How to Automate Epicor Sales Order Entry: Options Compared

You can automate sales order entry in Epicor Kinetic with DMT imports, a custom REST API integration, EDI for trading partners who send it, Epicor's ECM-based Sales Order Automation, a dedicated order-entry tool such as Conexiom or Esker, RPA as a last resort, or an AI agent such as Fluent that reads emailed POs and drafts them in Order Entry. EDI is the right answer for customers who already send it. For the customers who email a PDF and always will, you need something that reads the document and resolves it against live Epicor data before a person approves it.

Why sales order entry is hard to automate

Customer POs are written in the customer's terms. Getting them into Order Entry correctly means answering questions the PO does not answer directly:

• Customer part numbers. The PO says the customer's own part number, and you need your part.
• Units of measure. The customer orders in cases, you sell in each, or the other way round.
• Ship-to and terms. The ship-to on the PO may be a new address, one of many on file, or a typo. Terms and currency should follow the customer, whatever the PO says in passing.
• Duplicate POs. The same PO arrives twice, by email and again as a "revised" copy, or a buyer resends it asking for status.
• Format. Many customers will never send EDI. They email PDFs, spreadsheets, scans and the occasional order typed into the email body.

Every option below handles some of these. The difference is how much is left to the person at the keyboard.

1. DMT imports

Setup. Prepare a spreadsheet in DMT's sales order template and run the import. Epicor administrators usually know DMT already.

What it automates. Creating many orders from rows of structured data, such as a large customer's weekly schedule export.

What falls to a person. Reading every PO, converting customer part numbers to yours, checking units and ship-to, spotting duplicates, and fixing rejected rows. DMT loads data that is already right.

2. Custom REST API or Epicor Functions integration

Setup. A developer builds an integration on the Kinetic REST API, or Epicor Functions called from outside. Service Connect or Epicor Automation Studio can orchestrate the same flow with less code.

What it automates. Orders from any system that produces structured data: a web store, a customer portal, a CPQ tool or another ERP.

What falls to a person. Maintaining the integration through upgrades, and every order that arrives as a document. An API integration expects clean input; it does not read a PDF.

3. EDI for trading partners who send it

Setup. Contract an EDI provider or translator (Cleo, TrueCommerce, SPS Commerce and others), map each trading partner's purchase order format into Epicor, and test with the partner. Each new partner is its own onboarding.

What it automates. High-volume, standardized orders from large customers and retailers who require EDI. Once a partner is mapped, orders flow with little human touch.

What falls to a person. Maintaining maps when partners change their specifications, handling rejected transactions, and every customer who does not do EDI.

4. RPA on the screen

Setup. An RPA tool records keystrokes in Order Entry and replays them with values from a spreadsheet or OCR.

What it automates. Typing.

What falls to a person. Everything the bot cannot decide, plus repairs. Screen bots break when a Kinetic upgrade or layout change moves a field, and they will type the wrong part as fast as the right one. Treat RPA as a last resort; Kinetic has an API.

5. Epicor Sales Order Automation (ECM)

Setup. License Epicor ECM and configure Sales Order Automation, including capture, review queues and the connection to Epicor. Epicor or a partner typically runs the project.

What it automates. Capture of customer POs from email and documents through Epicor's Intelligent Data Capture (IDC) layer, a review workflow, storage in ECM, and order creation in Epicor. It is Epicor's own product.

What falls to a person. Reviewing captured fields and resolving what capture could not. How customer part numbers, units and duplicates are handled is worth walking through in a demo with your own POs.

Combining it with an agent. ECM and an AI agent work together. You can keep ECM for the archive and workflow and use Fluent in place of the capture step: Fluent reads and resolves the PO, and the result is routed into your ECM workflow. See Fluent with Epicor ECM.

6. Dedicated order-entry tools

Setup. Subscribe to an order-entry automation product such as Conexiom or Esker, connect it to Epicor, and configure it for your customers' documents.

What it automates. Converting customer POs, largely PDF and email, into sales orders in the ERP. These products are built for exactly this job across many ERPs.

What falls to a person. Reviewing exceptions, plus whatever per-customer setup the product needs. Ask how new customer formats are onboarded and how customer part numbers are resolved against Epicor.

7. AI agents such as Fluent

Setup. Fluent calls Epicor Kinetic's v2 REST API from outside, on-premise or Epicor-hosted, with nothing installed inside Epicor: no customization, no BPM, no staging table, no import file. Each agent generates an access scope listing exactly the services it calls, which you import and Epicor enforces. Setup is about thirty minutes of accounts and onboarding, and most teams review documents the same day.

What it automates. Customers forward or email POs straight to the agent as PDFs, scans, photos, spreadsheets, email bodies, XML or EDI. The agent resolves the customer, parts (including the customer's own part numbers) and units against live Epicor data, applies the customer's own currency and terms, and checks for any existing order already carrying the same customer PO number before drafting. No templates per customer, no field mapping, no model training: behavior is set with written instructions, and corrections become instructions.

What falls to a person. Approving the draft in Order Entry. Unresolved parts or units are named per line on the draft. Nothing posts until a person processes it unless you set approval thresholds, and every field read and decision made is in an audit log. Across 25,359 reviewed documents in the 90 days to 1 September 2026, the median review took 55 seconds (the mean is 115 seconds, pulled up by a tail of long reviews).

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

Comparison table

What good looks like in Order Entry

• Parts resolved to your part, with the customer's number kept. A draft should show which of your parts each line maps to, and say so when it cannot.
• Units taken from the PO. If the PO does not state a unit, or the unit is not valid for the part, flag the line. Never assume a default.
• Customer terms and currency. The order follows the customer record, and differences on the PO are surfaced for review.
• Duplicates caught before entry. Check the customer PO number against existing orders before anything is created.
• A person approves, and Epicor validates. Epicor's own business logic should check every order, so automation is held to the same rules as your staff.

Which option fits

• DMT suits one-off bulk loads and a few customers who send clean spreadsheets.
• A REST API integration fits orders from your own systems, a web store or a portal, when you have a developer to own it.
• EDI is the right choice for large customers and retailers who require it. Keep it for them.
• RPA is a stopgap at best.
• Epicor Sales Order Automation fits teams that want Epicor's own ECM stack for document storage and workflow and can run an implementation project. With ECM already in place, add an agent for reading and resolving.
• Conexiom, Esker and similar fit companies wanting a dedicated order-entry product across several ERPs.
• An AI agent such as Fluent fits the customers who email PDFs and will never send EDI, when you want orders drafted against live Epicor data without per-customer templates or an implementation project. It runs alongside EDI and ECM.

Next step

To see Order Entry drafted from your own customers' POs, read about Fluent order entry automation, the Epicor integration and working alongside Epicor ECM, check pricing, and book a demo. Fluent is built by Technology Coast Partners, an Epicor Platinum Partner with 600+ Epicor implementations.