manually cut off (or an application you declined) |
When an access reaches its expiry date, the buyer is refused at sign-in straight away and its row shows Expired. To let them back in, edit the access and set a later Expires On date — it goes back to Active (or Pending, if the buyer never signed in).
Changing a Buyer's Tier or Expiry
- Open the access and click Edit.
- Change the name, Pricing Tier, or Expires On date. On a store using email sign-in you can also change the Email.
- Click Save Changes.
A code itself cannot be changed and is shown locked on the page — the buyer keeps the credentials you already gave them, and their new pricing applies from the next page they load.
If a buyer is on an annual account, set Expires On to the date they are paid through. Access is refused from that date.
Revoking Access
- Find the buyer on the access page.
- Click Revoke (or Revoke Access on the buyer's own page).
- The status changes to Revoked and the buyer can no longer use the portal.
Revoke All — in the menu next to Generate Code (or New Login) at the top of the access page — revokes every access on the page — codes, email logins and waiting applications — so nobody can sign in. Nothing is deleted: each one stays on the page as Revoked, and you can restore buyers one at a time. Use Revoke on individual buyers unless you mean to lock everyone out.
Revoking access takes effect immediately. The buyer will be unable to use the portal on their next page. Any orders already placed are not affected.
Restoring Access
Revoked someone by mistake, or taking a buyer back? Open their access and click Restore access. If their expiry date has also passed, you are told so — set a new Expires On date, or they still won't be able to sign in.
More detail: pricing tiers, payment methods and tax
Pricing Tiers
The wholesale portal supports multiple pricing tiers so different customers see different prices:
Setting Up Tiers
- Open Pricing Tiers (from More Actions on the Retailers page, or the Manage pricing tiers link on a buyer's access form).
- Create a tier and give it a Tier Name (e.g., Preferred, Volume, VIP).
- Set its Discount Percentage — a tier is simply a percentage off your wholesale prices. A 15% tier means a product you wholesale at $100 costs $85 for buyers on that tier.
Renaming a tier is safe — the buyers on it follow the new name. But if you switch a tier off, every buyer on it drops to full wholesale price until you edit their access onto a live tier. Their row on the access list says "No such tier — pays full price". A tier that access codes still use can't be deleted: move the buyers to another tier first.
Assigning Tiers to Customers
Choose the tier when you create a buyer's access, or change it later with Edit.
Accepted Payment Methods
You can publish the payment methods you accept so buyers know how to pay at checkout. Each method can include optional buyer-facing instructions.
Configuring Payment Methods
- Go to Settings > Edit Settings > Sales & Integrations tab and find Wholesale Portal — Accepted Payment Methods (it appears once the Wholesale Portal is enabled).
- Click + Add payment method for each method you accept (e.g. E-Transfer, Wire Transfer, Cash on Pickup).
- For each method, optionally enter instructions — for example, "E-Transfer — send to ar@example.com, password = invoice number."
- Click Update Settings.
How It Appears at Checkout
- The checkout page shows a "How would you like to pay?" card listing each method as a selectable option with its instructions. The first method is selected to start with.
- The buyer's selection is saved on the order and shown on both the buyer's order page and your admin order view, so you can follow up on payment.
- If you have not configured any payment methods, the checkout selector is hidden and orders simply have no payment preference recorded.
The buyer's chosen payment method is checked against your current list when the order is submitted, so only methods you actually offer can be recorded.
Tax at Checkout
The wholesale portal calculates tax using your store's configured tax rate:
- If your store has a non-zero combined tax rate, the cart and checkout show a Tax (X%) line and roll it into the estimated total. The computed tax is saved on the order.
- If your store runs at 0%, the tax line is hidden entirely and orders record no tax.
Order and invoice pages only display a tax row when the order actually has tax, so zero-tax orders still display cleanly.
More detail: orders from the portal
Orders from the Portal
Placing an Order
- The buyer browses products, adds items to the cart, and proceeds to checkout.
- At checkout they confirm their business name, add a contact name, phone, and contact email, pick a fulfillment method (Pickup, Local delivery or Shipping), add any order notes, and (if you offer any) select a payment method.
- They click Place order. The order appears in your Brother POS admin as a wholesale order, and the products are held for them for 48 hours while you review it.
On the checkout form, the address fields are hidden when the buyer chooses Pickup, and shown when they choose Local delivery or Shipping.
