Customer order entry

Customer POs go into your ERP on their own. The odd ones come to you.

A small tool that watches your orders inbox, reads every purchase order, checks it against your quote and your ERP, and enters the clean ones. It runs in the background, so there's no new screen for anyone to learn. Everything you see from it arrives as email.

InboxReadCheckedEnteredConfirmed

8:14 AM. A customer PO lands in your orders inbox.

From: Dana Whitfield <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: PO 4471-2208, Ridgeline Hydraulics

Hi, please see the attached PO. Confirm receipt and ship dates when you can.

Thanks,
Dana

PDFPO_4471-2208.pdf · 118 KB

Until now, somebody opened that PDF and typed it into the ERP by hand.

What happens next

Nobody retypes it. Here's every step, and every email it sends.

Each step is marked with what does the work. The AI reads. Plain software checks, decides and enters.

It sorts the mail

Not everything in an orders inbox is an order. Each email gets sorted: a purchase order, a quote request, or something that needs nothing. Quote requests and the rest are set aside and listed for you every Monday, so nothing disappears quietly.

From: Order entry
Subject: Monday briefing: 3 quote requests, 2 other emails set aside

Quote requests

Cascade Fabrication: RFQ, 500 mounting brackets
Northgate Supply: quote request, valve body rework
Harbor Line Plastics: RFQ 22-114

Needed nothing

Ridgeline Hydraulics: statement of account
A supplier newsletter

It reads the PO

It reads the PDF the way a person would, scanned ones included: who the customer is, where it ships, and every line with its part number, quantity, price and due date. Then it lines those up against the lines on your quote, even when the customer numbers them differently.

Read: PO_4471-2208.pdf
Customer: Ridgeline Hydraulics · quote Q-18834

Ln	Part	Qty	Price	Due
1	RH-2210-A manifold block	250	$18.40	Oct 14
2	RH-3105 valve body	120	$42.75	Oct 21
3	RH-0098 mounting bracket	500	$3.10	Oct 14

Plain software

It checks every line

Then plain software checks what the AI read. Is it a customer you know, shipping somewhere you know? Is every part number in your ERP? Do the price, quantity and due date match the quote you sent? Is this a repeat of a PO you already have?

The AI never gets the last word. The checks do.

Checked: PO 4471-2208 against your ERP and quote Q-18834

Customer and ship-to address foundRidgeline Hydraulics, Dock 2
All 3 part numbers found in your ERP
Prices match the quote3 of 3 lines
Quantities and due dates match the quote
Not a repeat or a revision of an order you already have

Plain software

It enters the clean ones

When nothing on the order needs a person, it goes into your ERP as a sales order by itself. Your people process it and send the confirmation the way they always have. Nobody typed it.

ERP: Sales order 51872 created

CustomerRidgeline Hydraulics

Customer PO4471-2208

Lines3

Entered byOrder entry, 8:16 AM

Plain software

Anything off comes to the right person

When something doesn't check out, the order is held and one email goes to whoever handles it: what's wrong, what to do about it, and a link to close it out once it's handled. Those are the expensive mistakes: a second order for work already in production, or a revision nobody noticed.

Subject: [Action needed] Customer PO needs manual entry: Brightwater Packaging

A customer PO was received but could not be fully entered automatically.

CustomerBrightwater Packaging Customer POBW-10233 ReasonLine 2 part number BW-7710 isn't in your ERP

Please open the PO and enter it manually.

Close this out

Subject: [Action needed] REVISED PO 4471-2208: update order 51872

A revised version of a customer PO arrived. The original is already entered as order 51872. No second order was created, and this one will not be entered automatically.

What changed

Line 1: quantity 250 → 300
Line 3: due Oct 14 → Oct 28

Please update order 51872 to match, then process and confirm it there. Do not create a new order.

Subject: [Action needed] PO may belong to an existing job: Harbor Line Plastics

A customer PO arrived that may belong to a job already opened on a verbal go-ahead.

Customer POHL-5521 Existing order51790, placeholder in the PO field

Please open order 51790, enter this PO number on it, and confirm it there. Do not create a new order. This PO is being held.

Plain software

It checks again at confirmation

When your people confirm the order, a copy of the confirmation comes back to the orders inbox. The order in your ERP gets compared against the PO one more time, line by line, and the PO and confirmation are filed together in that customer's folder. If a difference was already approved by someone, it says so instead of raising it again.

Final check: PO 4471-2208 · order 51872

Lines matching the PO3 of 3

Confirmation sentOct 7, 10:42 AM

Filed toCustomers / Ridgeline Hydraulics

StatusClosed

Plain software

Nothing gets to sit

If a PO sits too long without being entered or confirmed, it goes up the line to whoever you name. Counted in working hours, so a Friday afternoon PO doesn't set off alarms all weekend.

