IceBossPro Blog — Packaged Ice Delivery

Onboarding Accounts in Packaged Ice Software

Winning a new c-store account is the fun part; setting it up correctly is where the money is actually kept. An account onboarded sloppily — wrong par, missing SKU mix, no payment method — becomes a stop that loses time on every visit and leaks revenue for months before anyone notices. Packaged ice delivery software turns onboarding into a short, repeatable checklist so the first delivery to a new freezer runs exactly as smoothly as the hundredth. Getting the setup right once means the route just works from then on.

Start with the account and its location

Onboarding begins with the account record: the store name, the physical address, the contact who signs, and any access notes a driver needs — which door the freezer sits by, whether there is a loading dock, what hours the clerk will accept a delivery. These details feel minor until a new driver is standing in a parking lot at 6am guessing. Captured once at onboarding, they ride with the account forever and make the very first visit as informed as a regular one. The address also anchors the stop on the route map when you slot the new account into a truck.

Define the freezers before the first drop

An account is only real once its merchandisers are described. For each freezer you record capacity, location on the property, and the planogram that shows how bags should be arranged. A busy store might have two merchandisers — one up front, one by the beer cave — and each is its own stocking target. Defining freezers up front is what lets the driver app tell a brand-new driver exactly how many bags belong where, instead of leaving it to a judgment call the account has to live with.

Set the SKU mix and the par-level

Now the operational heart of the account: which SKUs this freezer carries and to what par. A liquor store may want mostly 20lb bags with a handful of 7lb; a bait shop may take only the small size. You set the par-level — the amount the freezer should hold after each restock — based on the store's expected burn rate, knowing you can tune it once real counts come in. Getting the initial par close matters because it drives the very first load quantity, and an account that stocks out in week one makes a bad first impression.

Lock in pricing and the billing model

Pricing has to be settled before a single bag is delivered, because the delivery itself generates the invoice. During onboarding you choose the model that fits the account: per-bag pricing, a flat per-delivery charge, or consignment where the store pays only for what sells out of the freezer. You set the per-SKU prices and any account-specific terms. With the model chosen up front, the first drop is billed correctly and automatically — no scrambling later to figure out what the new account was supposed to be charged.

Capture card-on-file and payment terms

The fastest way to turn a new account into a collections problem is to onboard it without a payment method. Capturing card-on-file during setup means recurring charges run on schedule from the first invoice, and net-terms accounts still have a fallback on file. This is also the moment to record tax status and any purchase-order requirements the c-store chain imposes. Settling payment at onboarding is far easier than chasing it after three unpaid deliveries have already gone out the door.

Handle IPIA labeling and compliance details

Packaged ice carries labeling obligations, and the SKUs going into a new freezer must reflect them. Because the catalog already holds IPIA-compliant label details for each bag, onboarding an account is mostly a matter of pointing it at the right SKUs rather than re-solving compliance every time. Recording any store-specific requirements — a chain that wants its own signage, a health-department note — keeps the account clean from day one and spares your driver a surprise at delivery.

Slot the account into a route

The last onboarding step is placing the new account into the delivery rotation. You assign it to a route and a frequency — twice a week, every Friday, whatever the burn rate demands — and it appears in the driver's sequence at the right position. From that point the account is fully live: freezers defined, pars set, pricing locked, payment captured, and a driver who arrives already knowing what to do. A clean onboarding is quietly the highest-leverage thing you can do, because every future visit inherits the care you put in on day one.

The first delivery is the real test

All the setup pays off or falls apart on the very first drop. This is the visit where you confirm the par was close, the SKU mix matched what the store actually wants, and the freezer holds what the planogram assumed. A good platform makes that first delivery a source of correction rather than a fixed commitment — the driver records the actual counts, you see how fast the merchandiser draws down before visit two, and you tune the par from real data instead of the estimate you started with. Treat onboarding as the beginning of a short calibration period, not a one-time form, and within two or three visits the account settles into a rhythm that needs almost no attention. That quiet, self-running stop is exactly what a clean onboarding was for.

For a related look at keeping those account counts honest afterward, see Bag Inventory Counts in Packaged Ice Software.