Automate 3PL order entry and client billing in your WMS
Stepwork keys emailed PDF orders into your WMS and builds each client's monthly storage and handling invoice, through the WMS screens your team already uses.
- Industry
- Order entry and client billing for warehouses and 3PLs3PL and warehousing
- Best for
- Operations Manager, Customer Service Lead, Billing Clerk
- Applications used
Outlook
WMS
Microsoft Dynamics GP
Microsoft Teams
- Business outcome
- About 20 hours a week back on order entry and billing
The problem
Your WMS runs the warehouse. People still feed it by hand.
Your biggest clients send EDI. Everyone else emails a PDF and says ship this. Someone retypes each one into the WMS, line by line, and checks the SKUs against that client's items.
At month end, someone pulls storage and handling activity for each client out of the WMS and rebuilds it as an invoice. Same report, same invoice, every month, for every client.
Systems
Works in the WMS you've customized for twenty years
Many 3PLs run a WMS that's been tailored over decades, sometimes with one person who knows how it works. Stepwork uses its screens as they are, so nothing has to be integrated first.
- Warehouse management: Custom WMS, HighJump, Manhattan SCALE, Made4net, Camelot 3PL, Magaya, Extensiv
- Accounting: Microsoft Dynamics GP, QuickBooks Desktop, NetSuite, Acumatica
- Email, chat, and files: Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Excel, SharePoint
Example procedures
Two procedures from the warehouse office
One branches on whether every SKU is on file. One repeats for every client at month end. Swap in your WMS and accounting system and the steps stay the same.
Emailed PDF order to an order in Custom WMS
- Outlook
- Custom WMS
Order email in the Outlook orders inbox
message received · orders
Output variables
- order_pdf
- sender_email
Read the order off the PDF
Input variables
- order_pdf
Output
- client
- ship_to
- order_lines
- ship_date
Check each SKU in Custom WMS
Input variables
- client
- order_lines
Extracted variables
- unknown_skus
Are all the SKUs on file?
Input variables
- unknown_skus
Paths
- If any item isn't on the client's item listThen: Send it back to customer service
- OtherwiseThen: Enter the order in Custom WMS
Send it back to customer service
Input variables
- sender_email
- unknown_skus
Enter the order in Custom WMS
Input variables
- client
- ship_to
- order_lines
- ship_date
Output
- wms_order_id
Reply with the order number
Input variables
- sender_email
- wms_order_id
Drag to explore · pinch to zoom
Step by step
- The order email arrivesA client emails a PDF and asks you to ship it. The email landing in the orders inbox starts the run.
- AI reads the PDFThe AI card reads the client, the ship-to, every line, and the ship date, whatever layout that client uses.
- Each SKU gets checkedStepwork looks up every line in the client's item list in Custom WMS and notes any it can't find.
- The rule holds bad ordersOne unknown SKU sends the order down the top path. Clean orders go on to the WMS.
- If a SKU is unknownSend it back to customer service
- If all on fileEnter the order in Custom WMS
- Problems go to a personOnly when a SKU is unknown: the email goes back to customer service with the lines that didn't match, instead of a wrong order going into Custom WMS.Only on this path: If a SKU is unknown
- The order goes into the WMSThe recorded flow enters the order in Custom WMS's order screens, line by line, and hands back the order number.Only on this path: If all on file
- The client hears backStepwork replies to the original email with the order number, so nobody has to ask if it went in.Only on this path: If all on file
Field map
| From | To |
|---|---|
| OutlookPDF: ship-to name and address | Custom WMSOrder: consignee |
| OutlookPDF: items and quantities | Custom WMSOrder: linesChecked against the client's item list first |
| OutlookPDF: requested ship date | Custom WMSOrder: ship date |
| OutlookEmail: sender's domain | Custom WMSOrder: client account |
Monthly storage and handling billing in Microsoft Dynamics GP
- Custom WMS
- Microsoft Dynamics GP
- Outlook
Step by step
- Last month comes out onceStepwork runs the activity report in Custom WMS: pallets stored and orders shipped per client. Each client on it is one pass through the loop.
- The charges get worked outInside the dashed frame, a script applies the client's storage and handling rates. Same calculation every month, written once.Repeats: For each client billed this month · 25 clients
- The invoice gets createdThe recorded flow creates the invoice in Microsoft Dynamics GP with one line per charge.Repeats: For each client billed this month · 25 clients
- The client gets itThe invoice goes to the client's billing email, then the loop moves to the next client.Repeats: For each client billed this month · 25 clients
- The month gets totalledAfter the last client, the Summary card totals what was billed and lists anything that failed.
- Accounting gets one emailBilling is done on the 1st instead of the 5th.
Field map
| From | To |
|---|---|
| Custom WMSActivity: pallets stored | Microsoft Dynamics GPInvoice line: storageAt the client's rate per pallet |
| Custom WMSActivity: orders shipped | Microsoft Dynamics GPInvoice line: handling |
| Custom WMSClient: billing email | OutlookInvoice email: to |
Flows
The flows behind these procedures
Each flow is one job recorded once in one system, on your own screens.
- WMS
Enter an order from a PDF
Fills in the WMS order screens with the ship-to, lines, and ship date read off a client's PDF. - WMS
Export monthly activity by client
Runs the storage and handling activity report for last month and downloads it. - Microsoft Dynamics GP
Create an invoice
Creates a customer invoice with one line per storage and handling charge. - Outlook
Reply to a client with the order number
Answers the original order email with the WMS order number.
Why Stepwork
No EDI project, no WMS upgrade
Stepwork keys orders the way your team does, through your WMS's own screens, so the clients who will never send EDI still get their orders in within minutes. A rule holds any order with an unknown SKU for a person, and every run records what came in and what was created.
FAQ
Common questions
The math
What the manual version costs a 3PL
Example volumes for a 3PL with 25 clients. Your numbers will differ; the math won't.
| The manual task | Times a week | Minutes each | Hours a week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Key a PDF order into the WMS | 150 | 6 | 15 |
| Build a client's monthly invoice | 6 | 30 | 3 |
| Answer a “did my order go in?” email | 40 | 3 | 2 |
- Hours a week
- 20
- Hours a year
- 1,000
- Of one full-time person
- 50%