Forward to the agent mailbox
Your company gets its own agent address on erp-agent.com. A rep forwards the customer's email, attachments included, and the draft is created automatically. Your customers keep emailing your reps as before.
Email to ERP
Email to ERP: customer requests to approved quotes and orders
Email to ERP automation turns customer emails into quotes and sales orders without retyping. With ERP Agent, your reps forward emails, PDF purchase orders and Excel lists to your company's own agent mailbox. The agent identifies the right products in your catalogue, brings in customer pricing from your ERP and prepares the draft. Your team approves it, and it lands in your ERP, CRM or other system.
Why is email to ERP harder than copying the email?
Quote and order requests still arrive by email in every shape: a contractor's PDF purchase order, a site manager's Excel list, five lines typed on a phone. Someone on the sales desk works out which items the customer means, looks up their price and keys the lines into the ERP. According to our case study, that takes a sales rep on average 4–7 minutes per line.
Copying the text is the easy part. The customer writes 'LBV 28 red' or their own article code; your ERP needs one item number, a quantity in the right unit and that customer's price. That translation is the real work in order entry automation and quote automation, and it is exactly the work ERP Agent does.
Why wholesalers choose ERP Agent for email to ERP
- Your customer's shorthand, your catalogue's exact product. The agent identifies products from abbreviations, sizes, part numbers and the customer's own codes, so there is no template to set up when a new customer writes in.
- Customer pricing from your ERP. Prices and discounts come from your ERP's own price logic, and reps can adjust any price before sending.
- Any ERP system. ERP Agent integrates with Business Central, SAP, NetSuite, Visma, IFS, Sage and any other ERP or CRM. We set up the connection for your company during onboarding, and you can start with a catalogue file the same week.
- Your team stays in control. Every line carries a match score and the reasoning behind it, and nothing reaches a customer without approval.
- It learns from your team. The agent learns from the lines your reps send, so product know-how stays in the company and new reps are productive sooner.
How do email orders get into the agent?
Three ways in, usable side by side.
Paste or drop into the web app
Paste the customer's email as it is, or drop in the files, then choose quote or sales order.
Submit through the API or MCP
If another system already receives the requests, it can send them through the REST API or the MCP server.
How to automate email orders into your ERP, step by step
Reads the email and its attachments
Body text, PDF purchase orders (scanned ones too), Excel and CSV lists, Word documents, images and forwarded emails. Lines appear in the draft as they are matched.
Finds the customer and delivery address
The customer is looked up in your ERP's customer register, with a warning when there is no match. A missing postcode is filled in, and an address that differs from the ERP is flagged.
Identifies the right products
Abbreviations, dimensions, materials, part numbers and the customer's own codes are matched against your catalogue, even across languages. Candidates that contradict a stated size, voltage or pressure rating rank lower, so the variant the customer asked for comes forward. Steel and metal lengths are converted to kg, metres or pieces, with a cutting line for non-standard lengths. A line with no catalogue match goes on your placeholder code instead of a guess. See part number cross-reference.
Brings in customer pricing
Customer-specific prices and discounts come from your ERP's own price logic or the rules configured for your company. Your team can review and edit every price before sending.
Your team reviews and approves
A rep checks the draft, starting with the marked lines, and approves it before it is written to your ERP, CRM or other system.
Lands in your ERP, CRM or other system
ERP Agent creates the quote or sales order in your ERP, whether you run Business Central, SAP, NetSuite or any other ERP or CRM. We set up the connection for your company during onboarding; meanwhile you can start with a catalogue file the same week and export each approved draft as a file.
PDF purchase order to ERP: which attachments can the agent read?
| Format | Typical request | How the agent handles it |
|---|---|---|
| Email body | A few typed lines, or an enquiry in running text | Signatures and earlier replies can stay in |
| Purchase orders from the customer's system, project schedules | Scanned PDFs are read with OCR | |
| Excel, CSV | Bills of materials, take-off lists, repeat orders | Long lists are processed in parallel batches |
| Word, images | Specifications, photos or screenshots of a list | PowerPoint, TXT and XML files are read too |
| Forwarded .eml or .msg | A request forwarded as an attachment | Its own attachments are read too |
Example: a PDF purchase order forwarded from Outlook
A rep at a plumbing and heating merchant forwards a contractor's email with a PDF purchase order to the agent mailbox.
