Does QuickBooks Online track stock well enough for the stock checks?

On QuickBooks Online plans that include inventory tracking, products can carry a quantity on hand, and that is what the platform checks each order line against. If your plan doesn’t track stock, or your stock figures aren’t kept up to date, the stock check can be left out and the product and price checks still run. We confirm your plan and setup during specification.

Will invoices be emailed to customers automatically from QuickBooks?

That stays under your control. By default the platform creates the record in QuickBooks and your team sends it in the usual way, so nothing reaches a customer that nobody has seen. If you later want certain invoices sent on creation, that’s a setting we can agree, though most small teams prefer a final look at first.

We use QuickBooks Desktop, not QuickBooks Online. Does this still apply?

This page describes QuickBooks Online, which is reached over the internet through its API. QuickBooks Desktop integrates in a different way, so it would need its own assessment. Tell us which version and edition you run on the discovery call and we’ll say honestly whether it’s a sensible fit before any specification work begins.

Is automation worth it at 30 orders a day?

Often, if those orders arrive by email in mixed formats and the same one or two people key them all. Thirty orders at five minutes each is around two and a half hours a day, before any corrections. The first phase is the smallest project we offer, and the specification gives you a fixed price to weigh against that time before you commit.

Can the platform add new customers to QuickBooks?

Yes. When an order arrives from a sender that doesn’t match an existing customer, the reviewer can create the customer in QuickBooks from the review screen, using the name, address and contact details on the order. Existing customers are matched by email address or company name, and a likely match is suggested rather than assumed.

Emailed orders into QuickBooks Online, checked and ready to invoice

For distributors who run on QuickBooks Online rather than a full ERP: orders read from email, checked against your products and stock, approved, and created in QuickBooks without retyping.

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Zestcode Automation builds order platforms for smaller UK distributors whose back office is QuickBooks Online and not much else. Orders that arrive by email are read by AI, checked against the products, prices, customers and stock you already hold in QuickBooks, approved by a person, and created in QuickBooks ready to invoice, with the customer’s PO number attached.

Most order automation is pitched at businesses with an ERP. A lot of good distributors don’t have one, and don’t need one: a few hundred product lines, a loyal trade customer base and QuickBooks doing the invoicing and the books.

When QuickBooks is the whole back office

Take a hypothetical business: eight staff, around 40 orders a day, a warehouse unit and an office of three. Orders come in as PDFs, spreadsheets and plain emails. Whoever is free keys them into QuickBooks as invoices, checks stock by looking at the product list, and prints a copy for the warehouse. It works until the person who knows every customer’s quirks is on holiday, or a busy Monday pushes orders past the courier’s collection time.

The platform is designed for an office like that: nobody has to learn an ERP, and QuickBooks remains the place where sales and money are recorded.

What the platform reads from QuickBooks

For its checks, the platform reads from your QuickBooks Online company:

products and services, with your sale prices
customers, so senders can be matched to the right account
quantity on hand, where your plan includes inventory tracking
the tax codes and payment terms you use

Every incoming order is compared with those records. A product code that doesn’t exist, a price that differs from yours or a line that would oversell is flagged in the review queue with the reason, ahead of anything being created. The AI scores each field it reads out of 10 and highlights scores below 7; a detail missing from the email stays blank. The order capture page explains the reading in more depth.

Invoice, estimate, or something in between?

QuickBooks Online is centred on invoices and estimates rather than the sales-order-first process an ERP uses, and the record types available can vary with your plan and region. So we agree with you what an approved order becomes. Some businesses want an invoice created immediately, because they invoice on dispatch the same day. Others prefer an estimate that is converted once the goods have gone, so part-shipped orders aren’t over-billed. Either way, the customer’s PO number goes into the reference, and delivery is charged as you charge it now.

Is QuickBooks Online enough, or do we need an ERP first?

For many small distributors, QuickBooks is enough. The case for an inventory system grows with multiple warehouses, batch or serial tracking, complex price lists per customer, or heavy purchasing. If that describes you, we’ll say so on the discovery call, because automating order entry into the wrong system helps nobody. If it doesn’t, there’s no reason to buy an ERP just to stop retyping orders.

Getting to a first version

Discovery call. A free conversation about how orders reach you and what goes wrong.
Sample orders. You send a set of real ones, especially the awkward ones.
Written specification. Free, covering exactly what the platform does and what it creates in QuickBooks.
Fixed quote. Valid for 90 days.
Build and test. Tested on your real orders before your team relies on it.

Price for a smaller business

Most smaller distributors start with capture, review and the QuickBooks connection, typically £8k–£12k excluding VAT over about six weeks. Day to day, hosting is roughly $25 a month and the AI costs a few pence per order read, so a business at this size usually spends well under £50 a month. Changes later are charged at £90 an hour, and maintenance from £80 a month is optional. More at pricing.

You end up owning the system. It is set up in hosting accounts under your company name, there is no licence per user, and whether we look after it afterwards is entirely up to you.

Common questions

Straight answers to what people ask us about this before a call.

Does QuickBooks Online track stock well enough for the stock checks?
On QuickBooks Online plans that include inventory tracking, products can carry a quantity on hand, and that is what the platform checks each order line against. If your plan doesn’t track stock, or your stock figures aren’t kept up to date, the stock check can be left out and the product and price checks still run. We confirm your plan and setup during specification.
Will invoices be emailed to customers automatically from QuickBooks?
That stays under your control. By default the platform creates the record in QuickBooks and your team sends it in the usual way, so nothing reaches a customer that nobody has seen. If you later want certain invoices sent on creation, that’s a setting we can agree, though most small teams prefer a final look at first.
We use QuickBooks Desktop, not QuickBooks Online. Does this still apply?
This page describes QuickBooks Online, which is reached over the internet through its API. QuickBooks Desktop integrates in a different way, so it would need its own assessment. Tell us which version and edition you run on the discovery call and we’ll say honestly whether it’s a sensible fit before any specification work begins.
Is automation worth it at 30 orders a day?
Often, if those orders arrive by email in mixed formats and the same one or two people key them all. Thirty orders at five minutes each is around two and a half hours a day, before any corrections. The first phase is the smallest project we offer, and the specification gives you a fixed price to weigh against that time before you commit.
Can the platform add new customers to QuickBooks?
Yes. When an order arrives from a sender that doesn’t match an existing customer, the reviewer can create the customer in QuickBooks from the review screen, using the name, address and contact details on the order. Existing customers are matched by email address or company name, and a likely match is suggested rather than assumed.