To automate purchase order confirmations from suppliers, read each one as it arrives, tie it to the open PO in the ERP, and compare it line by line. Lines that agree update the PO. A changed price, quantity or delivery date stops with a reason for the buyer to decide.

In most purchasing teams it works differently. The buyer sends the PO, the supplier replies two days later with a PDF, and the reply stays in the mailbox. Nobody opens it until the goods are late.

Then it turns out the supplier wrote a month ago that delivery moved by three weeks. The information was there. It never reached the order. That one field is the reason real-time PO updates matter so much to planners.

Why confirmations get ignored

They look like any other email

A confirmation asks for no payment and comes with no goods. It has no clear owner, so it waits. On a busy day it is marked as read and forgotten.

Every supplier confirms differently

One returns your PO signed. Another sends their own acknowledgment with their part numbers. A third writes two lines in the body of the email. There is no single format to build on.

The changes are small and easy to miss

One unit price went up. One line was split into two deliveries. One date out of ten moved. A quick glance sees a confirmation, not the difference.

Nobody has time to compare line by line

A buyer with hundreds of open orders cannot open every reply next to the PO. The comparison happens only after something has already gone wrong.

What the automation has to do

Identify the supplier and the PO

From the sender, the supplier name and the PO reference. If the reference is missing, the supplier and the items point to the right open order.

Compare every line

Item, quantity, unit price and delivery date, each confirmed line against the matching PO line. The comparison is the work. Reading the PDF is the easy part.

Update what the supplier confirmed

A confirmed delivery date goes onto the PO line. From then on planning, the warehouse and production work from the real date, not the requested one.

Stop what needs a decision

A higher price or a reduced quantity should never update on its own. It goes to the buyer with a short reason, who accepts it or goes back to the supplier. That is the difference between moving data and procurement automation that the team can trust.

What changes when confirmations reach the PO

Planning works from real dates

Production, stock and sales see when goods will actually arrive. A three-week delay is known a month ahead, not on the day the shelf is empty.

The buyer negotiates in time

A price difference surfaces the day the supplier confirms, while there is still room to talk. Not when the invoice is already on the desk.

Fewer calls to suppliers

Nobody has to phone and ask what is happening with the order. The answer is already on it.

How it works with DOConvert

DOConvert is the AI layer for the ERP. It reads the confirmation, finds the PO, checks the lines, and only then updates anything. Here is one confirmation, step by step.

The confirmation arrives by email

As a PDF attachment or as text in the email itself. The buyer does not forward it anywhere.

DOConvert identifies the supplier

From the email address and the document. A new supplier works from the first confirmation, with no template.

The open PO is read from the ERP

With its lines, prices and requested dates. For Priority users this runs through the DOConvert Priority connector, which is bi-directional. On Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP and Infor M3 the connection is direct as well, with no middleware.

Every line is checked

Say the confirmation has 12 lines. Ten match the PO. One moves delivery by two weeks, and one shows a higher unit price than agreed.

The date updates, the price stops

The new delivery date is written to the PO line. The price difference waits for the buyer with a plain reason. Nothing about the price changes until the buyer decides.

The rest of the flow gets easier

When the truck arrives, supplier delivery notes are checked against a PO that is already current. The warehouse knows what should arrive and when.

The invoice has fewer surprises

A price that was accepted up front is the price on the PO. When the invoice comes, three-way matching passes without a phone call.

The same idea, checking before entering, is what Avi Rafalson, DOConvert’s CEO, describes in Beyond Extraction, the next frontier in intelligent document processing.

Who it fits

• Purchasing managers and buyers with hundreds of open orders across dozens of suppliers
• Planners and VPs of Operations who need real delivery dates to schedule production and stock
• Controllers who want the price on the PO to be the price on the invoice
• IT and IS managers on Priority ERP, Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP or Infor M3 who want a direct connection

Questions and answers

What if the supplier confirms only part of the order?

The confirmed lines are updated. Lines that are missing from the confirmation stay open, and the confirmation stops with a note that names them.

Can a price change update the PO automatically?

No. A change in price or quantity stops and waits for the buyer. What updates is what the supplier confirmed and what agrees with the order.

Do suppliers need to change how they confirm?

No. They keep sending the same emails and the same documents. There is no portal and no agreed format.

How long does it take to start?

A typical DOConvert implementation takes about 10 business days, in the cloud or on your own servers.

Want to see it on your own documents? Book a Demo or Get Started