What Is Purchase Order Processing?
The essential B2B workflow that eats up more staff hours than almost any other manual task.
Understanding Purchase Order Processing
Purchase order processing is the complete workflow of receiving, reviewing, and fulfilling purchase orders from customers or buyers. In B2B commerce, a purchase order (PO) is the formal document a buyer sends to a seller specifying the products they want to purchase, the quantities, agreed-upon prices, shipping details, and payment terms. Processing that PO means taking it from the moment it arrives in your inbox to the moment the goods are shipped and payment is collected.
The typical PO processing workflow involves several distinct steps. First, the PO is received, usually via email as a PDF attachment, though some arrive by fax, EDI, or through a customer portal. Next, a team member reviews the PO for accuracy: do the product codes match your catalog, are the prices correct per the customer's agreement, is the shipping address valid? Then the data is manually entered into your accounting or ERP system to create a corresponding sales order. From there, a pick list is generated for the warehouse, the order is packed and shipped, an invoice is created and sent, and finally, payment is collected and reconciled.
Purchase order processing is consistently one of the most time-consuming manual tasks in B2B businesses. Each PO can take 10 to 15 minutes to enter manually, depending on the number of line items. A company processing 20 to 30 POs per day can easily have one or more full-time employees dedicated entirely to this single task. And because every PO is slightly different, with different formats, different field layouts, and different customer-specific requirements, it is notoriously difficult to standardize without the right tools.
Why Purchase Order Processing Is a Major Bottleneck
The biggest challenge with PO processing is the sheer variety of formats. Every customer sends their purchase orders in a different layout. Hospital A uses a landscape PDF with line items in a table at the bottom. Distributor B sends a portrait document with a completely different field arrangement. Retailer C emails a spreadsheet instead of a PDF. This lack of standardization is the primary reason PO processing has resisted simple automation for so long. Template-based systems break the moment they encounter a format they were not designed for.
Beyond format variability, PO processing is riddled with opportunities for error. SKU discrepancies are common: the customer's product code may not match yours, requiring manual lookup and translation. Pricing agreements vary by customer, so the price on the PO needs to be validated against contract terms. Quantities need to be checked against available inventory. Shipping instructions may include special handling requirements that need to be routed to the warehouse team. Each of these checkpoints is a place where a manual error can introduce costly downstream problems, from incorrect shipments to billing disputes to lost customers.
The financial impact is significant. When PO processing is slow, orders ship late, invoices go out late, and cash collection is delayed. When PO processing is error-prone, you spend additional time and money on returns, credits, and customer service. For growing B2B businesses, the PO processing bottleneck often becomes the limiting factor on how many orders they can handle per day, effectively capping revenue growth until the problem is solved.
How OrderSync Pro Automates Purchase Order Processing
Purchase order processing automation is our number one use case at OrderSync Pro. We use Parseur combined with Make.com to build intelligent PO processing workflows that handle any format from any customer. When a PO arrives by email, our system automatically extracts the PDF, identifies the customer, applies the correct parsing template, and pulls out every relevant field: product codes, quantities, prices, shipping details, and special instructions. The parsed data is then automatically used to create a sales order in QuickBooks, generate a shipping order in ShipStation, and update your inventory records, all without a single keystroke from your team.
What makes our approach different from generic document scanning tools is the intelligence layer. We build customer-specific parsing rules that handle the unique quirks of each buyer's PO format. We implement SKU translation tables that automatically convert customer product codes to your internal SKUs. We set up pricing validation that flags discrepancies before they become billing problems. And we create exception routing that sends unusual or problematic POs to a human reviewer with a clear summary of what needs attention, rather than silently processing bad data. You can see this system in action in our detailed case study.
The result is transformative. Businesses that were spending 15 or more hours per week on manual PO entry reclaim that time entirely. Error rates drop from 3 to 5 percent to virtually zero. Orders are processed in seconds instead of minutes. And the system scales infinitely, whether you receive 10 POs a day or 200, the automation handles them at the same speed and the same cost. Learn more about our approach on our PDF purchase order processing page, or explore how PO processing fits into the broader EDI vs. PDF orders landscape.
Stop Typing Purchase Orders by Hand
Book a free 15-minute audit and we will analyze your current PO processing workflow, calculate how many hours you are losing each week, and show you exactly how automation can eliminate the bottleneck.
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