01 · Receive
Watch the agreed channel
An order arrives through a named mailbox or folder. The message, attachment and customer identity remain linked to the processing record.
Wholesalers · Trade counters · Multi-branch distributors
Wholesale order processing, without retyping every line
Orders can keep arriving in the customer's format—email text, PDF, spreadsheet or scan. We extract the lines, match them against the catalogue and customer terms you already hold, then stage a sales-order draft for your team to confirm.
Fixed scopeQuoted before work starts
Human controlDecisions stay with your team
Honest boundaryKeep existing systems where they work
From customer document to confirmable sales-order draft
The build sits between the channels customers already use and the stock or ERP system your team already knows. Every transformation is visible, and uncertainty is routed to a person rather than hidden.
02 · Extract
Read the order structure
Purchase-order number, requested date, delivery address, product description, quantity and unit are extracted into a draft.
03 · Match
Resolve customer references
Customer part numbers and descriptions are proposed against your product catalogue. Weak or multiple matches remain exceptions.
04 · Validate
Check the rules you already use
Customer terms, units, quantities and recorded prices are compared. A discrepancy is shown, not silently corrected.
05 · Review
Put source and draft together
Your team sees the original beside the proposed order and deals with the few fields that actually need judgement.
06 · Confirm
Use a supported route
After confirmation, the order is exported or posted through the interface agreed in the scope, with a record of what happened.
What one awkward order looks like in review
This is an illustrative order-processing pattern, not a promise that every source document or ERP can be connected without assessment.
A repeat customer emails a PDF using its own product codes
- Source
- The email, attached PDF and purchase-order number stay together as the evidence for the draft.
- Known line
- A customer code maps cleanly to one SKU and its recorded unit; the proposed match is shown as high confidence.
- Price difference
- The PDF price differs from the current customer term, so both values are displayed for a person to resolve.
- Unknown line
- A free-text description has two possible catalogue matches and is held back rather than guessed.
- Confirmation
- The order-team member resolves the two exceptions, checks the remaining lines and releases the complete draft.
Keep the ERP; make the intake fit it
The order system remains the system of record. We quote against a named and supported way of getting a confirmed draft into it, and we do not promise an integration before that route has been checked.
Possible connection routes
Use what the existing system supports
- Documented API
- Supported CSV or spreadsheet import
- Watched import folder
- Structured draft for manual confirmation
Written into the scope
Know where responsibility sits
- Mailbox or intake channel
- Catalogue and pricing source
- Exception and confirmation rules
- Posting method and returned status
- Reconciliation record
The data-quality boundary: automation can expose duplicate SKUs, missing customer references and conflicting prices. It cannot make an unreliable catalogue accurate by pretending one of the values is right.
Start with the order stream that creates real work
Automation project
Fixed price from £1,495
- Representative orders and exceptions reviewed
- One defined intake and confirmation flow
- Named catalogue and customer-term sources
- Supported output or integration route
- Documentation and code you own
Not assumed
Scope before software
- Replacement ERP or stock system
- Catalogue cleansing or product master rebuild
- EDI onboarding with every customer
- Autonomous credit, price or stock decisions
- Customer communication without approval
When we would tell you not to buy: if nearly every order already arrives through EDI or a portal and the remaining documents take little time to enter, the saving may not cover another system. Measure the actual manual stream first.
Questions wholesale order teams ask
Do customers need a new portal?
No. The point is to work with the channels they already use. A portal may be useful for other reasons, but it is not required to structure an emailed order.
What about customer-specific product codes?
Known cross-references can be applied from your records. New, weak or conflicting matches remain visible for the order team and can be added only after confirmation.
Can it read scans and photographs?
They can be assessed, but image quality and handwriting vary. The review screen must show the source clearly, and uncertain fields stay unresolved rather than being completed by guesswork.
Does it post orders automatically?
The first scope normally stages a draft for confirmation. Any later reduction in review is a separate operational decision based on measured exception rates, not a promise made before the system has seen your orders.
Does our pricing data go to a public AI service?
The proposed processing can run on infrastructure you control. The audit still records where the source email and business systems are hosted, because local processing cannot change where data already lives.
Can it replace EDI?
It is usually for the gap around EDI: customers and order types that still arrive as unstructured documents. A working EDI route should remain in place.
Connect the next part of the operation
Built and supported locally
Based in Horsham, we work on site across Sussex and Surrey. Explore the practical starting points for businesses in Crawley and Manor Royal.
Bring five representative customer orders
Include one easy order and the exceptions that consume the time. We will tell you whether a bounded intake build is viable, what would remain manual and what needs checking in your existing system.
If the honest answer is that the process needs the system rebuilt rather than one step automated, that is a bespoke order and stock system.