WhiteDigital: Custom Inventory & E-commerce System for Government Agency

While working at WhiteDigital, I architected and built a complete inventory management and e-commerce system for Tiesu namu aģentūra (TNA), the Latvian government agency responsible for courthouse infrastructure, IT systems, and legal publishing. TNA needed a unified system to manage their legal publications business, which was previously run through disconnected spreadsheets and manual processes.

I designed and developed the entire system from the ground up using PHP and Yii2, creating a cohesive platform that handles the complete business workflow: from product catalog and inventory tracking through order processing, invoicing, and customer management.

What I Built

Inventory & Warehouse Management:

• Product catalog with SKU management for legal publications
• Real-time stock tracking and low-inventory alerts
• Warehouse location management and stock movements

Order Processing & E-commerce:

• Customer-facing order system for legal publication purchases
• Order lifecycle management from placement through fulfillment
• Integration with warehouse for pick, pack, and ship workflows

Invoicing & Payments:

• Automated invoice generation tied to orders
• Stripe integration for payment processing
• Invoice history and financial reporting

Customer Management:

• Customer profiles with order history
• Account management for repeat buyers
• Contact and communication tracking

Removing Workflow Friction

This project exemplifies the kind of operational improvement I focus on today. Before this system:

• Inventory lived in spreadsheets that were often outdated by the time someone checked them
• Invoices were created manually in separate documents, disconnected from orders
• Customer data was scattered across emails, spreadsheets, and paper records
• Order status was unclear, requiring staff to ask around to find where things stood

After implementation, the 5-10 operations staff had a single source of truth for every aspect of the business. Orders flowed automatically into invoicing. Inventory updated in real-time. Customer history was instantly accessible. The daily friction of running a publications business was replaced by a calm, predictable system.

Technical Foundation

The system was built with reliability and maintainability in mind:

• Yii2 Framework: Chosen for its mature ecosystem and strong convention over configuration approach
• MySQL: Relational data model supporting complex business relationships between products, orders, customers, and invoices
• Stripe API: Secure payment processing with proper webhook handling for payment status updates
• PHPUnit: Test coverage ensuring system reliability as features evolved
• RESTful API: Clean internal architecture allowing future extensibility

This project established patterns I continue to use: modular architecture, clear separation of concerns, and systems designed for the people who use them daily rather than theoretical elegance.

Implemented solutions:

• Custom Internal System Creation
• Custom E-commerce Functionality
• Flexible Content Management
• Custom API Creation
• Custom Warehouse Management
• Custom Payments Integration
• Custom Invoicing System
• Custom Customer Management

Used technologies: