What is automated order processing?
Automated order processing is the software- and AI-supported handling of incoming customer orders: the order is read regardless of its format, every line item is matched to an article in your own product catalogue, and the finished sales order, including delivery date, contact person and delivery and billing addresses, is passed directly to the ERP or CRM system.
Scalera offers automated order processing with its Order Processing module for building materials distributors, manufacturers and suppliers. It complements Scalera's Product Matching for tenders and Supplier Matching.
Why is order entry in the building materials trade still manual?
Because customers order in whatever way is convenient for them. One order arrives as a PDF from the customer's system, the next as an Excel list, a third directly in the body of an email and a fourth as a photo of a printout with article numbers added by hand. A single standard order format is hard to enforce with most customers.
The result: the sales back office becomes a translation desk. Every order is read, interpreted and transferred into the ERP line by line.
Where does manual order entry break down?
Manual order entry breaks down in three places: errors, delays and tied-up capacity.
Errors: Hard-to-read handwriting, a blurry scan or a customer description that doesn't match your own article number, and the wrong item ends up on the order. Such errors are often only noticed during picking or delivery.
Delays: As long as orders sit in the inbox, no order confirmation goes out and no delivery date is firmly scheduled. At high order volumes, the backlog grows faster than the team can work through it.
Capacity: Retyping ties up exactly the people who should be there for customers: for advice, follow-up questions and additional business.
How does AI read orders from PDF, Excel, email and photos?
AI for order processing treats every order as data, not as a document. Scalera Order Processing extracts every single line item, even from handwriting and poor scans, and also captures delivery date, contact person and delivery and billing addresses.
Each line item is then matched against your product catalogue. For every match, the AI assigns a confidence score, so you can see at a glance which matches are clear-cut and which deserve a second look. Our article Product Matching at Scale shows how this matching works even with very large product ranges.
The order arrives the way the customer sends it. The sales order goes into the ERP the way your system needs it.
How does an order run through, step by step?
An order passes through five steps from the inbox to the ERP. The following example shows the flow using a sample order.
- Order intake: ALTMANN Bautechnik GmbH sends order B-26-00491, partly as a printout with handwritten additions, photographed and sent by email.
- Extraction: Scalera reads all four line items, including the handwritten one, and captures the delivery date (15 May 2026), contact person and delivery and billing addresses.
- Catalogue matching with confidence score: Every line item is matched to an article in the product catalogue:
- Linea L5 double cylinder 28/45: 98 %
- Linea L5 double cylinder 40/55: 97 %
- Classic P5 double cylinder 60/30 (from handwriting/photo): 96 %
- Linea L5 thumb-turn cylinder 45/50: 98 %
- Review by your team: Where the AI is uncertain, your team decides. Clear-cut line items run through automatically.
- Hand-off: The finished sales order B-26-00491 totalling CHF 6,234.32 is synchronised with the ERP and CRM.
Illustrative sample order.
How does the order get into the ERP or CRM?
The finished sales order is passed directly to your ERP or CRM system, without manual re-entry. At high volumes, order processing runs automatically; where the AI is uncertain, your team decides. The confidence score per line item shows exactly where a review makes sense, instead of every order having to be checked in full.
Scalera connects to common ERP systems, including SAP S/4HANA, Microsoft Dynamics and Abacus, which is particularly widespread in Switzerland. Alongside the ERP, the CRM is synchronised as well.
The result: faster order confirmations, delivery dates that hold, and staff who look after customers instead of copy-paste. See what the ERP integration looks like in your system landscape in a demo.
What should you look for when choosing a solution?
Test a solution with real orders from your day-to-day business, not with clean sample files. Start with an inventory: in which formats do orders arrive, how many contain handwriting or scans, and how long does it take today from order receipt to order confirmation?
Then check four points:
- Is every line item recognised, even from photos and poor scans?
- Are the confidence scores transparent, and is it clear when your team decides?
- How well does matching work against your product catalogue and article numbers?
- Does the order arrive in your ERP (e.g. SAP S/4HANA, Microsoft Dynamics, Abacus) or CRM via the ERP integration without rework?
Data protection matters too. Scalera is Swiss software, built and maintained in Zurich, GDPR-compliant and run in European data centres on servers certified to DIN ISO/IEC 27001 and 27018. Scalera uses private AI instances: your data does not train public models and is not used across customers.
Frequently asked questions about automated order processing
What is automated order processing?
Automated order processing means that incoming orders from PDF, Excel, email text or photos are read automatically, every line item is matched to the product catalogue, and the finished sales order is passed directly to the ERP or CRM system.
Can AI also read handwritten orders and poor scans?
Yes. Scalera Order Processing extracts every line item even from handwriting and poor scans, for example from photos of printed orders with article numbers added by hand.
What happens if the AI is uncertain about a line item?
Every match to the product catalogue receives a confidence score. If the AI is uncertain, your team decides. Clear-cut line items run through automatically at high volumes.
What data does Scalera capture besides the line items?
In addition to all line items, Scalera captures delivery date, contact person and delivery and billing addresses, and passes the finished sales order directly to the ERP or CRM.
Which ERP systems does Scalera connect to?
Scalera passes orders to SAP S/4HANA, Microsoft Dynamics and Abacus, among others, the latter being widely used by Swiss companies. The CRM is synchronised as well.
Who is automated order processing suitable for?
For building materials distributors, manufacturers and suppliers who receive orders in many different formats and still transfer them into the ERP manually today.
Key takeaways
Incoming orders in the building materials trade will remain diverse, but order entry doesn't have to stay manual. When AI reads every format, matches every line item to the catalogue with a confidence score and passes the finished order to the ERP, order confirmations go out faster, delivery dates hold and your team gains time for customers. Collect typical orders from your inbox, from the clean Excel list to the printout with handwritten additions, and see in a demo how Scalera turns them into finished sales orders.