Agentforce-Driven Purchase Order to Commerce Automation

Posted on February 10th, 2026 by Kunal Bhardwaj, Mohit Kumar

Introduction

Purchase Orders (POs) are still widely exchanged as PDF documents. While PDFs work well for sharing information, they create significant friction when the data needs to be entered into downstream systems—especially commerce platforms. Manual data entry is time-consuming, error-prone, and hard to scale as order volumes increase.

To address this challenge, I implemented an automated solution that ingests PO PDFs into Salesforce Agentforce (Sales Cloud), Salesforce Agentforce (Sales Cloud) Salesforce B2C Commerce. The result is a faster, more reliable, and fully Salesforce-native order creation flow with minimal manual intervention.

The Problem

In many organizations, PO processing follows a familiar pattern:

  • Customers send Purchase Orders as PDF attachments
  • Sales or operations teams manually read and extract data
  • Orders are recreated manually in B2C Commerce
  • Errors, delays, and rework are common

Although OCR tools and middleware solutions exist, they often introduce additional complexity, latency, and maintenance overhead. Many also struggle with reliability when document formats vary.

Use Case Overview

Use Case:

Automatically ingest Purchase Order PDFs, extract relevant order data, and create corresponding orders in Salesforce B2C Commerce.

Who Benefits:

  • Sales teams: Reduced manual data entry
  • Commerce teams: Faster order creation
  • Customers: Quicker order fulfillment and improved experience

Solution Overview

The solution uses Salesforce Agentforce Sales Cloud as the entry point and orchestration layer between document ingestion and commerce order creation.

At a high level:

  • Agentforce receives the PO PDF
  • Order data is extracted and validated
  • Structured data is mapped to B2C Commerce models
  • Orders are created automatically in B2C Commerce

The entire workflow remains within the Salesforce ecosystem, reducing integration overhead and improving maintainability.

End-to-End Flow

1. PO PDF Upload (Agentforce LWC)

The process begins with an Agentforce UI built using a Lightning Web Component (Using Lightning Types).

  • The user uploads a Purchase Order PDF
  • On upload:
    • The file is saved as a ContentVersion
    • The associated ContentDocumentId is captured
  • The upload event triggers an Apex call to start processing

This ensures secure document storage and consistent access throughout the workflow.

End-to-End Flow

2. PDF Data Extraction Using Prompt Templates

Instead of relying on external OCR systems, the solution uses a Salesforce Prompt Template to extract structured data directly from the PDF.

Flow:

  • Apex calls the prompt template with the ContentVersion / Document Id
  • The prompt template extracts predefined fields such as:
    • Customer details
    • Product SKUs
    • Quantities
    • Pricing and totals
  • The response is returned as structured JSON

The extraction logic focuses on consistency and clarity rather than attempting to support every possible PO layout.

structured JSON

3. User Review and Confirmation

The extracted JSON data is returned to the LWC and displayed to the user.

At this stage:

  • Users can review the extracted order details
  • A Create Order button is provided
  • No order is created without explicit user action

This step acts as a lightweight validation layer and helps catch issues before commerce processing begins.

User Review and Confirmation

4. Order Creation (Apex + Queueable)

When the user clicks Create Order:

  • The LWC sends:
    • Extracted JSON data
    • Document Id
  • To a second Apex method

This Apex method:

  • Performs basic validations
  • Enqueues a Queueable Apex job for asynchronous processing

Using Queueable Apex ensures:

  • Non-blocking UI behavior
  • Better scalability
  • Clear separation of responsibilities

Order Creation

5. Basket Creation in B2C Commerce

The first Queueable job prepares the data for commerce integration.

Responsibilities:

  • Normalize and validate order data
  • Call B2C Commerce APIs using HTTP callouts
  • Create a Basket in B2C Commerce
  • Pass the generated Basket Id to the next Queueable job

This establishes the foundation for building the order step by step.

B2C Commerce

6. Adding Products, Addresses, and Payment

A second Queueable job completes the order using the Basket Id.

It performs the following actions:

  • Add products to the basket
  • Insert shipping address
  • Insert billing address
  • Attach payment method
  • Finalize and create the order in B2C Commerce

Each step is handled through dedicated service methods to keep the design modular and maintainable.

Error Handling and Reliability

Reliability was a key design goal:

  • Required fields are validated early
  • Incomplete or invalid POs are flagged
  • Errors are logged and surfaced clearly
  • Orders are never partially created without visibility

Rather than trying to handle every edge case automatically, the system prioritizes predictable behavior and clear failure states.

Results and Benefits

  • Significant reduction in manual data entry
  • Faster order processing from PO receipt to commerce system
  • Lower error rates caused by human intervention
  • Easier scalability as PO volumes increase

Even without full automation of every possible PO format, the time savings and operational improvements are substantial.

Limitations and Lessons Learned

  • The solution currently supports a defined set of PO formats
  • Poorly structured PDFs may still require manual review
  • Validation logic is critical and worth investing in early
  • Designing for clarity and failure scenarios proved more valuable than over-optimizing extraction logic

What’s Next

Potential future enhancements include:

  • Support for additional document types
  • Improved validation and enrichment logic
  • Feedback loops to continuously improve extraction accuracy
  • Deeper automation for exception handling

Conclusion

Automating Purchase Order processing from PDF to B2C Commerce using Agentforce Sales Cloud demonstrates how tightly integrated Salesforce tools can eliminate manual workflows. By focusing on a clear use case and a streamlined, service-based architecture, it’s possible to deliver real business value without unnecessary complexity.

This approach shows that even incremental automation—done well—can have a meaningful impact on speed, accuracy, and scalability.

Have questions? Learn more about our services at support@astreait.com or visit astreait.com to schedule a consultation.