# How to automate sales order entry in Business Central

Customers email orders as PDFs, spreadsheets and free text, and someone keys each line into Business Central. Here are the three ways to take that work away, with what Microsoft's own agent does and where it stops.

Updated 12 October 2026 . 7 min read . Alexey Shurov

## The short answer

There are three ways to stop keying emailed orders into Business Central. Turn on the Sales Order Agent that Microsoft ships inside the product, buy an order automation tool that connects to it, or build a pipeline around your own catalogue and rules that writes orders through the standard API. Which one fits depends less on the software than on how closely your customers' wording matches your item list.

Reading the order is the easy part in 2026. The work is turning a customer's description or part number into your item, unit and price, and knowing when not to guess. Every option below is judged on that.

I build and run this kind of system for distributors, so I have a bias, and I will say where the built-in agent is the better choice. Facts about Business Central come from Microsoft's own documentation, checked on 12 October 2026.

### 1. Microsoft's Sales Order Agent

The agent is built into Business Central and is generally available. You point it at a Microsoft 365 mailbox, and it reads each incoming email, finds the customer, finds the items, checks availability and prepares a sales quote. Depending on your settings it sends the quote to the customer for confirmation or turns it straight into an order.

It always creates a quote first, even when the customer asked for an order, because a quote does not touch planning, reservations or cash flow. It finds items in layers, first by exact identifiers such as item number, vendor item number, GTIN and item references, then by attributes such as colour or size, then by a wider fuzzy search.

Four limits matter in practice. It reads attachments only as PDF, PNG or JPG, with PDFs up to 50 pages, so an order sent as a spreadsheet is skipped. It identifies the customer only by matching the sender's email address to a contact card, so a forwarded order or a new address needs a person to link it. Designated users approve outgoing messages. And it is billed in Copilot Credits, so when the credits run out it stops picking up new emails until more are available.

### 2. An order automation tool that connects to Business Central

Specialist tools read the order, match it against a copy of your catalogue and customer history, and post it to the ERP. They suit a business with high order volume from repeat customers, where the tool can learn each customer's part numbers. I compare the main ones, with prices where vendors publish them, in my guide to sales order automation software.

The trade is that your matching rules live in someone else's product. That is fine while the rules are simple and becomes a constraint when pricing, pack sizes or substitutions follow logic that only your team knows.

### 3. A pipeline built around your catalogue and rules

The third route is a system built for your process. An agent reads each order in whatever form it arrives, spreadsheets included. Each line is matched to an item using the customer's own history and cross-references. Checks confirm the customer, units, pack sizes and prices. Lines the checks cannot confirm go to a person with the reason attached, and only confirmed orders are written.

Business Central makes the last step straightforward. Its standard API exposes sales orders and sales order lines, so the pipeline creates the order through a supported interface, not by imitating a user on screen.

This costs more to start than switching on a feature. It is worth it when order entry is a large, daily job and the matching rules are the hard part, which is the case for most distributors with long catalogues.

## What to fix before you automate anything

All three routes depend on the same data. Microsoft says plainly that the quality of product information in Business Central affects how well its agent finds items, and the same is true of any tool. Fill in item references for the part numbers your customers use, keep descriptions and attributes consistent, and make sure every contact who orders has the right email address on their card.

Then write down the rules a good order clerk applies without thinking. Which unit a customer means when they write a box. What to do when the price on the order differs from the price list. Which customers may not order which items. An agent can only apply a rule that someone has stated.

Finally, collect a month of real orders with what was actually keyed for each. That set is how you will measure any option, and it is the only honest way to compare them.

## How to measure whether it works

Measure by the line, not the order. An order with twenty lines and one wrong item is a wrong delivery. Count the share of lines entered with no human correction, and separately the share of wrong lines that got through unnoticed. The second number is the one that costs money.

Run the new process beside the team for a few weeks before it writes anything. Compare what it would have entered with what the team entered, line by line, and look hardest at the cases where they differ. Microsoft's agent has a try it out mode that creates a test task without sending an email, which is a good way to start.

For the built-in agent, also measure the credits. Microsoft bills it in Copilot Credits according to the complexity of each interaction and does not publish a figure per order, so a week of real orders is the only way to know your cost. Its daily email limit, 100 by default, keeps a busy mailbox from using the whole allowance at once.

## The three routes compared

| Route | Best when | What you pay for | Where it stops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales Order Agent in Business Central | Orders arrive by email as text or PDF from known contacts, and item data is clean | Copilot Credits by usage | Spreadsheet orders, unknown senders, rules beyond item matching |
| Order automation tool | High volume from repeat customers | A subscription, usually by volume | Matching rules that are specific to your business |
| Pipeline built on your rules | Order entry is a large daily job and matching is the hard part | A build and a running cost | Needs your rules written down and past orders to test against |

## How to pick

Try the Sales Order Agent first if your customers order by email from addresses you hold, send text or PDFs, and your catalogue is well described. It is already in the product, and a few weeks of real orders will tell you how far it gets.

