The agents

An agent takes one job in your office and keeps it moving.

It works through that job on its own as orders, deliveries and invoices come in. You can also tell it what to do, or ask it what happened, in plain words. It works in the systems you already have, and it stops for a named person before anything leaves the business.

It works on its own. It also takes instructions.

Operate the console below. One setting shows a morning's routine work arriving by itself. The other waits for you to say something.

Allward consoleThursday 12 November · illustration

Needs you

You asked · 10:32

“Order another 200 stainless steel brackets from our usual supplier.”

Taken by the purchasing paperwork agent

10:32
ERP · item listFinds the part. SS-BRK-204, stainless angle bracket, bought in boxes of 50.
10:32
ERP · purchasing historyThe last four orders went to your usual supplier (no. 0412 on your list). The most recent is PO 7688, for 200 pieces.
10:32
Supplier price list · spreadsheetThe price is unchanged since PO 7688. Lead time is five working days.
10:33
ERP · purchasingPrepares purchase order 7745 as a draft. Nothing is sent.
10:33
ConsoleStops. A purchase order leaves the business, so it goes to P. Kaur.

Prepared

Purchase orderNo. 7745

Draft · not sent

To: your usual supplier (no. 0412 on your list)
From: Purchasing, P. Kaur
Date: 12 Nov 2026
Needed by: 19 Nov 2026

Item	Qty	Unit	Amount
SS-BRK-204 Stainless angle bracket, 4 boxes of 50	200	3.40	680.00
Subtotal			680.00
HST 13%			88.40
Total, CAD			768.40

Terms net 30, as on PO 7688. Deliver to the receiving dock. Prepared by the purchasing paperwork agent from PO 7688.

Approval required

Send purchase order 7745 to your usual supplier (no. 0412 on your list)

Approver: P. Kaur, purchasing. Waiting since 10:33. Nothing is sent until P. Kaur approves it.

Fig. 1 · An illustration of how agents are designed to work. The orders, people, supplier, prices and times are invented. Allward is entering its first pilots, and what each agent does is set up with the customer, one job at a time.

Anatomy of an agent

Every agent has a job sheet.

Agent job sheet

Purchasing paperwork

Sheet 02 of 03 · Rev. C
Illustration

Job: Keep every purchase order, packing slip and supplier invoice in agreement, and tell purchasing which one is out.
Responsible for: Drafting purchase orders from a request or an instruction.

Matching each delivery to its purchase order.

Matching each supplier invoice to the order and the receipt.

Raising what doesn't match with the person who can settle it.
Starts work when: A delivery is logged. A supplier invoice arrives. A purchase order is requested. Someone instructs it or asks it a question.
Connected to: System Can read Can change

ERP, purchasing and inventory Orders, items, stock, history Draft purchase orders. Receipts.

Receiving log, a spreadsheet Every line Nothing

Purchasing inbox Supplier messages and invoices Sends only what a person approved

Supplier price lists, spreadsheets Every line Nothing
Tools it may use: Look up a part, a supplier or a past order. Draft a purchase order. Compare an order, a packing slip and an invoice. Record a receipt. Draft a message. Ask a named person.
What it knows: Your suppliers and their usual terms. Your part numbers and units. How your purchase orders are laid out. Who buys what. Every past order it is allowed to read.
Limits: Sends nothing outside the business without approval.

Cannot change a price or a supplier's terms.

Cannot pay an invoice.

Cannot approve its own work.

Stops and asks when two documents disagree.
Approves: P. Kaur, purchasing. When away, R. Bianchi, controller.

System	Can read	Can change
ERP, purchasing and inventory	Orders, items, stock, history	Draft purchase orders. Receipts.
Receiving log, a spreadsheet	Every line	Nothing
Purchasing inbox	Supplier messages and invoices	Sends only what a person approved
Supplier price lists, spreadsheets	Every line	Nothing

Fig. 2 · The job sheet for one agent, as it would be agreed before the agent touches live work. An illustration.

The sheet says what the agent is for, what it can reach, what it may do there, and where it has to stop. It is written with the people who do the job now, and it is the first thing we change when the job changes.

One job to a sheet. A second job is a second agent with a sheet of its own.

The limits are part of how the agent is built. An instruction can't take it past them, whoever gives it.

Nothing on the sheet replaces a system. The agent reads and writes where your people already do.

Approvals and the record

What leaves the business waits for a named person.

At the start, that covers every purchase order, quote, reminder and reply. The agent prepares the work and says what it checked. A person you named decides. Both halves go on the record.

Approval requestTo P. Kaur · 10:33

Send purchase order 7745 to your usual supplier (no. 0412 on your list)

Goes out: PO 7745, 200 × SS-BRK-204, by email from the purchasing inbox.
Checked: Supplier, price and terms match PO 7688.
Not checked: Whether 200 is still the right quantity. That is your call.
If no answer: Nothing is sent. P. Kaur is reminded at 2:00.

Approved by P. Kaur10:36

Fig. 3 · An approval request, and the record it leaves. An illustration.

Activity record · PO 7745Kept for every item

10:32Instruction“Order another 200 stainless steel brackets from our usual supplier.”
10:32AgentRead the item list, the purchasing history and the supplier price list.Each lookup names the system it came from.
10:33AgentPrepared PO 7745 as a draft. Asked P. Kaur for approval.
10:36P. KaurApproved.A person, by name, with the time.
10:36AgentSent PO 7745 from the purchasing inbox. Filed a copy against the order.
10:36P. KaurSent back with a note: make it 250.Nothing was sent.
10:37AgentRevised the draft to 250. Asked P. Kaur again.

The record is kept the same way whether the agent acted on its own or on an instruction. Trust and control

Several agents

Several agents, one console.

Each agent keeps to its own job and its own sheet. The console reads across all of them and puts what needs a person in the first row. We run the agents behind it. You use it to instruct, approve, pause and choose who is told.

ConsoleThursday, 10:40 · three agents running

	Order intake	Purchasing paperwork	Receivables follow-up
Needs you4 items	`4418`Ready for approval.Waiting on D. Okafor since 9:42 `4421`Size on the order differs from the quote.Asked M. Tran at 9:58	`PO 7745`Draft ready to send.Waiting on P. Kaur since 10:33	`3062`First reminder ready.Waiting on R. Bianchi since 8:31
In progress	`4422`Reading against the quote.	`PO 7702`Receipt recorded. Waiting for the supplier's invoice.	`3040`Follow-up scheduled for Tuesday.
Done today	9 orders checked and approved, 4417 among them.	3 deliveries matched to their purchase orders.	2 reminders sent, approved by R. Bianchi.
Approves	D. Okafor ▾	P. Kaur ▾	R. Bianchi ▾
This agent is	Running · Pause	Running · Pause	Running · Pause

Instruct or askWhy was order 4417 held?

Fig. 4 · Three agents in one console, mid-morning. An illustration. Finished work is a count. Anything waiting on a person is named, with who and since when.

Have us in

Show us the job that keeps getting dropped.

An hour at your place, with the documents on the table. We'll tell you plainly whether an agent could take that job, and what its job sheet would say.

Have us in The six jobs we start with