Automate Customer Orders into Epicor Prophet 21
Turn orders received through email, PDFs, Excel and other channels into structured sales orders — without your customer service team manually rekeying every line into Prophet 21.
Epicor Prophet 21 order entry automation
Prophet 21 is Epicor's ERP for wholesale distributors specifically — part numbers, selling units, price libraries and contract pricing are first-class, because that is the world it was built for. It is also, notably, not Epicor Kinetic, which serves manufacturing and works differently.
ManualOut fits P21's distribution model directly: it matches each order line to your part numbers and selling units, applies the customer's price library and any contract pricing, sets the warehouse and ship-from, and prepares the P21 sales order.
Still Entering Customer Orders into Prophet 21 Manually?
Most distributors running Prophet 21 do not receive orders the way an ERP wants them. They arrive as messages a person has to read, interpret and type in — in whatever format the customer prefers:
How orders arrive
- Email, in the body and as attachments
- PDF purchase orders, often on the customer's own template
- Excel and CSV spreadsheets, rarely in the same column order twice
- WhatsApp messages and photos of order sheets
- Other unstructured formats that do not map cleanly to a sales order
What your team does by hand
- Identify which customer the order is from
- Find each product in the P21 catalogue
- Match the customer's own SKUs to your part numbers
- Pick the right selling unit of measure
- Enter quantities
- Check contract and price-library pricing
- Enter the customer's PO number
- Create the sales order in Prophet 21
What it costs
- Orders sit in a queue until someone can key them, so confirmation is slow
- Rekeying introduces wrong part numbers, quantities and units
- Skilled staff spend the morning typing instead of serving customers
- Order volume and headcount are locked together — you cannot grow one without the other
How ManualOut Works with Prophet 21
An AI-powered order-intake layer that sits in front of Prophet 21. Customer orders come in as messages; a clean, validated sales order comes out.
- 01
Customer sends an order
By email, PDF, Excel, WhatsApp or another channel — no change to how they already order.
- 02
ManualOut captures the order
It lands in one queue, with the original message kept beside it for reference.
- 03
AI extracts the order information
Customer, PO number, products, customer SKUs, quantities, units and delivery notes are read from the message and its attachments.
- 04
Customer and products are matched
Each line is resolved to your Prophet 21 customer record, part numbers and selling units of measure.
- 05
Business rules validate the order
Contract and price-library pricing, minimums and units are checked against your P21 setup.
- 06
Exceptions go to human review
Anything ManualOut cannot resolve confidently is flagged for a person — it is never guessed into the ERP.
- 07
The approved order is prepared for Prophet 21
A clean, structured sales order ready for P21, with the customer's PO number carried through.
- 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
Supported Order Channels
The formats distributors actually receive orders in — read and prepared for Prophet 21.
Email orders
The email body and its attachments are read together, so an order split between a note and a spreadsheet still comes through as one.
PDF purchase orders
Templated and scanned PDFs are read for the customer, PO number, products, quantities and units.
Excel orders
Spreadsheets are mapped column by column to the right fields, however each customer lays theirs out.
WhatsApp orders
Typed messages and photos of order sheets are captured and read, with the customer identified by their number.
Manual uploads
Drop a file into the queue and ManualOut reads it the same way it reads an emailed one.
What ManualOut Can Extract
The fields a Prophet 21 sales order needs, pulled from the order however it arrived:
- The customer
- The customer's PO number
- Products
- Customer product codes and SKUs
- Quantities
- Unit of measure
- Delivery information
- Notes and special instructions
AI Automation Without Losing Control
Automation only helps if you can trust what reaches the ERP. ManualOut is built so the machine handles the reading and matching, and a person handles the judgement.
Orders that are clean and confidently matched are prepared for Prophet 21 straight away. Anything ambiguous — an unfamiliar product, a customer SKU with no match, a quantity that does not look right — is flagged for review rather than blindly entered. Your team approves the exceptions instead of typing every order.
Benefits
Built for Prophet 21 Distributors
Reduce manual order entry
The reading, matching and typing happens automatically; the desk reviews what needs a decision.
Process orders faster
Orders are prepared as they arrive instead of waiting in a queue for someone to key them.
Reduce order-entry errors
Part numbers, units and quantities are matched to your P21 records rather than retyped from a PDF.
Handle higher volumes without adding headcount
Order volume stops being tied to how fast people can type.
Standardise orders from every channel
Email, PDF, Excel and WhatsApp all arrive as the same structured sales order.
Give customer service time back
The team spends it on customers and exceptions, not on data entry.
Who This Is For
Distributors running Epicor Prophet 21 who still receive a large share of orders as email, PDFs and spreadsheets:
- Wholesale distributors
- Foodservice distributors
- FMCG distributors
- Industrial distributors
- Electrical distributors
- Plumbing and HVAC distributors
- Packaging distributors
- Medical supply distributors
- Other B2B distributors using Prophet 21
FAQ
Epicor Prophet 21, answered
What is Epicor Prophet 21 order entry automation?
It is the practice of turning the customer orders a distributor receives — by email, PDF, Excel and other channels — into Prophet 21 sales orders without a person rekeying every line. Software reads the order, matches the customer and each product to your P21 records, applies pricing, and prepares the sales order, so the order desk reviews rather than retypes.
Can customer purchase orders be automatically entered into Prophet 21?
Yes. ManualOut reads the incoming purchase order, identifies the customer, matches each line to your P21 part numbers and selling units, applies the customer's price library and contract pricing, and prepares the sales order. Orders it cannot match confidently are held for a person to check rather than pushed through.
Can ManualOut process emailed purchase orders for Prophet 21?
Yes. Email is the most common channel it handles. ManualOut reads the email body and its PDF, Excel or CSV attachments, extracts the order lines, and prepares them for Prophet 21 — the customer keeps emailing the same address they always have.
Can ManualOut read PDF purchase orders?
Yes. ManualOut reads PDF purchase orders — including scanned and templated ones — and pulls out the customer, PO number, products, quantities and units, then matches them to your Prophet 21 records.
Can ManualOut process Excel and spreadsheet orders?
Yes. Spreadsheet orders rarely arrive in the same column order twice; ManualOut reads the layout each customer uses, maps their columns to the right fields, and matches each line to your P21 catalogue.
Does ManualOut replace Prophet 21?
No. ManualOut is designed to complement ERP systems like Prophet 21 by automating order capture and order preparation. Prophet 21 continues to manage inventory, pricing, fulfillment, accounting and other ERP processes. ManualOut sits in front of it and turns incoming orders into clean P21 sales orders.
Learn more
Prophet 21 order automation, explained
- How to automate sales order entry in Epicor Prophet 21
- How to automate email and PDF orders into Prophet 21
- How to import customer orders into Prophet 21
- EDI vs AI order automation for Prophet 21 distributors
- AI for Epicor Prophet 21: what distributors can automate
Epicor and Prophet 21 are trademarks of Epicor Software Corporation. ManualOut is an independent product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Epicor Software Corporation. Prophet 21 integration is available for qualified pilot customers.
Stop Manually Entering Customer Orders
Send us one of your own Prophet 21 orders — the messiest email or PDF you can find — and we will show you what ManualOut reads, matches and prepares for P21, and what it would flag for a person.