The distributor already sent you the integration
Every supplier quote arrives as a PDF. Somebody retypes it into a quote, introduces an error, and loses an hour. Photon reads the file instead: lines and costs in place, margin ready for you to set. No feed to configure, no catalogue to sync.
Where this stands: In development, alongside the quote builder it feeds. Everything on this page describes what is being built. The roadmap has the timing; the prices are published already.
Where the hour goes
The retyping is the job
A multi-line hardware quote is twenty minutes of copying part numbers and costs into another system. Multiply by every deal in a week and it is a day nobody planned for.
Retyped numbers are wrong numbers
A transposed cost does not announce itself. It shows up as a deal that made less than it should have, weeks later, in the accounts.
Catalogue integrations are their own project
Feed-based quoting means onboarding every supplier, mapping every catalogue, and maintaining it as they change. The suppliers who do not offer a feed stay manual anyway.
Four steps, and you approve the third
The order matters more than the mechanism: nothing becomes a quote until you have seen what was read.
The quote arrives, however it arrives
Forward it from your inbox or drop the file in. There is nothing to set up per supplier, because the PDF is the interface rather than an API you have to be granted.
Photon reads it into lines
Descriptions, quantities and cost prices come across as structured lines rather than a block of text, ready to work with.
You check what it read
The extraction is shown against the source before any of it becomes a quote. It drafts, you decide. Nothing is sent on the strength of a machine reading a document.
You set the margin
Cost, sell and margin sit side by side on every line. The client sees one clean price, and the spread stays visible to you while you build it.
What it deliberately does not do
Two of these are boundaries we chose, and one of them is the whole design.
It drafts, it does not send
Every extraction is reviewed before it becomes a quote. A model reading a document is a starting point, not an authority.
It does not price your deal
Photon brings the costs across. What you charge on top is a commercial decision and stays yours.
It does not connect to your suppliers
Deliberately. There is no feed to negotiate and no catalogue to keep in sync, which is why it works the same on the supplier who has an API and the one who never will.
It is in development
This describes what is being built, not something you can use today. The roadmap carries the timing and the prices are already published.
Questions about the ingest
- What happens to a supplier quote I forward in?
- Photon reads it into structured lines with descriptions, quantities and cost prices attached. You see the extraction against the source document and confirm it before any of it becomes a quote.
- Do I have to integrate with my distributor?
- No, and that is the point. The PDF they already send you is the interface, so there is no feed to configure and no catalogue to keep in sync. It works the same on a supplier who offers an API and one who never will.
- What if it reads something wrong?
- You review the extraction before it becomes a quote, against the original document. It drafts and you decide, so a misread line is a correction rather than a mispriced deal.
- Does it set the price as well as the cost?
- No. It brings the costs across and puts margin in front of you on every line. What you charge on top stays a commercial decision.
- Can it read any supplier PDF?
- It is built for the quote and price-list documents suppliers actually send rather than one fixed template. Where a document defeats it, you get the lines it did read and fill the rest in, instead of starting from nothing.
- Can I use this today?
- Not yet. It is in development alongside the quote builder it feeds. The roadmap carries the timing, the prices are published already, and the first customers are shaping the order things land in.
Stop retyping the PDF.
The people on early access are shaping exactly this piece. Founder pricing is locked for the lifetime of the account, and a real person answers every question.