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USE CASE · SALES ORDER AUTOMATION

Purchase orders by email, posted to your ERP as sales orders.

Customers email PDFs, spreadsheets, scans and orders typed into the message itself. Your team forwards them to Weeva, or an auto-forward rule on your order mailbox does it for you. Weeva matches every line to your catalogue and creates the sales order in your ERP. Your team reviews only what needs judgement.

Illustrative example: a fictional customer's purchase order read line by line, each line matched to a catalogue SKU with a confidence score, with uncertain lines held for review.

How do you automate purchase orders that arrive by email?

Forward orders to Weeva by hand or with an auto-forward rule. Weeva reads every attachment and every order typed into an email body, extracts the header and each line with a confidence score, matches the lines to your catalogue and the customer's price list, and creates the sales order in your ERP. Anything uncertain goes to a person.

Which email orders can Weeva read?

There is no template to set up per customer.

  • PDF purchase orders from a customer's own system
  • Excel and CSV order sheets, including files with several tabs
  • Orders typed straight into the email body
  • Scans and phone photos attached to an email
  • Forwarded threads, with the order several replies down
  • Long PDFs with several store allocations, split into one order per store

Four steps from the inbox to a sales order.

  1. 01

    Capture.

    Your team forwards orders to Weeva, or an auto-forward rule on the order mailbox sends them. Each email becomes its own job, with the original kept against the order.

  2. 02

    Read.

    Every attachment and the email body are read into the same shape, header and lines, with every field scored.

  3. 03

    Match.

    The sender is matched to your customer list, every line to your catalogue, and prices come from that customer's list.

  4. 04

    Review and post.

    Uncertain fields reach a person with a plain reason. Approved orders post to your ERP once, with a record.

What makes email orders hard to automate?

  • Several orders in one PDF.

    A long PDF of store allocations is split into one order per store before it is read.

  • Orders in the message.

    An order typed into the email is read like an attachment.

  • The same order twice.

    An order sent and then forwarded is held before it can be captured twice.

  • No prices.

    An email that lists products and quantities only is priced from that customer's own list.

Fictional example

At 07:52 Kalahari Fasteners emails PO_4421.pdf with the note "Please find attached PO 4421 for delivery Thursday." Weeva reads the PDF, matches the buyer to Kalahari in your customer list and every line to your catalogue, and flags the one line it is unsure of. Your order desk confirms it, and the sales order posts to your ERP with the PDF attached.

What order desks ask about email orders.

Do we need to change our order email address?

No. Your team can forward orders to Weeva from their inboxes or set an auto-forward on your order mailbox. Either way, each email becomes its own job, and the original email and its attachments are kept against the sales order it produces, so anyone can see exactly what the customer sent.

Can Weeva read an order typed into the body of an email?

Yes. An order typed straight into the message, such as four cases of oil, ten rice and six sugar, is read like an attachment. The header comes from the sender and the email, the lines from the text, and every field is scored. Lines with no prices are priced from that customer's own price list.

What happens when a customer emails the same order twice?

It is held before it can be captured twice. Weeva compares every new order with recent ones on PO number, customer, dates, totals and lines. A likely duplicate, such as an order that was sent and then forwarded, waits for a person to confirm or dismiss it, so your ERP never receives the same order twice.

Does Weeva need a template for each customer?

No. Weeva reads each email the way a person on your order desk would, so a new customer's first order needs no set-up. Where something is uncertain, a person confirms it once, and that decision is applied to the same customer's orders from then on: their product codes, units, pack sizes and shorthand.

See Weeva on your own orders.

Bring three of your emailed orders, including one your team finds awkward, and we'll run them live.