Your order desk should scale with sales, not paperwork.

More customer orders should mean more business, not more attachments to download, product codes to match and sales orders to retype.

This practical guide shows distributors, CPG brands and manufacturers two ways to handle incoming PDF and Excel purchase orders: configure Grabb to move standard orders through the process, or build a repeatable DIY workflow using an AI model and your existing ERP item catalog.

Why manual order entry becomes harder as sales grow

The purchase order is already in your inbox. But before that order reaches your ERP, someone still needs to open the attachment, identify the customer, understand their product codes, confirm quantities and pack sizes, check for missing information and create the right sales transaction.

The challenge grows when each customer sends a different format. One buyer orders by the manufacturer’s product number. Another uses its own item code. Someone sends an Excel file with fifty lines. Another emails a scanned PDF. Your team has to translate all of it into the language your ERP understands.

That work cannot be solved by faster typing alone. The process must correctly interpret the order, validate it against your business records and separate standard cases from exceptions.

Check your current order desk

Ask three questions:

• How many emailed PDF and Excel purchase orders arrive each week?
• How much total staff time is required to enter and validate each order?
• When order volume spikes, who identifies and resolves uncertain product matches, pack quantities and failed imports?

The answers form a useful baseline for evaluating either method in this guide.

Path 01 / Grabb

How to process customer purchase orders with Grabb

Grabb lets purchase orders enter a configured processing workflow while the order desk works on other tasks. Start by importing a PDF or spreadsheet. For recurring orders, connect the inbox customers already use. Once configured, relevant purchase orders can move through the same identification, matching and validation process without someone manually starting each one.

The ERP remains the system of record. Grabb handles the work needed to prepare the incoming customer order, apply your business rules and involve people when a decision is required.

For a QuickBooks-specific walkthrough of connectors and destination transactions, see the PDF to QuickBooks order automation guide.

Watch how Grabb processes a customer PO

The five-step Grabb workflow

1. 01 / Receive

   Receive the order

   Drop in a PDF or XLSX file for a single order, or connect a shared order inbox. Customers can continue emailing their usual address. Staff do not have to manually save and re-upload every attachment once the relevant inbox workflow is configured.

2. 02 / Identify

   Identify purchase orders

   Incoming messages and attachments are checked for customer purchase orders. Likely orders are selected for processing while unrelated messages stay out of the order queue.

3. 03 / Extract + match

   Extract and match products

   Grabb reads the purchase order number, customer details, ship-to information and order lines. It compares customer or manufacturer part numbers with your item catalog and configured mappings to determine the corresponding internal SKU and quantity.

4. 04 / Review exceptions

   Review exceptions

   Uncertain product matches, unit or pack differences, missing fields and possible duplicates require attention. Instead of retyping every line, the team reviews the information that actually needs a decision. Items without reliable matches must not silently become live ERP orders.

5. 05 / Push + track

   Push and track

   After validation and any required approval, the order moves into the supported, configured ERP workflow. The team can review exceptions and processing or synchronization failures as additional orders arrive. Actual posting behavior depends on the integration, ERP capabilities, permissions and workflow configuration. See Grabb integrations for connection details.

See Grabb Order Automation for the product-level workflow, and Grabb integrations for supported ERP and accounting connections.

One product code, two possible outcomes

A customer emails a PDF purchase order containing manufacturer part number 00481.

What is required before live processing?

For live orders, the company needs the appropriate ERP connector, item mappings, customer rules, approval policies and access permissions configured. Validation and exception handling must be tested before orders are allowed to proceed automatically.

Grabb does not replace your ERP. It helps prepare and move validated orders across the supported workflow while keeping people responsible for the decisions that require judgment.

Path 02 / DIY

Prefer to build the process yourself? Start here.

You can test AI-assisted order processing without a Grabb account. The basic setup requires an exported item catalog, a purchase order, an LLM that can work with your files, and a way to import a reviewed output into your ERP.

