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Business Operations agent

Order entry from email

Whether a PO arrives as a PDF, a scan or a few lines in an email, it’s keyed into your order system in your part numbers and at your prices. A price off your list is the account manager’s call.

  • $12,500 fixed
  • Live in 3 to 6 weeks
  • Yours to keep
The review screen for Order entry from email: four items, three done, and one (Price off list) waiting for the account manager, who is asked: Line 9 is $3.10 on Marlow’s PO and $3.45 on your list. Accept the lower price?
How it works

The customer writes it their way. Your system reads it your way.

Here’s a typical run, step by step: what automation handles, what the agent does, and the calls that stay with your team.

The workflow for Order entry from email, in 5 steps. It starts with “A PO lands in the inbox” and ends with “An order in your system”. Each step lists what automation, the agent and your team do there.
Order entry from emailA typical run
Starts withA PO lands in the inboxMarlow Hardware emails PO 55812 to your orders inbox as a PDF: 14 lines, in their own part numbers.
The agent: Takes the ship-to, the dates and all 14 lines off Marlow’s PO, whether it’s a clean PDF, a scan or lines typed into the email.
Automation: Matches Marlow’s account and checks the PO number, so an order emailed twice is only entered once.
~40h/mo

Step 1 of 5Read the order

  • The agent

    Takes the ship-to, the dates and all 14 lines off Marlow’s PO, whether it’s a clean PDF, a scan or lines typed into the email.

    Every customer’s PO looks different, and some bury the ship-to in the email signature.

  • Automation

    Matches Marlow’s account and checks the PO number, so an order emailed twice is only entered once.

    The account and the PO number are already on file, so a second copy of the same PO stops there.

Reads
  • Orders inbox
Writes
  • Order system

~40 hours a month back

The agent: Reads “MH-2210 hinge, satin” and finds your SKU, using your cross-reference and the orders Marlow has placed before.
~30h/mo

Step 2 of 5Match the part numbers

  • The agent

    Reads “MH-2210 hinge, satin” and finds your SKU, using your cross-reference and the orders Marlow has placed before.

    Customers order in their own codes and words. A lookup only works for codes already on your cross-reference.

Reads
  • Item list
  • Past orders
Writes
  • Order system

~30 hours a month back

Where teams differSome customers use your SKUs. Others have their own codes, and a few just describe the part.

Automation: Compares each line with the prices you agreed for Marlow, stock at the warehouse and the account’s credit. Line 9 is $3.10, and your list says $3.45.
~16h/mo

Step 3 of 5Check price and stock

  • Automation

    Compares each line with the prices you agreed for Marlow, stock at the warehouse and the account’s credit. Line 9 is $3.10, and your list says $3.45.

    Price, stock and credit are numbers already in your system, so each check is a comparison.

Reads
  • Price lists
  • Order system
Writes
  • Order system

~16 hours a month back

Where teams differA few cents off the list is fine for some teams. Others hold any line that doesn’t match.

IfYour team: Accepts $3.10 or asks Marlow to take $3.45, with the PO, the price list and Marlow’s last order on one screen.
~5h/mo

Step 4 of 5Settle the price

  • Your teamIf a price is off your list

    Accepts $3.10 or asks Marlow to take $3.45, with the PO, the price list and Marlow’s last order on one screen.

    Taking a lower price is a call about the customer, not the paperwork. Whoever owns the account should make it.

Reads
  • Price lists
Writes
  • Order system

~5 hours a month back

Where teams differAt some companies customer service settles the small gaps, and only the larger ones reach the account manager.

Automation: Creates the sales order with the PDF attached and sends Marlow the confirmation your system already sends, at the agreed price.
~20h/mo

Step 5 of 5Enter and confirm

  • Automation

    Creates the sales order with the PDF attached and sends Marlow the confirmation your system already sends, at the agreed price.

    With every line settled, entering the order is plain data entry.

Reads
  • Order system
Writes
  • Order system
  • Email

~20 hours a month back

Ends withAn order in your systemEntered at the agreed prices with the PDF attached, and the confirmation sent the way you send it today.
Total~111h/mo

What changes

Clean orders go straight into your system, in your part numbers and at your prices. A price that doesn’t match your list waits for the account manager.

  • 3steps automated
  • 2steps for the agent
  • 1call kept with your team

Pick any step to see what happens there and why it sits in that lane.