Fwd: Order for Riverside site, PO 20817 (PDF attached)
- 22mm copper tube 3m x 20 lengths
- 22mm end feed elbow x 50
- 15mm comp tee x 30
- LBV 28 red x 6
- TRV 15mm angled x 12
| Request line | Proposed product | Qty | Match score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22mm copper tube 3m | Copper tube 22 mm x 3 m, EN 1057 R250 (CT22-3) | 20 | 97 |
| 22mm end feed elbow | End feed elbow 90° 22 mm (EF-E22) | 50 | 95 |
| 15mm comp tee | Compression equal tee 15 mm (CP-T15) | 30 | 93 |
| LBV 28 red | Lever ball valve 28 mm, red handle (LBV-28R) | 6 | 88 |
| TRV 15mm angled | Radiator valve 15 mm angled (TRV-15A), two alternatives | 12 | 71 marked |
Illustrative example: products, codes and scores are made up to show the format. The rep opens the marked valve line, reads the reasoning and picks the valve this contractor usually buys. With "send and learn", the agent picks it on its own next time.
What does your team check before anything reaches the ERP, CRM or other system?
- A match score from 0 to 100 on every line. Lines under 80 are marked, so the rep starts with the ones that need a decision.
- Reasoning and alternatives. Open a line to read why the agent chose that product, or take one of the runners-up instead.
- Quote chat. Add or remove rows, change quantities or prices in plain language. Every proposed edit is approved or rejected line by line.
- Codes checked in the ERP. Before the draft is saved or sent, every product code is checked against your ERP, so a code that does not exist there never gets through.
- Learning. When the rep sends with "send and learn", the agent remembers the choice: the next time this customer writes the same thing, it picks the same product.
Outlook email to ERP automation with Microsoft 365
The agent mailbox runs on Microsoft 365 and picks up new mail through Microsoft Graph as it arrives. For reps it is an ordinary address they forward to from Outlook on the desktop, the web or their phone, and it needs no access to your own mailboxes.
Connect your own Outlook and the agent learns from your team's past work: it pairs past customer requests in a personal or shared sales mailbox with the quotes your team sent. More on the Microsoft 365 and Outlook integration.
Where does the quote or order land?
ERP Agent integrates with Business Central, SAP, NetSuite, Visma, IFS, Sage and any other ERP or CRM. We set up the connection for your company during onboarding, and you can start with a catalogue file the same week. See all integrations.
| System | Type | Reads | Writes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dynamics 365 Business Central | ERP integration | Items, customers, customer prices | Sales quotes and sales orders |
| SAP S/4HANA | ERP integration | Products, business partners, customer prices | Sales quotations and sales orders |
| SAP Business One | ERP integration | Items, business partners, price lists | Sales quotations and sales orders |
| NetSuite | ERP integration | Items, customers, customer prices | Estimates (quotes) and sales orders |
| Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain | ERP integration | Released products, customers, trade agreement prices | Sales quotations and sales orders |
| Visma | ERP integration | Items, customers, customer prices | Quotes and sales orders |
| IFS | ERP integration | Sales parts, customers, customer prices | Sales quotations and customer orders |
| Monitor ERP | ERP integration | Parts, customers, customer prices | Quotes and customer orders |
| Infor M3 | ERP integration | Items, customers, customer prices | Quotations and customer orders |
| Exact | ERP integration | Items, customers, sales prices | Quotations and sales orders |
| AFAS Profit | ERP integration | Items, debtors, price agreements | Quotes and sales orders |
| Odoo | ERP integration | Products, customers, pricelists | Quotations and sales orders |
| Sage | ERP integration | Items, customers, customer prices | Sales quotes and sales orders |
| Jeeves | ERP integration | Items, customers, customer prices | Quotes and sales orders; confirmed values on purchase orders |
| Lemonsoft | ERP integration | Items, customers, customer prices | Quotes |
| Microsoft 365 / Outlook | Email integration | Customer requests in the agent mailbox; email history for training | Nothing is sent to customers without your team |
| Catalogue file / SFTP | File | Product catalogue from a file, from the first week | The reviewed quote or order as a file, ready to import into your system |
| Any other ERP or CRM | ERP or CRM integration | Products, customers and prices, through the connection we set up for your company during onboarding | Quotes and sales orders |
Email order processing automation: why ERP Agent goes further
| Approach | What happens to a customer email | What it means for your sales desk |
|---|---|---|
| Keying in by hand | A rep reads it, looks up each item and the customer's price, and types the lines | 4–7 minutes per line (our case study), and the product know-how stays with individual reps |
| Template-based email or PDF parser | Copies the customer's wording into fields from layouts it has a template for | A rep still decides every item and price, and each new customer layout needs a new template |
| EDI | Covers trading partners who send your item codes in an agreed format | Every customer who orders by email still lands on the sales desk |
| ERP Agent | Reads any email, PDF or spreadsheet as written, identifies the products and brings in the customer's price | A ready draft with match scores: the rep approves it, and the agent learns from the lines your team sends |
Moving from another order-automation tool? Run a pilot on your own customer emails and compare the drafts line by line. Putting a figure on the manual work: the cost of manual quoting.