It is a useful approach for experimenting with order extraction and product matching. It also comes with responsibilities: your team must protect the data, review uncertain matches, check the exported file and confirm what your ERP can import.

A five-step DIY SOP

1. 01 / Export

   Export your item catalog

   Export active ERP SKUs, descriptions, manufacturer item numbers, customer part numbers where available, and units or pack sizes. The catalog should be current and contain the information necessary to make legitimate product matches. Prices and costs generally are not required for the initial item-matching experiment.

2. 02 / Protect

   Protect customer and commercial data

   Before uploading purchase orders or item records to a third-party AI service, review its data retention, access, sharing and training terms. Disable use of uploaded content for model training where the service offers that option. This setting alone does not guarantee zero retention. If the relevant policies are unclear, use a synthetic or appropriately redacted purchase order. Follow your own organization's security and confidentiality requirements.

3. 03 / Create

   Create your project and upload the order

   In the LLM of your choice, create a project or equivalent workspace. Add the exported item catalog as the reference file. Upload a PDF or XLSX customer purchase order and use the prompt in the next section.

4. 04 / Review

   Review the output

   Export the resulting XLSX or CSV file. Compare every line against the original customer purchase order. Resolve uncertain SKUs, quantities, units, pack sizes, duplicates and missing details. Confirm the customer, PO number and ship-to information. An AI-generated spreadsheet is not automatically a validated sales order.

5. 05 / Import

   Import a draft

   Map the reviewed output into the sales-order import format supported by your ERP, then create a draft or equivalent unposted transaction. Some systems require a connector, add-on or custom import process. Never assume every ERP has a native sales-order CSV or XLSX import function.

Ready-to-copy AI prompt

Act as an order-entry assistant for a wholesale distributor. The customer PO is the source of truth for ordered items and quantities; the uploaded item catalog is the ONLY source of valid ERP SKUs.

Extract customer, PO number/date, ship-to and every PO line exactly once. Output an XLSX-ready table: source line | customer/manufacturer part no. | PO description | ERP SKU | quantity | PO UOM | match status (EXACT / REVIEW / NO MATCH) | exception.

Never invent SKU codes, items, quantities, units or prices. Preserve leading zeros. Manufacturer codes (including “mfgNo”) are matching clues, not proof. Do not convert packs/cases without a reliable reference. Leave uncertain SKU matches blank.

Reconcile output line count to the PO. Report unmatched or ambiguous items, missing details and suspected duplicates. Create an XLSX file named PO_import_review.xlsx, or CSV if XLSX is unavailable. Do NOT create/post any order in the ERP.

The model’s output is a review file, not an approved ERP transaction. Verify every row and follow your company’s order-entry controls before importing anything.

Test the complete process, not just the AI extraction

Run five to ten representative customer orders through the workflow, including orders with straightforward SKU matches and orders containing ambiguous item codes or pack sizes.

Measure the full process from receipt to reviewed ERP draft. Include time spent preparing files, correcting item matches, checking quantities, creating the import file and handling ERP errors. A model that extracts a purchase order quickly may still require considerable human work before the transaction is safe to process.

Use this comparison checklist:

• Total handling time per order
• Number of order lines requiring correction
• Unmatched or ambiguous SKU references
• Unit and pack-size discrepancies
• Duplicate or missing-line problems
• ERP import failures
• Time required to resolve exceptions

Do not invent performance percentages, estimates or industry benchmarks. Measure what your own order desk actually does.

Which approach makes sense for your order desk?

The DIY approach is a useful starting point when you want to test extraction, understand your item-matching challenges or work through a small number of orders. When purchase orders arrive continuously across customers and formats, the larger question becomes how to maintain an operating process, not just generate a spreadsheet. That is where a configured order workflow can take over more of the repeatable work.

For the product overview, see Grabb Order Automation. For QuickBooks Online and Desktop specifics, use the PDF to QuickBooks order automation guide.