What it could be worth

~111 hours a month back

$55,900 a year in time

For a customer service team entering about 1,000 emailed orders a month, at $42 an hour. We work out yours from your own volumes before you sign.

Let’s build your agent
What we customize with you

One proven agent, plugged into how you work.

Every team does this job a little differently, so we set these five with the people who do it today. We’ve done this in dozens of businesses, so we know where teams usually differ and ask about those first.

The agent

Same for every client
  • Follows the same proven steps
  • A person on every exception
  • Every decision logged
  • Tested on your past work first
  • Never accepts a price off your list without a person
  1. Your systems

    Where the work comes in, and where the result goes.

    For this agentOrders from your orders inbox, sales orders into your ERP or order system.

  2. Your rules

    The limits and exceptions it works to.

    For this agentYour price lists, how close a price has to be, and when a credit hold applies.

  3. Your team

    Who signs off, and who covers when they’re away.

    For this agentThe account manager for prices, customer service for anything it can’t read.

  4. Your channels

    Where your team hears from it.

    For this agentEmail to customers, Slack or Teams for your team.

  5. Your output

    What it hands back, in the format you already use.

    For this agentA sales order with the PDF attached, and the confirmation your system already sends.

It enters the orders your customers send. Quotes are the Quote creator agent, returns have their own agent, and changing a promised date stays with your team.

What you get

The agent, and everything that keeps it working.

  • The agentRunning on your systems, under your rules.
  • The review screenWhere the exceptions land for your account managers and customer service team.
  • Your rulebookYour limits, exceptions and who signs off, in one place, often for the first time.
  • A test reportYour past emailed orders, run through it and checked against the number.
  • The runbookHow it works, what to check, and what to do if it stops.
  • 30 days of tuningAfter it goes live, through a full month of your real emailed orders.
The number we agree

Minutes from an order landing to it being in your system. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.

How we get there

Live in 3 to 6 weeks. About seven hours of your time.

We do the building. Your side: access, three months of emailed orders and how they were entered, and a short weekly check-in.

  1. Before kickoff

    We send the access checklist.

    You, 2 hours. Access, an owner, and three months of emailed orders and how they were entered.

  2. Weeks 1 to 2

    We connect your systems and set it up.

    You, 1 hour. Walk us through your rules.

  3. Weeks 2 to 4

    We test it on your past emailed orders.

    You, 1 hour. Review what it flagged.

  4. Weeks 3 to 6

    It runs beside your team, then goes live.

    You, 1¼ hours. Work from the review screen.

Then 30 days of tuning, with a short check-in each week, about two hours of yours. At day 30 we show you the number and hand everything over.

After it’s live

It keeps running whether or not we stay.

  • It runs in your accounts

    Your cloud, your systems, and an AI account in your name, billed by the provider at their rates.

  • Changes in the first 30 days are included

    A new rule, a changed limit, someone new signing off. That’s what tuning is for.

  • After that, your call

    Your team edits the rulebook, the care plan covers it, or a bigger change is quoted first.

Questions

About this agent.

What if it can’t read a line?
It never guesses. That line goes to customer service with the PDF beside it, and the order waits until it’s settled.
Does it replace our EDI orders?
No. EDI already arrives in a form your system reads. This agent is for the orders that come as emails, PDFs and spreadsheets.
What if a customer changes an order after sending it?
It reads the change, finds the order already entered, and passes it to customer service to apply, since the warehouse may already be picking it.
Our process isn’t quite like this. Will it still work?
That’s the usual case. The job looks the same in most businesses, but the details never do. We map how your team does it today, then set the rules, systems and approvals to match. That’s what most of the 3 to 6 weeks are for.
How do we agree the number?
Together, before any work starts. For this agent it’s the minutes from an order landing to it being in your system. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.
What does it cost to run once it’s live?
Hosting and AI, paid straight to the providers, not through us. It usually runs 5x to 25x cheaper than doing the same work by hand, and we work out your figure from your real volumes before you sign.

Roughly how many orders reach you by email each day?

Tell us how your team handles emailed orders today. We’ll show you this agent on examples like yours, and whether it fits the fixed price.

New to Switchboard Agents? How it works, what’s included, and what it costs.
  • 3 to 6 weeksto live, then 30 days of tuning
  • $12,500fixed, per agent
  • Yours to keepno license fees
See the service
Switchboard Agents$12,500 fixed · live in 3 to 6 weeks How it works Let’s build your agent