Supply’d adds AI assistant and invoice agent to ERP

Supply’d has expanded its food industry ERP with an AI assistant for authorised queries, a separate agent for supplier invoice reconciliation and a read-only connection for compatible external assistants. Version 5.5 also changes weight-based invoicing, expense review screens and API authentication. The three AI interfaces are not interchangeable: Ask Supply’d and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) connection are in read-only beta, while a more powerful Expense Agent is being tested privately with selected customers.

Ask Supply’d provides a natural-language interface to information that users are already entitled to access. Staff can question business records and search platform guidance without moving through separate screens and reports. The initial assistant is read-only: it can investigate and return information but cannot change an order, stock balance or another operational record. Existing user permissions determine what information each person can retrieve, so the system’s usefulness depends on the completeness of the underlying records and the rights assigned to the person making the request.

Supplier invoice reconciliation is a separate function with more consequential permissions. The Expense Agent is designed to review incoming supplier expenses, identify mismatches and recommend corrective actions. Depending on the discrepancy, the company says it can alter invoice lines, correct tax details, adjust carton quantities, schedule supplier price updates or request a credit. Approval is required by default before actions are taken, although customers can choose to allow automatic approval for specific action types after evaluating the agent. That option does not make automated approval the platform-wide default.

Invoice discrepancies can arise before a supplier sends its bill. A purchase order may specify a carton count, a goods receipt may record a different delivered quantity, and a later invoice may apply a changed unit cost or tax treatment. The Expense Agent can investigate these differences against accessible records, but a proposed correction is not proof that the invoice is wrong. The default approval step preserves a point at which staff can check physical receipts, agreed prices and supplier credits before changes enter the financial record.

The MCP connection is another read-only route into ERP information. It permits compatible external assistants to request authorised data, subject to the user’s permissions, but the initial beta cannot alter business records. Future write functions are planned with an additional control framework. The protocol establishes how an assistant may access information; it does not itself determine how an organisation evaluates the connected assistant, configures access or governs information after retrieval. These implementation questions remain separate from the supplier invoice agent’s approval process.

Version 5.5 also changes the underlying expense reconciliation screen. Invoice issue dates are brought into the main review interface, line subtotals and tax indicators are more prominent, and staff can correct supplier stock-keeping-unit references manually. Users can also adjust which fields appear in expense lists and sort lines by brand. These measures address the basic comparison work that exists whether or not the AI agent is enabled. A clearly displayed subtotal, for example, allows a reviewer to identify whether an apparent variance arises from a unit price, quantity or tax field.

Variable-weight invoicing addresses a different problem in food distribution. Meat, seafood, cheese and fresh produce may be ordered as a specified number of units but supplied at a final weight that cannot be known until packing. In V5.5 the customer can order by unit, the warehouse records the actual picked weight during Pick & Pack, and the invoice is calculated from kilograms supplied. Enabling the order-synchronisation option updates the order after packing; it is not an unconditional change to every order. Accurate recorded weights remain essential if invoices and the quantities actually dispatched are to agree.

The technical notes also specify a change in how carton quantities are interpreted. A carton quantity becomes a display-only field rather than automatically multiplying the quantity used for picking or stock deduction. Customers whose processes depend on that multiplication are directed to use a quantity multiple or bundled item instead. Such changes require configuration review because an established order template could otherwise produce a different physical pick from the one previously expected. The documented option allows customers to preserve the required unit logic, but it is not proof that all existing configurations will migrate without intervention.

API clients can now authenticate using OAuth, while existing API keys remain supported pending a future deprecation. No cut-off date has been published. Businesses integrating ordering, stock or accounting services will therefore have to test their connection methods separately from the AI rollout. Likewise, Supply’d’s usage-token model charges for processing undertaken by its AI functions, so the commercial case for adopting an assistant cannot be inferred from the existence of a feature alone. The supplier has not published comparable, independently measured savings across participating customers.

Read-only answers can help staff locate information without granting software permission to amend stock, supplier terms or accounts. By contrast, the Expense Agent can schedule price changes or request credits only within the selected customer’s control settings; approval is the default, not a guarantee that every organisation will retain manual review after configuration. The current release establishes the available controls and beta scope, while wider agent availability and measured reconciliation results remain unreported.