ERP Agent in numbers
- 4–7 min
- per line when a sales rep creates quotes and orders by hand, according to our case study
- 95%
- average automation across our customers
- Over 95%
- accuracy in quote-line automation at LVI-WaBeK
- Live
- with steel, HVAC and fastener distributors
Built to work with what you already run
- Works on top of your ERP. No replacement project: your ERP, CRM or other system stays the system of record, and ERP Agent prepares what goes into it.
- Alongside EDI and your webshop. Orders that already arrive with your item codes keep flowing as they do, and ERP Agent takes over the emails your reps read and key in today.
- Connect your ERP when you are ready. Start with a catalogue file; reps keep the same mailbox and review screen when the connection goes live.
Who is email to ERP automation for?
ERP Agent is the first agentic AI layer for wholesale distribution ERP systems, built for wholesalers whose customers order from a large catalogue in their own words. It is live with steel distributors, HVAC wholesalers and fastener distributors; see also electrical wholesalers and plumbers' merchants.
The LVI-WaBeK customer story shows how reps at a building services wholesaler check and complete the quotes the agent prepares, and spend more time on customer relationships. The quote cost calculator puts a figure on your own inbox.
Frequently asked questions
Can AI do order entry from email?
Yes, including the slow part. ERP Agent reads the email and attachments, identifies products and prices and prepares the sales order or quote. A person approves it, and lines with a match score under 80 are marked so the rep starts there.
How do I automate email orders into my ERP?
Load your catalogue and have reps forward customer emails to your agent mailbox. Each email becomes a draft that a rep reviews and approves, and the approved quote or sales order goes to your ERP, CRM or other system.
Does ERP Agent work with my ERP?
Yes. ERP Agent integrates with Business Central, SAP, NetSuite, Visma, IFS, Sage and any other ERP or CRM. We set up the connection for your company during onboarding, and you can start with a catalogue file the same week.
Does it work with Outlook and Microsoft 365?
Yes. The agent mailbox runs on Microsoft 365, and reps forward to it from Outlook or any other email client. Connecting your own Outlook lets the agent learn from your past emails and quotes.
Can it turn a PDF purchase order into a sales order in the ERP?
Yes. The PDF is read with the email, scanned ones included, and every line is matched to your catalogue. Once your ERP is connected, the approved sales order is created there directly. We set up the connection for your company during onboarding, and you can start with a catalogue file the same week, exporting each approved order as a file. See purchase order to sales order automation.
How long does one email take?
Minutes for the whole request, compared with 4–7 minutes per line by hand (our case study). A forwarded email runs in thorough mode: a typical request takes 3–8 minutes, and a request of several hundred lines about half an hour. For a request of up to about 50 lines, a rep can paste it into the web app and choose fast mode, which takes 1–3 minutes.
Is it just an email parser?
No. A parser copies the customer's text into fields. ERP Agent identifies which catalogue item each line means and brings in the customer's price from your ERP, which is the slow part of order entry.
Is customer email data handled safely?
ERP Agent is GDPR-compliant, and models run with zero data retention. Before setup, we agree which data the agent needs and which systems it can access. More on security and data handling.
Related
- Order entry automation for distributors: customer POs to sales orders
- Purchase order to sales order automation for wholesale distributors
- RFQ automation for distributors and industrial suppliers
- AI quote automation for distributors and wholesalers
- Microsoft 365 / Outlook integration: the agent mailbox for quotes and orders
- ERP integrations for AI quote and order automation, on any ERP system
Let’s look at your quote workflow
See the email-to-ERP flow on a real request
Book a 30-minute call to walk through the agent mailbox, the review screen and how approved drafts reach your ERP, CRM or other system.
- Your requests and product catalogue
- Your pricing and review process
- A clear scope for the next step
Lauri Pelkonen
Founder & CEO
Book a 30-minute call Request a demo by emailOr use the address directly