Inbound PO Automation for Manufacturers
Custom automation that reads purchase orders — PDFs, emails, Excel — and enters them directly into your ERP. Built for your SKUs, your formats, your systems. Not a template. Not an off-the-shelf tool.
Most manufacturers still process inbound POs manually. A PDF or email arrives, someone opens it, and retypes every field into their ERP.
~5 hours/day spent retyping
Staff open a PDF, read PO numbers, line items, SKUs, quantities, pricing, ship-to details — and retype every field into SAP, MYOB, QuickBooks, or their ERP. Every order, every day.
Single-digit errors cascade into production
A miskeyed SKU becomes wrong parts on the floor. A wrong quantity throws off production schedules. A bad PO number means wrong shipments and missed ship dates.
Generic tools plateau at 65–75% accuracy
Industry benchmarks show off-the-shelf OCR tools leave 1 in 4 orders requiring manual review. Non-standard PO formats break template-based extraction.
~$39,000/year per person in retyping labour
At $30/hr, 5 hours of daily PO data entry costs $39K annually per employee — skilled people doing work a system could handle.
“Not talking about EDI here. Talking about all those customers that are too small for EDI but still send PDFs by email… Seems like no one has cracked this?”
— SAP user, r/SAP
How It Works
Discovery call to live automation in under 30 days.
Process audit
One meeting. We map who's typing what into which system, where errors creep in, what's undocumented, and what it's costing you. Delivered as a written report.
Custom build
A system that reads your POs — PDFs, emails, Excel — and enters orders into SAP, MYOB, Xero, QuickBooks, or whatever you use. Built for your POs, your SKUs, your process.
Live demo with your POs
We process your actual purchase orders on a live call. You see exactly what gets extracted, whether every field is right, and how it maps to your system.
Go live
POs flow in, get validated against your database, and land in your ERP automatically. Your team reviews exceptions, not retypes everything.
Custom vs. Off-the-Shelf
A product that handles 80% of cases leaves 20% unresolved — and that 20% is where the errors happen. Every manufacturer's POs, ERPs, and SKU codes are different.
| Feature | ERP-Locked SaaS | Generic OCR | TaskSmith |
|---|---|---|---|
| ERP compatibility | Locked to Shopify, Katana, or Odoo | You wire the API yourself | Any system — MYOB, Xero, SAP, custom portals, legacy |
| Non-standard PO formats | Within product limits | Template-based, breaks on new layouts | Custom parsing per client |
| Deployment time | Months | Weeks of developer work | Days to weeks |
| Extraction accuracy | Product-dependent | 65–75% (industry benchmarks) | 84–96%+ (custom pipeline per client) |
| Ongoing support | Ticket-based | DIY — you maintain the code | Direct access — we maintain and optimize |
What's Included
End-to-end PO automation — audited, built, tested, deployed, and maintained.
We map your entire PO entry process — who's typing what into which system, where errors creep in, what's undocumented — and deliver a written report before building anything.
A custom spreadsheet showing what PO entry costs you today (hours × rate × frequency) vs. projected cost with automation.
Pre-build system check: API availability, data format, access requirements. A one-page report on exactly how we'll connect.
Reads your POs — PDFs, emails, Excel — and extracts PO numbers, line items, SKUs, quantities, pricing, ship-to details. Enters orders directly into your ERP (SAP, MYOB, Xero, QuickBooks, Odoo, etc.).
SKU matching against your database, quantity/pricing validation, duplicate detection. Flagged items route to a person to review — not retype.
We process your actual purchase orders on a live call before go-live. You see exactly what gets extracted, whether every field is right, and how it maps to your system.
One-page decision flowchart for handling flagged POs: what to check, when to approve, when to escalate.
Step-by-step video walkthroughs packaged as an owned library, plus a live online training session.
PO formats change, systems update, edge cases appear — we fix it, included in subscription. No troubleshooting on your end.
15-minute call every quarter reviewing POs processed, error rates, new formats, and upcoming system changes.
Guarantee
Two conditions. If either isn't met, you don't pay.
Live in 30 days
If the automation isn't deployed and processing real POs within 30 days of signing, we continue working at no charge until it is.
80% time reduction
If your team isn't spending at least 80% less time on PO data entry within 30 days of go-live, full refund.
Get Started
15-minute discovery call. We'll ask about your PO volume, your ERP, and your current process. If we can help, we'll explain how. If we can't, we'll tell you.
Book a Discovery CallLive in under 30 days · Any ERP, any PO format · 80% time reduction guarantee