Subject: [Action needed] PO BW-10233 still waiting on order entry

CustomerBrightwater Packaging Waiting6 working hours in "needs manual entry" Sent toOperations manager

Plain software

Every morning, what happened

The alerts go out the moment something needs a person. The morning email is the summary: what went through on its own yesterday, what's still waiting, and what was set aside. If the tool itself ever stops running, the subject line says so in plain words, so silence never passes for "all clear."

From: Order entry
Subject: Daily PO summary, Oct 8 · 1 needs attention

Needs attention (1)

Brightwater Packaging BW-10233: part BW-7710 not in your ERP

Entered on their own (4)

Ridgeline Hydraulics 4471-2208, order 51872
Cascade Fabrication CF-2291, order 51873
Northgate Supply NG-7765, order 51874
Ridgeline Hydraulics 4471-2215, order 51875

Checked at confirmation

3 orders checked, all matched

Set aside

2 quote requests

Where the AI is, and where it isn't

AI does the reading. Plain software does the deciding.

Sorting what lands in the orders inbox
Reading each PO, whatever layout the customer uses, scanned copies included
Lining the PO's lines up against your quote's lines

Plain software

Every check against your ERP and your quote
Deciding whether an order is safe to enter, and entering it
Every alert, every escalation, the final check and the morning summary

AI is very good at reading a document it has never seen before. It isn't exact, so it never gets the last word here. Every number it reads is checked before anything goes into your ERP, and anything that doesn't check out goes to a person.

The numbers so far

Thirty-nine orders went in with nobody touching them in August.

39Orders it entered into the ERP with nobody touching them, in August, its first full month.

As of August 2026, from the tool's own records. I tune each of these tools every month on what it got wrong the month before, so the numbers climb over time. The first month is always the worst one.

It had to earn it

Almost every tool I've built broke the first time it met real orders. This one did too.

While it was still running alongside the people who enter orders, before it was allowed to touch the ERP, a customer sent a revised PO with new prices on two of its three lines. The tool treated it as a brand-new order and would have entered the same job twice.

A revision is its own kind of order, so now it gets its own path. If the original is already in your ERP, nothing gets entered, and one email lists exactly what changed so a person updates the order that's already there. That's the revised PO email in step 05, and it's why the tool runs next to your people before it runs on its own.

Another one

One customer prints every price per thousand pieces. The reader took a line printed as $275,000.00 per 1,000 and turned it into 27 and a half cents each, and a person had to fix the order.

$0.275→$275.00 each Printed on the PO: 275,000.00 / 1,000

Fourteen earlier POs in that same format had been read right, and that turned out to prove nothing. Now, when a line's price times its quantity doesn't add up to the total printed on that line, the software finds the per-thousand price on that line and does the division itself.

Built once, adapted to yours

This is the baseline. Yours fits your operation.

Everything above is the tool as it runs today. The parts that do the hard work stay the same. The parts that touch your systems, your customers and your people get fitted to how you already work.

What stays

Reading any PO layout, scanned ones included
Checking every line against your quote and your ERP before anything is entered
Entering only the clean ones, and holding the rest with an email that says why
The check at confirmation, the stall alerts and the morning summary

What gets adapted

Your ERP, and exactly how an order gets keyed into it
Your customers' PO layouts, part-number habits and ship-to addresses
What counts as clean enough to go in by itself
Who gets which alert, and how fast a stalled PO goes up the line

Distributors

Orders with dozens of lines and a price list behind them, checked against the list instead of a quote.

Blanket orders

Each release checked against what's left on the blanket, so nobody ships past it.

Finishing and heat treat

POs that name a spec and a lot instead of a part number, checked against the process you quoted.

How it gets set up

It runs next to your people before it runs on its own.

Connect it to your orders inbox and your ERP.
It works on top of the systems you already run. Nothing gets replaced.
Set it up around your customers.
Their PO layouts, their part numbers, their ship-to addresses, and who on your team handles what.
Run it alongside your current process.
It shows what it would have entered, without touching your ERP, so you can see it get your orders right first.
Turn entry on.
Clean orders go in on their own. Everything it isn't sure of keeps coming to a person.

Quoted up front, no hourly billing. I host it and keep it running, and a care plan covers fixes and changes as your customers change. The code is yours, and I'll transfer it to you at any time.

Linked Operations · AI implementation for manufacturers

If someone in your operation retypes customer POs, let's talk.

Tell me how orders reach you today and where they go after that. I'll tell you straight whether a tool like this fits, whether something lighter would do, or whether it isn't worth it for you.

Email Jason →

Jason Markham

Nearly 25 years in manufacturing, including a decade running a machine shop. I build these tools myself, and they run every day.

I help manufacturers and distributors implement AI, automate workflows, and reduce errors with small, focused software builds that take over the back office work: the data, the paperwork, the busywork between the systems they already run.

[email protected]