The real case: an existing ERP system gained the missing connection
Lehnerts & Müller from Wittlich was already working with the trade business software IN-FORM and ordering from the Würth online shop. Nevertheless, the delivery note data was still transferred by hand. In the Würth customer interview of 18 February 2019, the purchasing employee estimated the effort at that time, for five to six delivery notes a day, at 20 to 60 minutes.
According to the report, the connection between the procurement system and the trade business software had been in use since August 2018. Delivery note information was transferred automatically; the goods receipt function made it possible to assign delivered material to the warehouse or to jobs. The interviewees reported time savings and better traceability.
The source is an interview by Würth, the vendor involved, not an independent measurement of success. It does not state any measured time after the changeover. No specific saving can therefore be calculated from the previous input effort. Nor does the historical case prove present-day compatibility with your system. Lehnerts & Müller is presented here as an external company case, not as a Nexoria reference. You can find the original report under Sources.
What work should be eliminated after the changeover?
Take a delivery note from receipt through to the finished record in your inventory management system. Mark every step at which someone reads, types in or checks the same content again. This shows whether you need better document filing, support with data capture or a direct data transfer.
The following decision aid is our own suggestion for your workflow. It describes three goals that are easily confused with one another when comparing software.
| Your bottleneck | Suitable first approach | How you can see the benefit |
|---|---|---|
| The delivery note cannot be found later | Capture the document, make it searchable with text recognition and file it unambiguously | The responsible person finds the correct original document |
| Line items are typed out from PDFs or paper | Check structured supplier data first; alternatively, capture fields from documents and check them | Required fields end up correctly in a verifiable record |
| Data is available but does not reach the inventory management system | Check an existing import function or a suitable interface in the software used | A checked delivery is assigned to the correct transaction exactly once |
A scan is a foundation; a posting needs further rules
Text recognition makes the characters on a document usable. For a posting, however, item, unit and quantity must also belong together correctly. A recognised number alone does not tell you whether it refers to pieces, cartons or the total order quantity. Likewise, a delivery note that is sent again must remain recognisable as the same transaction.
First ask a regularly used supplier whether they can already provide the required data in structured form. At the same time, check what your existing inventory management system can import. If both sides offer a suitable route, it can replace the repeated data entry step. With only a few documents, on the other hand, careful manual entry can be more economical than a new integration.
Nexoria makes uploaded scans and images accessible to the knowledge base using text recognition. You can also create tasks with a responsible person and a deadline from the chat. This allows you, for example, to keep an unclear document findable and organise its clarification. The current product pages describe these features; they do not promise ready-made delivery note posting in every inventory management system. An ERP integration and its write actions are agreed on request based on your interface, data formats and permissions.
The checklist: four deliveries before the first live posting
First test the planned import with sample documents in a test environment. Agree in advance on the expected outcome and on who decides about deviations. The following cases are a testing aid we developed ourselves, not a description of the implementation at Lehnerts & Müller.
Checklist for our delivery note import
Supplier and document type: [enter]
Source of the data: [structured file / PDF / scan]
Target system and required fields: [enter]
Unique document identifier: [define]
Unit of quantity and conversion rule: [define]
Expected outcome per sample case: [enter before the test]
Actual outcome and deviation: [enter after the test]
Responsible person for cases requiring clarification: [define]
Sign-off for the next step: [who checks what?]
| Sample case | Expected result | Review by your team |
|---|---|---|
| Complete delivery | Item, quantity, unit and order reference match the sample | Compare the original document and the imported fields side by side |
| Partial delivery | Only the quantity actually delivered is proposed for import | Compare the quantity on the document with the counted incoming quantity; the outstanding quantity remains visible and the order is not unintentionally treated as complete |
| Cartons and pieces differ | The agreed unit of quantity is assigned correctly | A missing conversion rule leads to clarification rather than a guessed quantity |
| The same document arrives again | The existing transaction is recognised and no second posting is created | The identifier and result of the first run remain traceable |
Decide on the effort based on one supplier connection
For a limited period, record how many documents come in and how much time entry, checking and rework actually take. Compare this baseline with the total effort in the test, including the cases requiring clarification. A fast import is of little help if the team then has to laboriously correct the results.
Setup, ongoing maintenance and changes to supplier data also count towards the decision. Start with one frequent document type and one supplier. Expand only once responsibilities and the handling of partial deliveries, units and duplicate documents are working. This lets you assess the benefit in your own business without using other companies' success figures as a forecast.
These three details make the conversation concrete
Name your inventory management system, a typical document type and the work step that is currently done twice. This makes it possible to clarify whether searchable documents and tasks already help or whether a custom integration should be examined. For an initial conversation, the description of the workflow is enough; you do not need to send confidential supplier documents in advance.