Fluent vs Conexiom for Epicor Kinetic Sales Order Entry: Approval Workflows Without Format Mapping

Fluent and Conexiom both turn emailed customer purchase orders into sales orders. Conexiom works across many ERPs and maps each new customer's format before that customer's orders are automated. Fluent is built for Epicor Kinetic: it installs nothing inside Epicor, reads a new customer's first order like any other, covers AP invoices, packing slips and eight other Kinetic screens from the same platform, and runs every draft through approval workflows before anything is written. The right approvers are picked by rules written in plain language, an approval agent tells each one what to check, and approvers can decide by replying to the email.

How each approaches sales order entry

Conexiom

Customers email purchase orders as PDFs, spreadsheets or email bodies, Conexiom reads them, and the resulting order data is delivered into the ERP. It supports many ERPs, Epicor among them.

If you are evaluating Conexiom for Epicor Kinetic, ask how the Kinetic integration is delivered, how new customer formats are onboarded, who makes changes when an order needs handling differently, and what review and approval happen before an order reaches Epicor.

Press hardest on onboarding. Conexiom maps each new customer's format before that customer's orders are automated, so every new trading partner waits on that work. Ask how long a new format takes today, who does the work, and whether it is included in your contract.

Fluent

Fluent is built by Technology Coast Partners (TCP), an Epicor Platinum Partner with more than 20 years implementing Epicor and more than 600 implementations, all in manufacturing and distribution. It runs agents for ten Epicor Kinetic screens, and Order Entry is one of them.

For a sales order, the agent reads the document forwarded or emailed to it (PDF, scan, photo, spreadsheet, email body, XML or EDI) and resolves it against live Epicor data:

• Customer, and the customer's own currency and terms.
• Parts, including the customer's own part numbers.
• Units of measure for each line.
• Duplicate check: any existing order already carrying the same customer PO number is flagged before the draft is created.

Any part or unit it cannot resolve is named on that line of the draft. Nothing is written to Epicor while an approval is pending. The approval workflow routes the draft through stages, each with an approver picked by name, by whoever is least busy, or by the AI from a pool, and a condition written in plain language decides whether a stage is needed. Before each approver opens the draft, an approval agent reviews it against that approver's written responsibility and marks it "nothing flagged" or "needs review" with a note on what to look at. The approved transaction is validated by Epicor's own business logic, and every field read and decision made, including who signed on whose behalf, is recorded in the audit log.

There are no templates per customer, no field mapping and no model training. Behavior is set with written instructions, for example "this customer's part numbers carry a trailing revision letter, ignore it", and when a reviewer corrects a draft, the correction becomes an instruction.

Side-by-side comparison

Where a Conexiom cell says "confirm", the answer depends on the product version and your deployment, so ask for it in writing during evaluation.

When Conexiom is enough

• You run more than one ERP. If some business units run Epicor and others run a different ERP, one order automation vendor across all of them is worth having, and Fluent is built for Epicor Kinetic only.
• You are mid-contract and not adding customers. If every customer you need is already mapped and nobody else needs to sign off, switching before renewal may not pay. Revisit it at renewal, or when sign-off or scope changes.

Where Fluent fits

For Epicor Kinetic teams, Fluent is the better choice when:

• Orders need sign-off before Epicor. Approval workflows route each draft through stages, pick approvers by name, by workload or by the AI, skip a stage a plain-language condition says is not needed, and route around anyone out of office to a delegate who signs on their behalf. An approval agent tells each approver what to check, and they can decide by replying to the email. Nothing is written to Epicor while an approval is pending.
• Nothing may be installed inside Epicor. Fluent calls the Kinetic REST API from outside. It works on-premise or Epicor-hosted, restricted networks allowlist Fluent's fixed egress IPs, and each agent's access scope lists exactly the services it calls, so your Epicor administrator can see and enforce what it touches.
• You want to control behavior yourself. Instructions are plain written sentences, so the order desk or the Epicor administrator can change how a customer's orders are handled without a change request to a vendor.
• Other documents are next on the list. The same platform drafts AP invoices with two-way and three-way matching, receipts from packing slips, cash receipts from remittances, quotes, shipments, time entries and more. One vendor, one review screen, one credit balance.
• Duplicate orders are a real problem. Customers resend POs, forward them twice or send a revision with the same number. Fluent flags any existing order carrying the same customer PO number before it drafts.
• You keep adding customers. A new customer's first order is read like any other. There is no format to map and no queue to wait in, so growth adds no onboarding work.
• You want to start quickly. Setup is about thirty minutes of accounts and onboarding, and most teams review documents the same day.

Luceco posted about its first day on EpiUsers.help. More Epicor teams are in our customer stories.

How to decide

Run both on the same batch of your own orders. Pick purchase orders that are hard for your team today: a customer who uses their own part numbers, one who orders in a different unit than you stock, one who sends revisions under the same PO number, and one who sends a photo or a spreadsheet. Then compare:

1. How many lines arrive fully resolved against your Epicor data.
2. How clearly each tool says what it could not resolve, and where.
3. How long a person spends reviewing each draft.
4. What your Epicor administrator has to install, grant or maintain.
5. What it takes to change handling for one customer.
6. Which other documents you want to automate over the next year, and whether the same tool covers them.
7. Route one order to two approvers by a written rule, such as "orders from a new customer also go to credit", and see who receives it.
8. Mark an approver out of office and see whether the order waits for them or reaches their delegate.
9. Approve an order by replying to the approval email.
10. Check what each approver is told was flagged before they open the order.

Stay on Conexiom if you run several ERPs. On Epicor Kinetic, Fluent gives you approval workflows before anything reaches Epicor, no format mapping for new customers, and AP, receipts and cash receipts on the same platform.

You do not have to switch in one go. If you are under contract, start Fluent on the customers Conexiom does not cover, or on AP invoices and packing slips, and move the remaining customers when the term ends.

See Fluent on your own orders

The order entry automation page covers sales orders in detail, and the Epicor integration page explains the connection and access scope. To compare it with Conexiom on your own purchase orders, book a demo.