Sales order automation, compared for manufacturers, distributors and food makers.

The answer key. Whatever you make or resell, every PO your desk has entered already has an order behind it. That pair is what the proof of concept is judged on: our draft beside your team's order, field by field, by the reviewer the owner names before anything starts.

The PO number travels. The customer's PO number keyed on the order is the one your invoice prints later, and many buyers' payables teams send back unpaid any invoice without a valid one. The Bank of England's page for suppliers puts it plainly: no purchase order, no payment. A mistyped PO number at order entry turns into a late payment weeks afterward, in any industry.

Repeats and changes. A buyer who phoned an order in may send a confirming PO a day later, and purchasing offices list duplicate shipments among the problems that causes. Changes arrive the same way. In EDI a buyer's change is its own transaction set, the 860; outside EDI it is an email with "revised" in the subject. The draft checks each PO against the open orders you send and marks repeats and changes instead of opening a second order.

The reply is part of the deal. Your acknowledgment, the 855 in EDI or an emailed confirmation, is where a new date or price reaches the buyer. Under section 2-207 of the Uniform Commercial Code, a confirmation can still accept a PO when it states additional or different terms, so what your desk writes back carries weight. The proof of concept drafts orders only. Acknowledgments stay with your team.

What changes is the checking. Revisions and blankets on the plant side, part numbers and units at a distributor, case packs and ship windows at a food maker. Each industry page has its own detail, what to send, how the test is scored and its one hard limit, so start with the card that looks most like your inbox.