The Business Central Sales Order Agent: what it does and what to check

Microsoft's documentation describes the agent working through a designated mailbox. When a customer emails a request, the agent identifies the customer, finds the items asked for, checks availability and prepares a sales quote. Depending on its settings it sends the quote to the customer for confirmation, or converts the quote into a sales order directly. Business Central users review the steps, and every outgoing email waits for a person to approve it.

A few details from that documentation are worth knowing before you test it:

• It always creates a sales quote first, even when the customer asks for an order, and settings decide whether the quote becomes an order without the customer seeing it.
• It identifies the customer by matching the sender's email address to the email field on contact cards in Business Central.
• It can read PDF and image attachments when that is configured.
• It searches for items by item number, vendor item number, item references, attributes and descriptions.

The case for the built-in agent is strong if you are already on Business Central:

• It is in the ERP you already use. There is no extra system to buy, connect or keep in step.
• No extra integration. It reads and writes Business Central data directly, with Business Central's own logic for prices and availability.
• It works inside Business Central's permissions. An administrator decides what the agent can see and do, the same way as for a user.

For a distributor whose customers email short requests from addresses already on their contact cards, that may be all you need.

These are questions to test, not claims about the agent. Microsoft changes it often, so the answers may differ by the time you read this.

• Attachments. Does it read the PDF attachments your customers send, including scans and faxes, as well as it reads plain email?
• Customer part numbers. Many buyers use their own codes. Does it match those to your items through item references, and how much setup does that need for your customers?
• Who sends the orders. Customers are identified by the sender's email address on a contact card. Do your orders come from addresses on file, or from many buyers, procurement systems and forwarding staff?
• Quotes or orders. It works through quotes first. Does that match how your desk works, or do you key firm orders straight in?
• Long POs. How does it handle a 30-line, multi-page purchase order with freight and GST rows?
• Uncertainty. What does it do when it is unsure of a line, and how does your team see that?
• Cost. What does it cost on your licence at your order volume?

The built-in agent is not the right fit for everyone. Look at another approach when:

• You are not on Business Central. Distributors on MYOB, Unleashed and other ERPs need an agent that writes to their system. See MYOB order entry and Unleashed order entry.
• Most orders are PDFs from procurement systems with their own part numbers. Mines, councils and builders send long POs in their own codes from addresses that change. Test whether the built-in matching keeps up.
• You want a line-by-line accuracy test before switching anything on. Running a month of past orders through any agent, read-only, is the fair way to decide.

Take one month of emailed orders and the sales orders your team keyed from them. Run the same month through both agents. Count the lines each one got right with no edit, and look at the misses: wrong items, wrong quantities, missed lines. Note how many of the wrong lines each one flagged as uncertain.

If the built-in agent handles your orders well, use it. It is already in your ERP. If it does not, you will know exactly where it falls short, and by how much. The shadow test gives you our half of that comparison for free.

More background: order entry automation compares the main options, and the PO reader shows how one of your PDFs reads.

Microsoft, Dynamics 365 and Business Central are trademarks of Microsoft. AI Order Entry is not affiliated with Microsoft.