If your store requires buyers to verify their identity, the Place order button stays locked until they complete a one-time identity check from the checkout page.
You Are Emailed About Every New Order
As soon as a buyer places an order, you get an email — "New wholesale order WO-… — $total" — with a link to the order in your admin. It goes to your store's email address (or your first admin user's email if the store has none), and replying reaches the buyer's contact email. So an order placed on a Friday evening doesn't sit unnoticed all weekend with its stock held.
How Portal Orders Appear
- The order is created in Brother POS as a Wholesale Order.
- The order is marked as coming from the web portal.
- The buyer's business name is attached.
- The order appears on the Wholesale Orders page (click Wholesale Orders in the top navigation; a red number beside it counts the orders waiting for approval) with status Pending.
Portal Order Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Order Number | Auto-generated (WO-YYYYMMDD-XXXX) |
| Customer Name | From the buyer's access |
| Business Name | Customer's business name |
| Contact Email | Captured at checkout; used to send the buyer their invoice and pickup notices |
| Line Items | Products and quantities ordered |
| Subtotal, Tax, Total | Calculated amounts (tax computed from the store's tax rate) |
| Fulfillment Method | Selected by the customer during checkout |
| Preferred Payment Method | The payment option the buyer selected (if you offer any) |
Processing Portal Orders
Portal orders follow the same fulfillment workflow as B2B orders:
- Review the order on the Wholesale Orders page.
- Click Approve Order to confirm it and deduct inventory. By default this also creates the invoice and emails it to the buyer's contact email, so they can pay before you ship. See Invoicing.
- Click Mark as Packed.
- For pickup orders, click Mark as Ready for Pickup — this notifies the buyer (by email if a contact email was captured, and live on their portal order page) — then Mark as Picked Up when they collect it. Local delivery orders use Mark as Out for Delivery and shipping orders use Mark as Shipped, then both finish with Mark as Delivered.
More detail: troubleshooting and good habits
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Solution |
|---|---|
| Portal says "Wholesale portal is not available." | Your store must be a distributor account and have Enable Wholesale Portal switched on. Contact Brother POS support if your store is not set up as a distributor. |
| Buyer cannot get in with a code | Check the access has not been revoked and that its status is not Expired — you can extend it with Edit. Also check your portal is not set to email sign-in, which switches codes off. |
| Buyer says their setup link expired | Links last 24 hours. Click Resend invite on their access, or have them use Forgot password? on the sign-in page. |
| Applicant says they can't sign in | They are waiting for your approval. Look for the amber applications box on the Wholesale Portal Access page. |
| I didn't get an email about an application or order | These go to your store's email address. Check it is set, and check your spam folder. Applications and orders still appear in the admin either way. |
| Customer sees wrong prices | Check the pricing tier on their access — especially if it says "No such tier — pays full price". |
| Sign-in page shows only an access-code box | Buyers sign in with email and password is off for your store. Turn it on to use logins. |
| Portal shows no products, or products show a dash | A product must be in the wholesale catalog, active, in stock, and have a wholesale price. Use the Wholesale Catalog page. |
| Can't create a login for an email | That email already has portal access — edit it, or Restore access if it was revoked. |
| Orders not appearing | Check the Wholesale Orders page with the status filter cleared. Contact Brother POS support if orders are still not appearing. |
Best Practices
- Pick one sign-in method and stick with it. Switching to email sign-in immediately locks out everyone still using a code, so create their logins first.
- Set up the catalog before inviting anyone. A buyer's first visit shouldn't be an empty shop — check that the Portal Access page shows no red or amber banner.
- Create dedicated pricing tiers for different customer segments, and always pick one from the list rather than leaving a buyer on "no tier discount" by accident.
- Only open applications if you'll check them. Applicants are locked out until you approve, so keep an eye on the application emails.
- Revoke access promptly when a customer relationship ends — you can always Restore access later.
- Monitor portal orders daily to ensure timely fulfillment.
What's Next?
- Invoicing — Generate invoices for wholesale portal orders.
- Payment Notices and Statements — Buyers telling you they've paid, and the portal's Statement page.
- Distributor Features — Complete guide to distributor operations.
- Pairing — Set up B2B connections for established retailers.
- B2B Wholesale Overview — Review the overall wholesale architecture.