One workflow at a time. Each one moves a number you already track.
You do not have to buy all of this. Pick the job your team most resents doing by hand. Every workflow below reads the same record, so the next one is added, not built again.
Order 417, Kestrel Coast Produce and the numbers in the examples below are made up. The arithmetic is consistent so you can check it.
Where the week goes today.
Seven stages, and the places where a person is the connective tissue between systems that cannot see each other.
- Order
Order and quote
The deal is made by phone, message or email. The confirmation is written up by hand.
- Set up
Set up and enter
The order is keyed into the ERP, then keyed again into a spreadsheet.
Re-keyed here
- Book
Book carrier and trucker
Order details are re-entered on the carrier's site. The confirmation comes back as a PDF.
Errors enter here, often unchecked
- Document
The document package
Invoice, packing list, certificates, bill of lading. Each one arrives or is built separately.
Collected and chased by hand
- Instruct
Instructions out
Handling details, consignee and deadlines go to the carrier and the trucker.
One wrong value can hold a shipment or spoil a load
- Ship
Ship and confirm
The supplier ships and confirms what actually went out.
Matched by eye, if at all
- Paid
Transit to paid
The shipment leaves, everyone asks where it is, it arrives, and the invoice waits on the missing document.
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Each workflow, and what it touches.
These are workflows TrueFlo can be configured to run, not a menu of finished features. Read across a row: the number it moves, what it reads, what it proposes, and who commits. Mode tells you what it touches. A first deployment is designed to run entirely read-only.
| Workflow | The number it moves | What it reads | What it proposes | Who commits | Mode |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intake | |||||
| Incoming documents are filed to the order they belong to. | Documents filed by hand per day | The watched inbox and its attachments | A match to an order, or a needs-a-look entry | The documentation desk clears the tray | Read-only |
| An order email becomes a draft order, every value pointing at its sentence. | Minutes per order, re-key steps | Order emails, in any language | A draft order with the unclear parts flagged | The sales desk | Gated write |
| Check | |||||
| Three documents agree before anything goes out. | Held shipments | The order, the carrier's confirmation, the handling rule table | READY, CHECK or STOP | A named reviewer | Read-only |
| A short load is found the day it loads, not the day it lands. Order 417 | Short loads found before invoicing | Purchase order, loading confirmation, sales order | A proposed invoice correction, a drafted customer update, and the open balance for the trader to decide | The logistics desk and the sales desk | Read-only + drafts |
| The supplier's invoice is checked against what actually shipped. | Paid for product that did not ship | Purchase order, loading confirmation, supplier invoice | The lines that disagree | Accounts payable | Read-only |
| The package agrees with itself before it goes out. | Packages amended or rejected downstream | Invoice, packing list, certificate, bill of lading draft | The field that disagrees | The documentation desk | Read-only |
| Chase | |||||
| Every order shows what arrived, what is missing, and how long until the deadline. | Shipments held, hours spent chasing | The order record, the required documents per destination, the deadlines | The missing list per order with a countdown | Nobody. It is a view. | Read-only |
| The follow-up is written. You press send. | Follow-ups sent per person per day | The missing list, contact history | A written follow-up in your drafts folder | The person, by pressing send | Drafts |
| Invoices are flagged for release the moment the missing document lands. | Days from shipped to invoiced | The inbox, the order record | "Document-blocked, day 3", and the invoices ready to release | The documentation desk | Read-only + drafts |
| Report | |||||
| One email per person. Only what is theirs and what needs attention next. | Minutes before the first correct action of the day | Everything above | Nothing. It states. | Nobody | Read-only |
| The status reply is drafted before the phone rings. | Interruptions per week | The order record | A drafted status reply | The sales desk | Drafts |
| The customer hears about a delay from you, not from the carrier. | Delays told to customers late | Shipment references against carrier data | "Arrival moved 6 days, 3 customers affected", with drafted updates | The sales desk | Read-only + drafts |
| Later, once the record has history | |||||
| Realized margin per order, by product, customer and lane. | Realized against target | ERP actuals, freight, claims, payment dates | The closed margin per order | Nobody | Read-only |
| Which invoices to chase first, ranked by exposure. | Days to collect | Receivables, shipments in transit | A ranked collections list | The controller | Read-only |
| The evidence file for a dispute, assembled. | Hours to assemble a claim | The full order record | An assembled evidence packet | The sales desk | Read-only |
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Every month, in plain arithmetic: documents read, exceptions raised, exceptions that were real, false alarms, hours returned. Highlighted rows run read-only from day one, which is where we recommend starting.
The first workflow is chosen with you, not for you.
The natural starting points are document completeness and deadlines, or ordered against shipped, because both run read-only from a forwarding rule and a scheduled export. Whichever you choose, the record gets built inside it. That is the quiet fact of workflow one: it builds the layer.
How the engagement runsCommon questions.
Can we turn the approval step off?
Not for anything that leaves the company. A draft to a customer, a note to a supplier, a change to the ERP: each one waits for a named person. That is not a setting.
What if it cannot read a document?
The cell stays empty and is marked unknown, and the document goes to a person. Nobody on your team will send a note based on something we inferred.
Does this replace our ERP?
No. The ERP stays the system of record. The layer reads it by scheduled export and writes back only through the approval queue, and only once you turn that on.
What about a photo of a handwritten sheet?
It goes to the needs-a-look tray with everything else that cannot be read with confidence. A person clears the tray in a few minutes a day, and every decision teaches the filing.
Tell us the job your team most resents doing by hand.
We will tell you which workflow it is, what it reads, and whether it can run read-only from day one.
Book a callNothing gets connected on the call and nothing is ever sent without you.