Hundreds of order lines a day. Every one of them typed by hand.
Your accounts send orders in every format there is. Someone keys all of it into the ERP before the vans load. ManualOut reads those orders as they arrive and creates the sales order for you.
The daily reality
What the order desk is actually dealing with
Every account sends a different format
One emails a PDF on their own template. One sends a WhatsApp photo of a handwritten list. One attaches a spreadsheet using their product codes instead of yours. All of it gets typed in by hand.
The work all lands in the same two hours
Orders arrive in a rush every morning. The cutoff does not move. The queue clears only as fast as people can type, so you hire for the peak and pay for the quiet hours too.
EDI reaches your ten biggest accounts. Nothing reaches the rest.
The big grocers made you set up EDI, the electronic link between your system and theirs. The independents, cafés and forecourts never will. That long tail is where most of your order lines actually are.
A small mistake becomes a credit note
One wrong pack size becomes a short delivery, a credit note, a second trip, and a call from an account that is now watching your numbers.
Where ManualOut fits
What changes once orders read themselves
Every channel arrives in one queue
Email, WhatsApp, PDF, Excel, CSV and voice all land in the same list — already read, matched to your products and priced.
Built for the accounts EDI will never reach
Keep EDI for the majors. ManualOut handles everyone else, so nobody has to type the long tail.
Pack sizes matched to your product list
"12 ctn" becomes the right case size against the right product code — not a guess made at 8am.
Minimums checked before the order moves
ManualOut checks each order against your MOQ — the minimum order value you will deliver for that account. Orders below it are held for a decision instead of shipped and argued about later.
In the product
A fmcg distribution order, read and checked
On the left is the message, as the customer sent it. On the right is what ManualOut made of it — and what it flagged for a person.
Order — Thursday delivery
Morning, For Thursday please: 12 ctn still water 500 8 ctn cola 330 6 ctn orange squash 1L 30 pcs salted crackers 10 ctn green tea 48 choc wafers Same delivery address as usual. Thanks, Priya
Same order, three channels, identical result. The original stays attached whichever way it came.
| Product | Unit | Qty | Line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Still Water 500ml — 24pk | CTN | 12 | $100.80 |
| Cola Classic 330ml — 24pk | CTN | 8 | $89.60 |
| Orange Squash 1L — 12pk | CTN | 6 | $87.00 |
| Salted Crackers 200g | PCS | 30 | $49.50 |
| Green Tea 250ml — 12pk | CTN | 10 | $98.00 |
| Chocolate Wafer 45gTwo products match this name — needs a decision | PCS | 48 | $34.56 |
- Order value
- $459.46
- Minimum
- $750.00
- Status
- Under minimum
Six lines, one unmatched, and the order is short of this account's minimum. Both reach the desk as decisions rather than typing.
- ERP order no.
- SO-4471203
- Synced by
- Automatic
- Synced at
- 14 May 2026, 10:17 PM
- Confidence
- 94%
- Order received
- AI parsing completed
- Validation completed
- Inventory checked
- Synced to ERP
- Order confirmed
How orders arrive
The channel mix in this trade
Email carries the volume. EDI covers the majors; everything here is the long tail it never reached.
- Email46%
- WhatsApp28%
- File upload16%
- Voice10%
Illustrative — the typical shape of an order book in this trade, not measured data. Your own mix appears in the dashboard once orders start flowing.
Questions
What buyers in this trade ask
- We already have EDI with our biggest accounts. Does this replace it?
- No. Keep EDI where it works — it is a solved problem for the accounts that forced you to build it. ManualOut is for the independents, cafés and forecourts who will never be on EDI, which is usually where most of your order lines actually are.
- Can it handle a customer using their own product codes?
- Yes. ManualOut maps their codes to yours and flags anything it cannot resolve rather than guessing. The first time a new code appears it will come to the review queue; after that it is mapped.
- What happens to orders below our minimum?
- They are held for a decision instead of shipped. You can reject, accept as an exception, or merge them with another order from the same account so the two clear the minimum together.
- How many orders will still need a person?
- Fewer than today, but not zero — and any vendor who promises zero is selling you something. Shortages, ambiguous lines and ERP rejections all still need judgement. The point is that those are the only orders that reach your desk.
Other segments
Foodservice & HORECA
The chef sends a voice note at 11pm.
Fresh produce & vegetables
Today's order is nothing like yesterday's.
Seafood & fish
Your customer orders 6 salmon sides. You invoice by the kilo.
Meat & poultry
"Denuded, 220g portions, cryovac" arrives as a WhatsApp message.
Dairy & chilled
The van leaves at 5am. The order desk starts at 8.
Frozen & cold chain
A small order still costs you a full drop.
See it run on one of your own orders
Send us a real order — the messiest one you can find. We will run it live and show you what happens when it works, and when it does not.