agentclaw

workflow: inventory sync

Oversells aren't bad luck. They're a sync job someone runs by hand

Every morning, supplier files land in an inbox in five different formats. Someone downloads them, remaps the columns, matches their SKU codes to yours, fixes the pack-size math, and uploads the result — and by the time the storefront updates, the numbers are already old. We install a system that reads every supplier file the moment it arrives, reconciles it against your system of record, and pushes verified counts to your storefront so all three agree every hour. Your team only sees the conflicts that need a human call.

the manual version

Where the time actually goes

Follow one supplier file through a manual sync and count the touches. Someone finds the email or logs into the portal and downloads the CSV. Reformats it, because this supplier calls quantity 'QTY_AVAIL' and ships in cases of 24 while your system counts eaches. Runs the VLOOKUP that maps their SKU codes to yours and patches the ones that miss. Uploads to the inventory system, then pushes to the storefront, then hopes.

The hours are the visible cost. If someone spends the first ninety minutes of every day wrangling supplier files, price that at their loaded rate, then remember it scales with every supplier you add. The invisible cost is worse: the oversell refunded with an apology, the marketplace account dinged for cancellations, the safety buffer padded so wide the storefront says 'out of stock' on product sitting in your warehouse.

None of this is merchandising judgment. Downloading, remapping, and copy-pasting between systems that were never introduced to each other — every step of it can be read, decided, or escalated by software.

  • File wrangling: every supplier's export has different columns, units, and pack sizes, and someone normalizes them by hand
  • SKU mapping: their part numbers matched to yours through a VLOOKUP only one person maintains
  • The upload relay: system of record first, storefront second, marketplaces whenever someone remembers
  • Error hunting: oversells and phantom stock discovered by customer complaint, not by the system
agentclaw · workflow run

$ claw run invoice-intake

→ 47 documents queued

→ extracted · matched · posted

✓ done in 3m 12s · 0 exceptions escalated

the automated version

Supplier file, system of record, storefront: agreeing every hour

Three stages, running around the clock in the tools you already own. Suppliers keep sending whatever they send. Your team stops being the pipeline.

  1. 01

    Ingest and normalize

    An agent watches the inbox, the FTP drop, and the supplier portals. Every file gets read the moment it lands: CSVs, spreadsheets, even a PDF price list. It extracts SKU, quantity on hand, cost, and lead time, converts each supplier's units and pack sizes to yours, and maps their part numbers to your internal SKUs. New or discontinued SKUs get flagged instead of silently dropped.

  2. 02

    Reconcile against the system of record

    The normalized numbers get compared with what your ERP or inventory system currently believes. The agent applies your rules for safety-stock buffers, per-channel allocation, and stale-feed cutoffs, then writes the updates, logging every change with its source file and timestamp. Any count on any channel can be traced back to the exact line it came from.

  3. 03

    Push, verify, escalate

    Updated counts go out to Shopify, Amazon, or wherever you sell, and the agent reads them back to confirm each write actually landed. Anything suspicious routes to a human with the reason spelled out and the original file attached: a quantity that swung by half overnight, a negative count, a SKU no mapping recognizes. Everything else just stays correct.

Signs it's time to automate this

You don't need all six. Two or three is usually enough for the math to work.

  • Someone spends the first hour of every day downloading and reformatting supplier files
  • You've refunded an order for stock the storefront swore you had, more than once this quarter
  • A marketplace has warned you about cancellation rates driven by oversells
  • Safety buffers are padded so wide you show 'out of stock' on product sitting in the warehouse
  • The SKU mapping lives in a spreadsheet only one person understands, and sync stalls when they're out
  • New supplier price lists take days to apply, so you quote and sell at last month's costs

Straight answers

What happens when a supplier changes their file format?+

Sooner or later, every supplier does. The agent doesn't parse by column position and pray; it reads the file's structure each time. When something fails to reconcile, like a header it can't map or a column that suddenly looks like prices instead of quantities, it stops, quarantines the file, and shows a human exactly what changed. The manual process fails the same way. The difference is that the manual failure gets discovered three days later, as an oversell.

We sell on multiple channels. Does that make this harder?+

It makes it more valuable. The hard part of multichannel is deciding what number each place gets, not pushing the same number to three places. The system allocates stock per channel by your rules, holds back your safety buffer, and updates every channel from the same reconciliation pass. A sale on one channel decrements the others within the hour, instead of at tomorrow's manual upload.

Can I do this myself?+

For a simple setup, yes. One channel and two or three suppliers with clean, stable CSVs can be covered by a native connector app plus some spreadsheet discipline, and our free skills library will get you there — start with the data cleanup prompt pack for normalizing supplier files. DIY breaks down at SKU mapping across many suppliers, pack-size conversion, and verification. A connector that fails doesn't always send an error; sometimes it just leaves your storefront confidently wrong.

What does it cost?+

Engagements start at $5,000/month, which covers building the sync and running it: monitoring the feeds, maintaining the SKU mappings, and catching format changes before they corrupt your counts. Do your own math before you book. Price the hours your team spends wrangling files each week at loaded cost, add what the last oversell refund or marketplace penalty cost you, and add the sales you turn away behind padded buffers. If that total is well under the fee, you don't need us yet — start with the free resources and come back when the supplier count grows.

Find out what your stock errors actually cost

The free AI opportunity audit traces your inventory data from supplier file to storefront and tells you what's worth automating first — and what isn't.

We take on companies ready to invest $5,000+/month. Not there yet? Our free resources are genuinely free.