A distributor runs on volume, hundreds of purchase orders a week moving between manufacturers, the warehouse, and customers, and most still arrive as PDFs and emailed attachments rather than clean EDI. PurchaseOrders reads each one with AI and returns the customer or vendor, date, and every line with its SKU, quantity, unit of measure, and price. Upload a PO below and get spreadsheet rows in about ten seconds.
Submit your purchase orders
Drop documents here, or click to file
Up to 50 files per batch
Uploading...
Larger trading partners send EDI, but a long tail of smaller customers and suppliers still email PDF purchase orders, faxes, and scans. Someone in customer service or purchasing keys each one into the distribution ERP so it can become a sales order or a stock replenishment. At real distribution volume, that typing is a bottleneck that delays orders and introduces SKU errors.
A customer references their part number, an internal SKU, or a manufacturer number, and the line has to map to the right item in your catalog. Read it wrong and the pick, the price, and the margin are all wrong. Volume makes a manual cross-reference slow and error prone.
A line reads a case, a pallet, or an each, and the quantity means nothing without it. Miss the UoM on a distribution PO and you ship the wrong amount or price against the wrong pack, which turns into returns and credits.
The biggest partners get onboarded to EDI, but the many smaller ones do not justify the cost. So a steady stream of PDF and emailed POs keeps landing, and every one is keyed by hand into order entry.
A PO comes in as a fax or a scanned attachment with no text layer. It gets retyped line by line before the order can be released, and that lag is felt by the customer waiting on a confirmation.
PurchaseOrders reads each purchase order by meaning, so a new customer or vendor layout works on the first upload. It captures the header and the full line table with the SKU, unit of measure, and price that order entry and replenishment depend on.
Customer part number, internal SKU, or manufacturer number is pulled with each line so the item can be mapped to your catalog, instead of hunted for by hand.
The unit of measure is captured alongside the quantity and price on every line, so the order is priced and picked against the right pack.
OCR plus AI reads a faxed or scanned PO with no text layer, rebuilds the line table, and returns structured rows, so the non-EDI long tail stops being a bottleneck.
Excel, CSV, JSON, or the API, so the data feeds order entry, a replenishment sheet, or your distribution ERP without retyping.
Distributors clearing a day of inbound POs at once use bulk purchase order upload, and accuracy on the item table comes from purchase order line item extraction. Getting the numbers into a sheet is covered by the PDF to Excel and PDF to CSV routes, and pulling data programmatically at volume is what the purchase order API is for. Turning inbound customer POs into orders is covered by sales order entry automation, and adjacent operations sit in manufacturing and retail extraction.
What each way of getting PO data into order entry actually does at volume.
| PurchaseOrders (capture layer) | Manual order entry | EDI onboarding | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reads any customer or vendor PO | Yes, AI reads any layout | A person reads it | Only fully onboarded partners |
| Captures SKU and unit of measure | Yes, per line | If there is time and focus | Yes, mapped in the EDI setup |
| Handles the non-EDI long tail | Yes, on first upload | Keyed by hand | Not worth onboarding small partners |
| Works on a fax or scanned PO | Yes, OCR plus AI | Retyped by hand | No, EDI only |
| Time to add a new partner | None, works immediately | None, already manual | Weeks of mapping and testing |
| Maps SKUs into your catalog | No, your ERP does | The rep does, manually | Yes, in the trading-partner map |
| Pricing | Free to try, then per document | Staff hours that scale | Per-partner setup and VAN fees |
PurchaseOrders is a document extraction tool, not a distribution ERP or an EDI network. It does not map SKUs into your catalog, hold inventory, price orders, or replace EDI with your largest partners. Systems such as NetSuite, Acumatica, SAP Business One, or your EDI provider do that. This tool captures clean line-item data from the PDF, fax, and scanned POs those systems do not receive electronically.
Take one emailed PO and get its lines into order entry.
Drag in the PDF, the emailed attachment, the fax, or a scan from any customer or vendor. Batch a morning of inbound POs if you process in waves.
Tip: Try a multi-line PO with mixed pack sizes to see UoM captured per line.
Customer or vendor, date, PO number, and each line with SKU, description, quantity, unit of measure, unit price, and line total come back as rows you check on screen.
Export to Excel or CSV, or send the data through the API into your distribution ERP. Your system maps the SKUs, prices the order, and releases it.
They upload the customer or vendor PO to an AI extraction tool that reads the header and every line with its SKU, unit of measure, quantity, and price, then export the data to order entry or a spreadsheet. This replaces keying each PDF, fax, and emailed PO into the ERP by hand, which is the bottleneck that slows order confirmation at distribution volume.
No. EDI stays the right channel for your largest, highest-volume partners. This tool handles the long tail EDI does not cover, the smaller customers and suppliers who email PDF purchase orders or send faxes and scans. It captures those into clean line-item data so the non-EDI orders move as fast as the EDI ones.
Yes. It pulls the customer part number, internal SKU, or manufacturer number on every line so each item can be mapped to your catalog. The tool captures the number as written; mapping it to the correct catalog item and price is done by your ERP, which is where the trading-partner and item cross-reference lives.
Because a quantity is meaningless without it. A line for ten could mean ten eaches, ten cases, or ten pallets, and each prices and picks differently. Capturing the unit of measure with the quantity and price on every line keeps the order from shipping the wrong amount, which is a common source of returns and credits.
No. It extracts the data from the document; it does not map SKUs into your catalog, price orders, hold inventory, or release shipments. Those belong in your distribution ERP such as NetSuite, Acumatica, or SAP Business One. PurchaseOrders feeds that system, or your spreadsheet, clean line-item data so order entry starts from accurate figures.
Yes. You can run up to 100 POs through a single bulk upload, and pull data programmatically through the API for steady high volume. That lets a customer service or purchasing team clear a morning of inbound PDF and faxed POs in one pass instead of typing each order before it can be confirmed.
Capture every SKU, quantity, and price.
Process hundreds of POs at once.
Pull PO data programmatically.
Turn customer POs into orders.
Capture raw-material and component POs.
Export PO lines to CSV for import.
