Quotes
Automatic standardization of quotations: ten supplier formats, one output structure
Automatic standardization of quotations brings every quote received (PDF, scan, spreadsheet, email) to a single structure: same columns, same units, same references, same conventions for rebates and charges. Capture detects the source format, extracts the lines, brings them to the common format and shows you every transformation. The standardized quote is ready to be compared, checked or integrated.
The problem
As many formats as suppliers
A quote is a free-form document. Each supplier puts in its own columns, units and conventions. Before any use, someone has to bring everything to the same format, by hand, and again for the next quote from the same supplier, because nothing was kept from the previous one.
Time lost reformatting
Copying lines, renaming columns, separating the rebate from the net price, adding the missing unit: an hour per quote, more when the table runs over three pages.
Interpretation errors
A price excluding tax read as including tax, a lot counted as a piece, a percentage rebate taken for an amount. Manual reformatting creates the error it was meant to avoid.
An approval process that stretches
As long as the quote is not in the expected format, nobody can approve, compare or enter it. Standardization is the bottleneck nobody sees.
The mechanism
From source format to common format, one transformation at a time
Capture starts by detecting the source format: native PDF, scan, image, spreadsheet, email body, feed from a portal. It recognises the structure of the document (header, terms, line table, subtotals, annexes) and extracts each line with its reference, description, quantity, unit, unit price, rebate and amount. The position of each value in the original document is kept.
Then comes the common format. The output structure is yours: the columns your procurement tool or ERP expects, in the expected order. Units are harmonised to your reference unit, with the factor displayed. References are aligned with your taxonomy and, when the article is known, with your repository. Rebates are expressed under a single convention; ancillary charges are taken out of the unit price and given their own line.
Every transformation is visible and reversible: original unit and target unit, supplier reference and internal reference, gross price and net price. What the agent cannot convert with certainty is flagged, not guessed. You approve on one screen, and the standardized quote comes out in the requested format: spreadsheet, structured file, export to your tool.
The use case: piece, lot, metre, kilo, every conversion displayed.
What is harmonised
Six things brought to a single convention
The convention is yours, defined once. Every quote is brought to it, and every transformation keeps the original value alongside.
The structure
Same columns, same order, same separation between lines, options and charges, whatever the original document.
The units
Every quantity and price brought to the reference unit of your taxonomy, conversion factor visible.
The references
Supplier reference kept, internal reference added when the article is known, attachment displayed.
The rebates
Percentage rebate, net price, end-of-quote rebate: one convention on output, original detail alongside.
Taxes and charges
Price excluding tax made explicit, transport and ancillary charges isolated, never melted into a unit price.
Currencies and languages
Original currency kept, conversion displayed with its rate and date; description in its language and attachment to the item.
The journey
Four steps, from intake to approval
The journey is the same for every supplier, known or new. No template to build per supplier.
- 01
Intake
The quote arrives by dedicated mailbox, upload, SFTP or API. It is detected and attached to its tender and its supplier.
- 02
Reading
The source format is detected, the structure recognised, each line extracted with its position in the document.
- 03
Standardization
Structure, units, references, rebates, charges, currencies: each element is brought to your convention, transformation displayed.
- 04
Approval
Uncertain points are presented to you. You approve or correct; the standardized quote is exported in the requested format.
What changes
What you get, by function
The hundred-line quote no longer costs an hour of reformatting. The quote from a supplier never seen before costs no template, and the tenth quote of the month costs no more attention than the first. And the standardized quote then lives in your repository, where it stays findable, line by line, months later. From 15 to 45 % of time returned to teams, per FTE, depending on scope and data maturity.
Purchasing
A unified view of the quotes received, comparable on arrival, and price tracking that no longer depends on each supplier’s format.
Finance
Data in the right format from the start, entries and commitments prepared without re-keying, and full traceability: every standardized value points to its source.
Operations
Quick approval on a single screen and fewer administrative tasks between the request and the order.
The next step: the standardized quote flows into your tools, without re-keying.
Capture
Gather and consolidate all your procurement data.
Collection by dedicated mailbox, upload, SFTP, scan, API or ERP export. Reads every format (native PDF, scan, photo, spreadsheet, structured feed), then extracts line by line: supplier, references, quantities, unit prices, discounts, taxes, terms.
The end of re-entry. A procurement history you can finally query.
What Capture detects
- Long documents and multi-page tables
- Unknown layouts
- Several languages and currencies
- Poor scans and handwriting
Nothing is lost. Everything can be checked, everything can be proven.
- The contract clause and the invoice line, highlighted side by side.
- Every extracted value stays linked to the exact place in the document where it was read.
- The same case produces the same decision, today as in six months: the rules are applied deterministically.
- No discrepancy is set aside in silence. Anything that matches no rule is raised, with its reason.
- The agent records what it did, in the order it did it: who, what, how much, when.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a template per supplier?
No. The structure of each document is recognised at reading time, not from a prepared model, so a supplier never seen before is handled like the others from its first quote. Your corrections are remembered for that supplier and applied next time, without any model being trained on your data.
Who defines the output format?
You do. The target structure is the one your procurement tool, ERP or comparison spreadsheet expects: columns, order, reference unit, rebate convention, tax treatment. It is defined once with you and applies to every quote from then on. Several output formats can coexist if your tools differ, and a quote can be exported to more than one.
What happens when a conversion is uncertain?
It is flagged, not done silently. A missing unit, a lot whose content is not specified, a rebate whose base is ambiguous are presented to you with the original line and the agent’s reading of it. You decide in one click; the standardized value carries a note of your decision, and the same case is handled the same way next time.
Does the standardized quote replace the original?
No. The original is kept as received and every standardized value stays linked to the exact place where it was read: document, page, line. In a dispute with the supplier, the original document is what counts, and you reach it in one click from any line of the standardized version.
Measurable impact in every environment
More than 5 million procurement documents analysed
Between 1 and 7% of margin recovered
on the scope analysed
From 15 to 45% of time given back to teams, per FTE
depending on the scope and on data maturity
Zylio fits into your existing ecosystem.
The ERP runs the process. Zylio handles the exception and recovers the value that escapes it: invoices without a purchase order, line-by-line price discrepancies, duplicates and overbilling, off-contract spend.
Your data under high security.
Zylio meets the most demanding standards, and nothing is committed without your approval.
- Certifications
- Hosting
- Encryption
- Access
Read next
- AI standardizationQuotes, price schedules, catalogues and rate cards brought to one usable structure, with proof on each line.
- Standardizing contractsBring every supplier contract into one common structure, without rewriting a single word, so you can compare and query them at will.
- Automatic integration of supplier quotationsThe quote received by email or portal, read, checked and returned to your ERP as structured lines, without re-keying.
- PDF extraction of purchase dataTurning PDFs into structured, consistent and sourced purchase data, ready for analysis.
- Book a demoThree of your quotes, three formats, one output structure, live.
See what this looks like on your own data
Twenty minutes, on a spend category of your choosing. We show you what the agents detect, with the evidence behind it.
- No commitment, on your own data
- Result in 3 weeks
- 20 minutes, no sales pitch
- Your data stays hosted in France
- No change of tool or process