Look at a specialist tool if volume is high and most orders come from a stable set of customers whose part numbers can be learned.

Build when the built-in agent stalls on your matching rules, when customers send spreadsheets, or when orders need checks it does not make, such as customer-specific pricing agreements or pack size conversions. Microsoft itself suggests stopping its agent at the quote when pricing or discount logic needs manual steps. That is the situation in the client result below.[

Client result . Distribution

10 → 1

About 90 percent less manual work, over 95 percent line accuracy

People needed for order entry at a wholesale distributor, client-confirmed.

Read how the system works](https://shurco.ai/solutions/sales-order-entry-automation/)

## Common questions

### Can Business Central create sales orders from emails automatically?

Yes. The Sales Order Agent built into Business Central monitors a Microsoft 365 mailbox, reads the email and any PDF, PNG or JPG attachments, finds the customer and items, and prepares a sales quote that becomes an order. Designated users approve outgoing messages. It is billed in Copilot Credits.

### Why does the Sales Order Agent create a quote and not an order?

Microsoft designed it to create a sales quote first, even when the customer asks for an order, because a quote has no effect on planning, reservations, availability or cash flow forecasts. You can configure it to convert quotes into orders without sending the quote to the customer.

### Why does the Sales Order Agent not recognise my customer?

It identifies customers only by matching the sender's email address to the email field on a contact card. It does not search by name. A forwarded email is matched on the forwarder's address, so someone has to link the right contact by hand. Keeping contact emails current fixes most cases.

### Can the Sales Order Agent read orders sent as Excel files?

Not according to Microsoft's documentation, which lists PDF, PNG and JPG as the supported attachment types, with PDFs up to 50 pages. An order sent as a spreadsheet needs another route, such as a pipeline that reads the file and creates the order through the Business Central API.

### How accurate is automated sales order entry?

It depends on how well customers' wording matches your item data, so measure it on your own orders. Count the share of lines entered without correction and the share of wrong lines that got through. In the distribution system described on this site, line accuracy is over 95 percent, with unconfirmed lines sent to a person.

### Do I need to replace Business Central to automate order entry?

No. Business Central has a standard API that exposes sales orders and sales order lines, and Microsoft's own agent works inside the product. Automation sits in front of the ERP and writes into it.

## Useful next[GuideBest sales order automation software in 2026Distributors, wholesalers and manufacturers still key emailed purchase orders into their ERP by hand. Here is what each tool actually automates, what it costs, and when it is the wrong buy.](https://shurco.ai/guides/best-sales-order-automation-software/)[GuideAI agent pricing in 2026, what vendors actually chargeVendors now charge for agents by the conversation, the outcome, the action or the credit. Here are the published prices, what each unit really means, and how to compare them on your own workload.](https://shurco.ai/guides/ai-agent-pricing/)[Free toolWhat to automate first, a scoring toolPick a task your team repeats every week and answer five quick questions. You get a plain answer on whether it is worth automating, what helps and what to watch. Score up to four tasks and it tells you where to start.](https://shurco.ai/tools/what-to-automate-first/)

## Field notes on this[OperationsAutomating Order Entry Is a Data Problem Before It Is an AI Problem](https://shurco.ai/insights/automating-order-entry-is-a-data-problem-before-it-is-an-ai-problem/)[OperationsYour shared inbox is a queue nobody is measuring](https://shurco.ai/insights/your-shared-inbox-is-a-queue-nobody-is-measuring/)[ReliabilityEdge Cases Are Where Production Agents Live or Die](https://shurco.ai/insights/edge-cases-are-where-production-agents-live-or-die/)[DesignHuman in the Loop Is a Design Decision Not a Disclaimer](https://shurco.ai/insights/human-in-the-loop-is-a-design-decision-not-a-disclaimer/)

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## How this guide was checked

The facts about Business Central on this page were checked against Microsoft's own documentation on 12 October 2026. Microsoft changes the agent often, so read the current documentation before you rely on a detail. Nobody paid to be mentioned here.Sources, 4 pages checked

- [Microsoft Learn, Sales Order Agent overview](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/sales-order-agent)
- [Microsoft Learn, Set up Sales Order Agent](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/sales-order-agent-setup)
- [Microsoft Learn, salesOrder resource type, API v2.0](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/api-reference/v2.0/resources/dynamics_salesorder)
- [Microsoft Learn, Copilot Credits billing rates](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/requirements-messages-management)

## Want this in your operation

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Web version https://shurco.ai/guides/automate-sales-order-entry-business-central/