- newsletter@sample-films.example New films for the season
- orders@sample-cosmetics.example Order 2026/0917
- invoices@sample-transport.example Transport invoice, August
- purchasing@sample-drinks.example Labels for the 0.5 l bottle Please send 5,000 labels same as last time, due 18 Sep.
Label printing company · Katowice, Poland
Email orders go straight into the ERP.
Eticod has been printing self-adhesive labels for 30 years, in flexo and digital. Orders arrive by email, and since the agent went live nobody types them into the system by hand.
- a month, calculated from 300–500 orders at 20–25 minutes each
- 160 h
- incorrect ERP entries since launch
- 0
- by hand per order, now 0
- 20–25 min
- the agent watches the inbox around the clock
- 24/7
- START · March 2026
- SYSTEMS · Gmail, Google Drive, Google Sheets, OCR (Gemini), an ERP with no API
- TO A PERSON · orders with missing fields
The challenge
Someone had to read and retype every order.
Orders came in by email: the message body, attachments, PDFs in all sorts of formats. Someone had to open each one, pull out the line items, quantities and deadlines, then type it all into the ERP. By hand, every day, on every shift.
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Hours spent retyping. Each order meant anything from a dozen or so minutes to the best part of an hour of manual work.
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Data entry errors. A typo in a product code or a quantity only shows up on the production floor, where it costs the most.
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Volume grows, headcount does not. More orders meant more retyping, not more printing.
An example with a made-up order
What it looks like on an example.
Four emails in the inbox, two of them orders. The complete one goes into the ERP, the one with a gap waits for a person.
Order inbox · example
- Hello, order 2026/0917 is attached.
- Delivery: Monday 21 Sep.
- Sample Cosmetics Ltd, purchasing
order_0917.pdf
| Line | Code | Label | Qty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ETK-1042 | 100 × 50 mm, white PP film | 12,000 pcs |
| 2 | ETK-1043 | 80 × 40 mm, white PP film | 8,000 pcs |
- 01
Picks out the order emails
- 02
Saves the attachment to Drive
- 03
Reads the email and PDF: items, quantities, date
- 04
Works out dispatch and production dates, no weekends
- 05
Checks completeness, a gap goes to a person
- 06
ERP entry click by click, log and email label
1order entered into the ERP
1to clarify, waiting for a person
0incorrect entries, an incomplete order never reaches the ERP
Drive · Orders / 2026-09
order_0917.pdfOrder sheetexample
Line 1ETK-1042 · 12,000 pcsPDF, p. 1
Line 2ETK-1043 · 8,000 pcsPDF, p. 1
CustomerSample Cosmetics Ltdemail A, l. 3
Delivery21 Sep, Mondayemail A, l. 2
Dispatch14 Sep, Monday7 days before deliverycalculated
Production11 Sep, Friday2 days before dispatch, Saturday is out, so Fridaycalculated
Order Bno product code, the email only says “same as last time”email B
To a person
Order B goes back for clarification. A person adds the product code, and only then does it move on.
ERP · Sales orderentered click by click
CustomerSample Cosmetics Ltd
Code, qtyETK-1042 · 12,000
ETK-1043 · 8,000
ETK-1043 · 8,000
Dispatch date14/09/2026
saved
Save
agent log · email orders
EXAMPLE
- 09:11:584 new emails: 2 orders, 2 skipped
- 09:11:59order_0917.pdf saved to Drive
- 09:12:01read A: 2 items, customer, delivery 21 Sep
- 09:12:02dispatch 14 Sep: 7 days before delivery
- 09:12:02production 11 Sep (Fri), weekend skipped
- 09:12:02order B: no product code, to clarify
- 09:12:05A entered into the ERP, 2 items, sheet and log updated
- 09:12:05email A labelled “processed”
- 09:12:06waiting for the next email
The automation does not guess missing data. Only a complete order goes into the ERP, and a gap goes back to a person. The companies, emails, product codes, quantities and dates are made up.
Process flow
Two lanes, one sheet, an ERP entry made click by click
Lane 1 reads the email and works out a dispatch date that skips weekends, lane 2 runs OCR on the attachment from Drive, and both end in a sheet with a log, from where the automation enters the order into an ERP with no API, click by click.
The solution
The agent took over the order inbox.
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Inbox monitoring 24/7
The agent watches the order inbox and picks out order emails from the rest of the correspondence. From there the order travels down two lanes: the email body with the dispatch date in one, OCR of the attachment from Drive in the other.
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Attachment on Drive
The order document is saved to a working folder before reading starts.
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Reading the email and attachments
It reads the message body and PDFs in varying layouts, pulling out line items, quantities, deadlines and customer details.
-
Dispatch date with no weekends
The system works out the dispatch date (7 days before delivery) and the production date (2 days before dispatch) on its own. When a date lands on a weekend, it moves back to Friday.
-
Completeness check
Empty fields go back for clarification before the order moves on.
-
Entry, log and archive
The order goes into the ERP: the automation makes the entry in the system's interface, click by click, the way a person would, because this ERP does not expose an API. Every operation stays in the log, and the email gets a label.
Results
The team prints, the agent does the typing.
- less manual work every month, calculated from 300–500 orders at 20–25 minutes each
- 160 h
- incorrect ERP entries since launch
- 0
- by hand per order, now 0
- 20–25 min
- the agent watches the inbox around the clock
- 24/7
Scope
Implementation scope
- Inbox monitoring
- PDF data extraction
- Customer and product code validation
- ERP integration
- Self-healing
- Error report
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