An adaptable application is installed throughout a distribution network for directly accessing a variety of different databases utilized by different business systems. The direct access application periodically queries the database with which it is associated. In response to the query, sales and inventory data is read from the dealer business computer system by a data access services module. The information retrieved from the query is placed in a transmission queue. A data mapping module transforms the data into the manufacturer's standard transaction format, and presents the transformed data to a communications module. The information is then transmitted to the manufacturer or other upstream distribution channel entity. The information forwarded from each of the dealers is accumulated at the manufacturer's location. Various reports can be run which are useful to the efficient running of the distribution channel.