Why This Matters: Toolbx is using artificial intelligence to automate a labor-intensive distribution task: converting customer material lists and purchase orders into orders. The system matches incoming items against a dealer’s product catalog and creates draft orders for employee approval before they are entered into the enterprise resource planning system.
Toolbx has launched an artificial intelligence order entry system aimed at reducing the manual work building supply distributors perform when processing customer orders and material lists.
The Santa Monica, California based software company said that AI Order Entry is now generally available to independent building supply dealers. The system processes material lists and purchase orders submitted through emails, PDFs, spreadsheets and job site photos, matches individual items against the dealer’s catalog and creates a draft order that can be sent to its enterprise resource planning system after employee review.
AI Order Entry is the first product in Forge AI, a new Toolbx product line focused on automating repetitive operational tasks.
The company is targeting a process that remains heavily manual for many distributors. Customer orders can arrive as unformatted emails, PDFs, spreadsheets, photos, text messages, or voicemails, requiring employees to identify products and manually enter stock keeping units, quantities, and units of measure. Toolbx said the process is common across lumber, hardware, plumbing and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning distribution.
Toolbx said the system connects to a dealer’s existing email inbox and automatically creates draft orders from incoming material lists. Users also can upload as many as 10 files at once, with each file generating a separate draft order.
The system extracts information including the customer, account, job site, requested date, or delivery or will call instructions and notes. Individual lines are then matched with stock keeping units and units of measure from the dealer’s catalog. Toolbx said a draft order typically is produced in less than a minute.
Items that cannot be matched with a prominent level of confidence are flagged for employee review. An order is not entered into the dealer’s enterprise resource planning system until an employee approves the draft.
Toolbx said it expects match rates of at least 95% when a dealer has complete product data. Dealers can train the system to recognize their products, customers and internal shorthand, and the matching rules adjust as the system processes additional material lists.
The company handles setup by accessing product data from the dealer’s enterprise resource planning system, configuring the matching process, and testing it against previous material lists before deployment.
Swift Supply, a sixth generation building materials dealer with five locations in Alabama and Florida, has been testing AI Order Entry through an early access program, said Scott McNutt, information technology manager.
McNutt said the system allows the distributor to process multiple orders while employees manage other customer work.
Toolbx provides an order to cash software platform for independent lumber yards, roofing suppliers and plumbing and HVAC distributors. Its platform manages orders, quotes, payments, and collections and includes online storefronts, digital ordering, and accounts receivable automation.
The company integrates with building supply enterprise resource planning systems including Epicor BisTrack, Epicor Eagle, ECI Spruce and DMSi Agility.
Toolbx said more than $2 billion in building supply orders and payments have been processed through its platform. The company serves more than 200 dealers and wholesalers operating in more than 1,000 locations across North America. More than 25,000 contractors and tradespeople order and make payments through the platform each day, according to the company.
The order entry product extends Toolbx’s use of AI into a transaction heavy part of distributor operations. The potential benefit is straightforward: reducing the amount of time employees spend converting customer documents into orders while preserving employee review before transactions reach the enterprise resource planning system. The effectiveness of the system will depend on its ability to accurately match products across the varied catalogs, terminology and order formats used by individual distributors.
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