Definition
Order entryOrder entry, or sales order entry, is recording a customer's order in the seller's business system, usually the ERP, as a sales order the business can deliver and invoice. Many UK businesses treat it as the first part of sales order processing (SOP). It starts once the order is received and ends when the sales order is saved and confirmed to the customer.
Order entry meaning in other fields
In trading, order entry means placing a buy or sell order with a broker. In healthcare, computerised provider order entry (CPOE) is how clinicians enter medication and test orders. This page uses the business meaning: a customer's purchase order becoming the seller's sales order.
Order entry vs order processing: what is the difference?
The terms overlap and companies draw the lines differently, but a common split is:
| Term | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Order intake | Receiving orders by email, PDF, Excel, phone, webshop or EDI. |
| Order entry | Recording one received order as a sales order in the business system. |
| Order processing | Order entry plus picking, packing, delivery and invoicing. |
| Order management | The whole order lifecycle, including changes, returns and reporting. |
| Quote to order | An accepted quotation becoming the order. See quote to order. |
What are the steps in order entry at a wholesaler?
For a distributor taking orders by email, the middle steps repeat for every line.
Identify the customer
Find the account and delivery address, and note the customer's PO number for the invoice.
Identify each product
Turn the customer's wording, their own part number or another brand's code into an item in your catalogue. This step needs product knowledge.
Check the unit
A box of 100 or 100 pieces? A 100 m coil or 100 metres?
Apply the price
The customer's agreed prices and discounts, not the list price.
Save and confirm
Add the delivery date, save the sales order and send the confirmation, or query unclear lines first.
Example: an emailed order, entered line by line
A contractor emails an electrical wholesaler. The PO number and site go in the order header, and the lines become:
Contractor's email: 'For the Hill Street site, Tuesday please. PO 4471.'
- 20 x 2.5 T&E grey 100m
- Double sockets white - 40
- Our ref EL-2207 - 10
- LED panels 600x600 4000K - 12
- Glands as last time - 50
| Line | Sales order line | Qty | What had to be worked out |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Twin and earth cable 6242Y 2.5 mm², grey, 100 m coil | 20 coils | 20 coils, not 20 metres. |
| 2 | Twin switched socket outlet 13 A, white | 40 | Switched or not: from this customer's earlier orders. |
| 3 | Steel back box, 2-gang, 35 mm | 10 | The customer's own code, mapped on earlier orders. |
| 4 | LED panel 600 × 600 mm, 4000 K, 36 W | 12 | Several wattages fit; this customer usually takes 36 W. |
| 5 | Cable gland 20 mm, brass | 50 | 'As last time': open the previous order. |
Illustrative example with a fictional customer, codes and items, not results from a customer.
How long does order entry take?
According to our case study, a sales rep spends on average 4–7 minutes per line when creating quotes and orders by hand: two to three and a half hours for an example order of 30 lines. Three of the steps above are decisions about product, unit and price, and they repeat on every line; the typing is the smaller part. Try your own volumes in the quote-line cost calculator.
Can AI do order entry?
Yes. AI can read an emailed order, work out which of your products each line means and prepare the sales order for a person to approve. EDI and webshops remove manual entry only for the customers who use them, and OCR removes only the typing. ERP Agent reads customer orders from email, PDF, Excel and Word, identifies the right products in your own catalogue, brings in customer pricing from a connected ERP and prepares a sales order. Every line carries a match score from 0 to 100, and lines under 80 are marked.
By default, a person approves before anything is written to your ERP, CRM or other system. The approved order is created as a sales order in your ERP. 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, with the reviewed order delivered as a file. See AI order entry automation for distributors.
