Customer order capture automation is software that reads the purchase orders your customers send by email, as PDF, Excel or text, and turns them into sales orders in the ERP. Before anything is entered, it identifies the customer and checks every line against the customer record, the item codes and the agreed prices.

In most companies that step still belongs to a person. A customer emails a PO, someone opens it, finds the customer in the ERP, and retypes 30 lines. Then they check the prices and hope nothing slipped. Good order entry automation takes that work off the desk, but only if it checks before it types.

What the automation does

Reads the order as the customer sent it

A PDF from one customer, an Excel sheet from another, a few lines in the email body from a third. The customer keeps their own format. Nobody asks them to fill in a portal.

Identifies the customer

From the sender, the company name and the ship-to address. The order is tied to the right customer record, with its price list, terms and delivery addresses.

Maps the items

Customers write their own part numbers and descriptions. Each line is matched to your item code in the ERP, even when the customer’s text is different from yours.

Checks before entering

Quantity, unit price and requested date, each against what the ERP says for that customer. A line that agrees goes in. A price below the agreed list stops with a reason, and a person decides.

What it is not

Not OCR

OCR reads characters. It does not know which customer sent the order or whether the price is right. Capture automation starts where OCR ends, with the ERP record.

Not a customer portal

A portal moves the typing to the customer. Most customers will not do it, and the orders keep arriving by email anyway.

Not a template per customer

A tool that needs a layout for every customer breaks the first time a customer changes their PDF. The automation should read a new customer’s order on day one. That is the shift Avi Rafalson, DOConvert’s CEO, describes in How intelligent document processing reinvents customer experience.

How it works with DOConvert

DOConvert is the AI layer for the ERP. It connects directly to Priority through the DOConvert Priority connector, which is bi-directional, and to Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP and Infor M3, with no middleware. Here is one order.

The order arrives by email

A customer sends a PDF purchase order with 25 lines. Nobody forwards it anywhere.

DOConvert identifies the customer

From the sender and the document. A new customer works from the first email, with no template.

The customer record is read from the ERP

Price list, payment terms and delivery addresses. Each line is mapped to your item code.

Every line is checked

Say 24 lines match the price list. One line shows a price lower than agreed. That line stops with a plain reason, and a person decides.

The sales order is created

Once the open line is resolved, the order is entered in the ERP as a sales order, ready for the warehouse. The same flow covers customer orders from PDF and email in any format a customer uses.

Who it fits

• Customer service and order desk teams that receive dozens of orders a day by email
• VPs of Operations who need orders in the ERP before the warehouse plans the day
• Distributors and manufacturers with many customers, each with its own order format
• IT and IS managers on Priority ERP, Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP or Infor M3 who want a direct connection

Questions and answers

Does the customer have to change anything?

No. Customers keep emailing the same PDFs and spreadsheets. The automation reads what they send.

What happens with a new customer?

If the customer does not exist in the ERP yet, the order stops with a note so someone can open the record first.

Does it work with Priority?

Yes. The flow for client orders into Priority ERP runs through the DOConvert Priority connector.

Is there a company that already works this way?

Yes. Cargal automated its client orders in a week on Priority, and the orders have gone straight from the inbox to the ERP since.

How long does the setup take?

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