For distributors and service centers

Your ERP records the sale. The money arrives weeks later.

What happens in between —emails, delivery notes, evidence, approvals, collections— is covered by no system. Today it is held up by people chasing information.

Patok Office is that layer: it turns the emails and documents that already move your operation into case files with an owner, a deadline, and follow-up — so the order advances and the payment does not get stuck.

See how it works

Steel, service centers, industrial distribution. Different industries, the same problem: the business only moves if somebody chases information.

Case file

PTK-EMBARQUE-4KML

60%completo
Order
PED-2026-0412
Carrier
Gulf Freight
Delivered
Aug 2 · 30 t
Signed delivery note
missing
Heat certificate
missing

Today 9:00 · the agent wrote

“Good morning. We are missing the signed delivery note and the heat certificate for order PED-2026-0412.”

Nobody wrote it. Nobody remembered. It is the third day it has followed up.

The problem

Your counterparties are never going logging into your system.

The mill, the supplier, the carrier, the site foreman. They are not going to install an app or create an account. The only thing everyone uses is email.

The signed delivery note — you delivered two weeks ago and nobody has uploaded it
The mill certificate — they said they would send it and that was that
Did they confirm 30 t or 20? — the answer is in somebody else's inbox
Where the order stands — you have to ask three people to find out

That is why the order was delivered and still cannot be invoiced.

An email arrives. A case file comes out.

Your supplier writes the way they always write, in plain text, with no template. On the other side, the case file builds itself with the data and the documents.

01

It comes in where it already comes in

Every process has its own email address. They write to it directly, or you forward the email the supplier already sent you. No forms, no templates: plain text.

02

It builds itself

It extracts the data, files the attachments, and recognizes which document each one is. A phone photo works — it does not need to be a scan.

03

It chases what is missing

It replies in the same thread asking for exactly what is missing, and follows up every day. Once a day per case file, not one more.

And when it is not sure

If the reference is not enough to know which case file it belongs to, the system does not guess.

It leaves the email in the Inbox showing the possible case files, and you pick with one click. A wrongly matched data point costs more than a click.

The chain

Delivered is not billable.

The material has shipped, the customer has received it — and the order still cannot be invoiced because one document is missing. Patok knows that difference and resolves it on its own.

Order · reference from your ERP

PED-2026-0412

40 t · 3/8 rebar · Peninsular Construction

Released
  1. Supply confirmationconfirmed 30 t
  2. Shipping and deliverydelivery note signed
  3. Document case file5 de 5
    POInvoiceBill of ladingCertificateDelivery note
  4. Issuesnothing to report

Invoicing

Released for invoicing

  1. 01 · The order comes in

    With the reference from your ERP

    The same number on both sides, with no translation table. If your system calls it PED-2026-0412, in Patok it is called the same.

  2. 02 · The stations open

    Each with its own case file

    The supplier confirms, the carrier delivers. When one closes, the next one opens on its own with the data already carried over. Nobody drags cards around.

  3. 03 · The paperwork arrives

    Document by document

    The PO, the invoice, the bill of lading, the heat certificate, and the signed delivery note. Each one arrives by email and is filed where it belongs.

  4. 04 · It is released

    And only then can it be invoiced

    Once every station has closed and the case file is complete. The customer is notified automatically.

As long as one document is missing the order stays open, even if the material has already been delivered. That is on purpose.

Integration

Your ERP stays untouched. It does not even notice.

The question is always the same: "does it integrate with my SAP?". The answer is that any ERP knows how to email a CSV. That is enough to start on Monday — no API, no connector, no IT project.

And when the case file closes, the data goes back to your system with the same reference it came out with.

What you have to provide

1An email domain (or a subdomain) so the case files have a mailbox.
2A sample file from your ERP: the headers become the fields, with no mapping screen.
3Telling us which column is the reference. That is the only required decision.

What makes it safe to run unattended

A closed case is not reopened by the file

If you have already called it done, the next export does not resurrect it.

What you did by hand is never overwritten

The file only governs the case files it created itself.

What disappears is flagged, never deleted

An order that stops appearing in the file gets flagged so someone looks at it.

If more than half disappears, it asks

A partial export would flag hundreds of live cases. At that point it stops and asks for confirmation.

The file only governs what it created itself. Everything else is somebody else's work, and it is left alone.

When this happens, do this.

No programming, no formulas, and nothing to ask IT for. Three steps: what it does, when, and how far it can push before it becomes annoying.

When this happens

A case file closesEvery 30 minutesEvery day at 9:00

If this is true

It has been 6 days with no activityAll of its children are closedThe certificate is missing

Then

Write asking for what is missingOpen the next case fileNotify your ERP

Before you turn it on, a button tells you how many case files match right now — and which ones.

12 case files

The questions no filter lets you ask

Is it still open?How complete is it?Days without activityAre all of its children closed?Is it due tomorrow?Does it have an owner?AgeIs this document missing?

What it can do

Send an emailOpen the next case fileMark the order releasedNotify your ERPPass data down to the childWrite on the parent

What you see. And what comes to you on its own.

The board

One column per process and one card per live case file, with its progress, its priority, and its owner. At a glance you know where the money is stuck.

The case file

The data with what is missing in red and editable in one click, the full conversation in order, the files with a preview, and who did what and when.

The Inbox

Every email that came in, including what could not be classified — with the reason in plain language and the candidate processes so you can assign it yourself.

Your inbox · 07:00

reports@yourcompany.patok.in

Today's operation · Aug 4 · 12 overdue, 4 due today

The day's queues

Overdue12
Due today4
No update in 7 days9
Ready to release6
Closed without evidence2

Someone with nothing assigned gets nothing sent to them. The recurring empty email is what makes people stop opening them.

How you start.

One process, the one that hurts most. Not all five at once.

01

We pick one process

The one that hurts most: collections, the document case file, supplier confirmation. Just one.

02

We give it a mailbox

An address where that process's emails arrive, and the sample file from your ERP so we know which fields it carries.

03

It runs for a week

With your real emails and your real suppliers. At the end you see how many case files closed themselves and how many are still waiting.

Nothing to install. Not at your company and not at your suppliers' — they keep writing emails, same as always.

The order moves forward. The payment does not get stuck.

Send us an export of your orders and we will tell you, with your own data, how long it takes between delivering and being able to invoice — and where it is getting stuck.

See the data analyst

Start with one process · No ERP changes · Your suppliers create no account