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Sales order automation: from email to a draft in your ERP

Orders that arrive by email or as a PDF are read, matched to your customer and item codes, checked, then created as a draft in the ERP. By default the sales office approves every order; exceptions reach them with the reason.

Updated

From

£3,400 ex VAT

Timeline
2 to 4 weeks
Pricing
Fixed price per stage
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A sample screen, for illustration. The companies and data are made up.
Order receivedReadingERP entryOrder receivedReadingERP entry

You need this if

  • The sales office spends part of every day re-keying purchase orders into the ERP.
  • Your customers have no EDI and never will: they send a PDF, a spreadsheet or three lines in an email.
  • Keying errors (part number, quantity, delivery address) come back as credit notes and returns.
  • Orders received on Friday evening are not entered until Monday.
  • Each customer has its own layout and its own part numbers, and one person knows them by heart.

What gets put in place

  • Collection

    An orders mailbox or a watched folder. Emails and PDFs are handled; customers’ Excel and CSV files and legible scans are an optional module.

  • Reading

    A language model extracts the customer, the order number, the lines (part number, description, quantity, price), the address and the requested date.

  • Matching

    Each line is matched to a customer code and an item code in the ERP. A cross-reference table remembers each customer’s own part numbers and grows with every approval.

  • Checks

    Price against the customer’s price list, minimum order quantity and pack size, stock or lead time, duplicate of an order already entered.

  • Approval by the sales office

    The original purchase order on one side, the draft on the other, differences flagged with the reason. The sales office corrects and approves.

  • Writing to the ERP

    The order is created in the ERP through an API, a file import or a connector: as a draft if the ERP has that status, otherwise on approval. The log records who approved what.

Example: a 12-line order received as a PDF

A typical run, for illustration. The company and the data are made up.

  1. 1

    A distributor emails a purchase order as a PDF to the orders mailbox.

  2. 2

    The workflow reads 12 lines and recognises the customer from the email address and the VAT number.

  3. 3

    Eleven part numbers are matched; the twelfth is the customer’s own reference, missing from the cross-reference table.

  4. 4

    Two checks come up: a price below the current list on one line, a quantity under the pack size on another.

  5. 5

    The sales office opens the draft with its three flags, links the unknown reference (it will be recognised next time), rules on the price and approves.

How it runs

  1. Specification

    We take 50 real orders from your main customers and write down your rules: price lists, minimums, special cases. Pass criteria and price are fixed in writing.

    2 to 3 days

  2. Build

    Reading, matching, checks and approval, on a test environment connected to a test company in the ERP.

    1 to 2 weeks

  3. Pilot

    Real orders go through the workflow while the sales office carries on keying. We compare the two, line by line.

    3 to 5 days

  4. Launch

    Go-live customer by customer, training for the sales office. One month of fixes against the specification is included.

    1 to 2 days

Durations to scale, using the longest stated

What the price covers

This is an automation project applied to orders. The starting price covers one orders mailbox, reading orders in PDF and plain text, price and quantity checks, and writing to one ERP. The specification here is a short scoping of 2 to 3 days, included in the price; no audit is needed for a single process. The final price is fixed at the end of it.

Estimate my projectSee pricing

Order entry: reading, checks, ERP draft
from £3,400 ex VAT
Extra formats (customers’ Excel files, scans)
from £800 ex VAT
Order acknowledgement prepared automatically
from £800 ex VAT
Audit and roadmap (optional), deducted from the first project we build for you
£1,650 ex VAT
Maintenance
from £390 ex VAT a month

Payment, for each stage

30%
on order
70%
on accepted delivery

What reading accuracy depends on

FactorWhat helpsWhat gets in the way
Document formatPDF produced by software, plain-text email, Excel fileSkewed scan, photo, handwritten order
Part numbersYour own, or the customer’s once they are in the cross-reference tableFree-text descriptions (‘same gasket as last time’)
ERP dataItem master and price lists up to date, one code per customerDuplicates, price lists kept in a separate spreadsheet
Customer consistencySame layout from one order to the nextA layout that changes every time
RulesMinimums, pack sizes and lead times written downRules known to one person only

We do not quote a reading rate before we have seen your orders: it depends on these five points. The specification measures it on your sample, and you decide on that figure.

