Example project · Connecting your systems - Customer purchase orders into draft sales orders
Order entry re-keys PDF purchase orders into the ERP. We build a path from emailed PO to draft sales order, with anything uncertain landing in a review queue instead of the ERP.
Lakeside Fastener. 60 people, fasteners and industrial hardware, around 120 customer POs a day by email.
The situation
Three order-entry staff type POs into the ERP all day. Duplicate orders and wrong ship-to addresses are the most common complaints from the warehouse.
The ERP has an import path and an API, but nobody has confirmed which operations are licensed or what the integration user is allowed to do.
What we build
- Week one is spent confirming your ERP product, version, licensing, and the supported way to create a draft order. We build around the connection your system supports.
- PO extraction from email attachments, then customer, ship-to, and item matching against your ERP master data.
- Validation rules: duplicate PO number, unknown item, unknown ship-to, credit hold, and price mismatch against the customer’s agreement all go to a review queue.
- Draft sales orders created in a test company first, then in production, clearly marked as created by intake and needing review.
The workflow in action
Before
A customer PO arrives by email. A salesperson enters it into the ERP, updates a spreadsheet, and checks that someone acknowledged it.
What we build
The approved intake record becomes a validated ERP draft through a supported API or controlled import.
- The original request and processing status remain traceable.
- Held records land in a visible queue with a named owner.
- A daily digest shows what was created, held, or failed.
The checks that keep order entry moving.
- Validate
- Check the customer, ship-to, item identity, unit, currency, and required fields against approved records.
- Prevent duplicates
- Define a transaction key, duplicate detection, and safe retry behavior before allowing writes.
- Handle failures
- Route missing records and failed transactions to a visible queue with a named owner and a clear retry action.
- Reconcile
- Record the result and check that approved inputs match the intended output. Preserve an audit trail.
Example project timeline - What lands on your desk, and when.
Week 1
A feasibility note naming the ERP integration path, the permissions required, and any licensing question to settle before building.
Weeks 2 to 3
Extraction and matching run against 300 historical POs, with your order-entry lead reviewing the results on screen.
Week 4
The review queue live, and draft orders appearing in the ERP test company for three chosen customers.
Weeks 5 to 6
Production go-live for those three customers, a daily digest of what was created, held, or failed, then expansion to the next group.
What you get
- The intake and integration service, documented, with error handling and a named owner.
- A review queue for held orders and a daily digest email.
- A written description of every validation rule and what happens when each one fails.
What you don’t get
- Confirming or releasing orders. Drafts stay drafts until a person acts.
- Overriding credit holds, pricing, or inventory allocation.
- An ERP migration. We confirm and use your current system’s supported draft-order connection.
How we measure performance
- Share of POs reaching the ERP as drafts without manual entry.
- Duplicate and wrong-address orders per month.
- Order-entry hours per day, before and after.
Let’s start with one thing.
Give your team more time for the work that needs them.
Show us the quoting, order-entry, or follow-up work that keeps piling up. We’ll map it with you and find a practical place to start.
Start with a free workflow conversation with Alex.