This is not a real customer story. It is an illustrative use case built from the AiutoForm demo and typical industry workflows. Company names, amounts and counts are examples.
AI reads the body and attachments of each purchase order email and adds one row to the Customer orders sheet with the PO number, order date, delivery date, ship-to location and amount. Line items go to the Line items sheet and the delivery date goes to Google Calendar, so nobody has to retype the order log.
- Industry
- Metal parts machining (fictional company)
- Gmail (Google Workspace)
- Documents received
- Customer POs (PDF, Excel), quote requests, meeting notices
- Sheets used
- Customer orders · Line items · Customers · Schedule
How the work is often done today
- A sales coordinator opens each PO email, reads the PDF and types the PO number, items, quantities and due date into an Excel order log.
- At month end, when POs pile up, data entry falls behind and orders with close delivery dates get noticed late.
- Quotes and orders for the same customer are tracked separately, so it is hard to see which quotes turned into orders.
How PO emails get organized
- Collect PO emailsEmails arriving in Gmail are fetched at a set interval and every one is logged in the All Mail list. Emails unrelated to work are kept as Excluded, so you can confirm nothing was missed.
- AI classifies it as a customer orderAI reads the body and the PDF or Excel attachment, sets the type to Customer order and extracts the PO number, order date, delivery date, ship-to, payment terms, items and amounts. Different customer formats end up in the same columns.
- One row in the Customer orders sheetA row with a document ID (PO-…) is added and each line item is kept in the Line items sheet. The sending company is registered in the Customers sheet and its order count goes up.
- Delivery dates go to the calendarThe delivery date is added to the Schedule sheet and Google Calendar, so upcoming deliveries are visible on the calendar.
What the Customer orders sheet looks like
| Doc ID | Customer | PO number | Order date | Delivery date | Ship-to | Total | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PO-260930-001 | Brightline Tech Inc. | PO-2026-0917 | 2026-09-30 | 2026-10-31 | Brightline Tech, Dayton plant | 7,150.00 | Received |
Example data for illustration. In the demo, open Data list → Customer orders to see similar sample rows from fictional companies.
What changes in order management?
- Filter the data list by month or date range and group by company to see order counts and totals per customer right away.
- Click a row to see the order on the left and every quote, order and delivery note for that customer on the right, so the path from quote to order is visible in one place.
- Change the status (Received, In progress, Shipped, Delivered, Canceled) and filter by it.
Expected effect (based on assumptions)
Under this assumption, about 20 hours a month (20 working days) of retyping shrinks to checking the items marked Needs review, and delivery dates go on the calendar automatically, so fewer are missed.
This is an assumption for illustration. Actual results depend on email volume, document formats and how your team works.Frequently asked questions
Does it work if every customer uses a different PO format?
Yes. Instead of matching a fixed template, AI reads the content and finds the values, so different customer formats end up in the same columns. Low-confidence items are marked Needs review and shown next to the original.
What happens when an email says the delivery date has changed?
The new date is recognized as a schedule item and added to the Schedule sheet and the calendar. The delivery date on the original order row is updated by your team after checking the original email in the pop-up.
We want to keep our order log in Excel.
Choose either an Excel file or a Google Sheet. Columns are found by name, so rows keep coming in even if you add columns or change their order.
Will it work with your inbox?
Tell us which email service and document formats you use, and we will show you how it fits.