What the sales office still does

Automation takes away the typing, not the job.

  • By default they approve every order, in a few seconds when everything agrees.
  • They handle exceptions: unknown part number, disputed price, odd quantity, customer on stop. Each one arrives with its reason.
  • They keep the relationship: ringing the customer when in doubt, offering an equivalent, agreeing a lead time or handling a backorder.
  • They grow the cross-reference table: a customer reference linked once is recognised from then on.
  • They key in what cannot be read: handwritten orders, photos, orders taken over the phone.

For some regular customers you may later drop the approval step for orders with no differences at all. That is your decision, customer by customer, never a default setting. The checks still run on every order.

How the pilot is measured

MeasureHow it is takenWhat it is for
Lines read with no correctionDraft compared with the order finally approvedTells you whether the reading is reliable enough
Orders with no exceptionShare of orders approved as they standEstimates the time actually freed up
Handling time per orderTimed on a sample, before and during the pilotCompares with manual entry
Errors that reached the ERPOrders corrected after approvalShows whether the checks are enough
Reasons for exceptionsCounted by type and by customerShows what to improve first

The pass thresholds are written into the specification. If they are not met at the end of the pilot, we tell you, with the figures, and you choose: carry on with the customers whose orders read well, or stop. If you stop, the stages already delivered and accepted remain due; nothing further is invoiced.

Automated order entry, EDI or a portal: which one?

OptionFits whenLimit
EDIA few large accounts already set up for it, high volumesOne project per customer; your smaller customers will never have it
Customer portalYour customers are willing to key in their own ordersThey have to be brought round to it; some will keep sending PDFs
Specialist order-entry softwareVery high volumes, a great many layoutsSubscription, prices rarely published for an SME
Bespoke automated order entryOrders by email and PDF, steady volume, rules of your ownA person approves; upkeep when a customer changes their layout

The three can be combined: EDI for two large accounts, the portal for distributors, email reading for everyone else.

If few of your orders arrive by email, keying them in remains the cheapest option. The specification works it out with your volumes. If you are not sure orders are the place to start, the AI review ranks your processes first.

Frequently asked questions

How much does sales order automation cost?

From £3,400 ex VAT for one orders mailbox, reading PDFs and emails, the checks and writing to one ERP. The price is fixed at the end of the specification. The guide to AI automation pricing shows where that sits in the market.

How long before it is live?

2 to 4 weeks, pilot included. The timing depends mostly on access to a test company in the ERP.

Will it work with our ERP?

Yes, if orders can be created in it through an API, a file import or a connector, whether you run Sage 200, Access Dimensions, Pegasus Opera, Odoo, SAP Business One or an in-house system. The specification checks this first.

What reading rate can we expect?

It depends on your documents: a PDF produced by software reads far better than a handwritten scan. We measure the rate on 50 of your orders during the specification, before the build. Handwritten and telephone orders are still keyed in by the sales office.

What happens if an order is misread?

By default it is not confirmed without approval. Doubtful lines are flagged with the reason; the sales office corrects them, and the correction is used for that customer’s next orders.

Who owns the system, and what happens afterwards?

The workflow runs in n8n on a server in the European Union, in your name, with your accounts; rights in it pass to you as each stage is paid. One month of fixes against the specification is included. After that, maintenance (from £390 ex VAT a month, no lock-in) keeps up with changes in your customers’ layouts: two hours a month are included, more is quoted.

Read next

Start with a fixed-price audit

In one to two weeks you know what to build, in what order and in what price range. The audit fee is deducted from the first project we build for you.

£1,650 ex VAT 1 to 2 weeks See a sample report

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