Unit of measure conversion: case, pallet or piece, how to enter the right quantity

An order line that says “10” can mean 10 pieces, 10 boxes or 10 cases. To enter the right quantity, you need to recognise the unit the customer is using, match it to the pack sizes defined in the ERP for that item, apply the right conversion factor, then check that the result is consistent with the price, the customer’s history and the sales multiples. AI can do this line by line and flag to sales admin the cases that do not add up.

Order unit, sales unit, stock unit: what are we talking about?

Before converting anything, it helps to separate notions that often get mixed up day to day:

• The stock unit (or base unit): the unit the ERP counts the item in. A piece, a metre, a kilo, a roll.
• The sales unit: the unit you sell and often invoice in. A box of 100 screws, a pack of 6 rolls, a drum of cable.
• The pack hierarchy: the packaging levels and their factors. A piece, a bag of 10, a case of 20 bags, a pallet of 40 cases.
• The sales multiple: the minimum quantity or the allowed increment. You do not sell an opened bag.
• The customer’s unit: the one they use in their own software, which does not always relate to yours.

Conversion means going from the last of these to the first without losing information along the way. Once the item has been identified (the subject of our article on customer references), the remaining question is how many to enter.

The situations that catch sales admin out

A few cases come up again and again, whatever the sector.

A quantity with no unit. “Folded hand towels: 8”. Eight packs, or eight cases of twenty packs? For a hygiene supplies distributor, the gap amounts to several pallets at picking.

A customer who has already converted. They write “288 pieces” because their software works in units, while you sell by the case of 24. The quantity is right, but you need to enter 12 cases, not 288 cases.

A word that does not match. The customer says “parcel”, the ERP says “case”, the supplier says “consumer unit”. Or they say “crate” for what you call a pallet.

A quantity that does not divide evenly. 45 pipe clips when they are sold in bags of 10. Round up to 50, down to 40, or ask?

Prices per hundred or per thousand. For screws, labels or small hardware, prices are often quoted per 100 or 1,000 pieces. A factor-of-100 mistake on price or quantity can easily slip through.

Catch-weight items. In food distribution, a customer orders three cases of cheese cut to order, which you invoice by the kilo. The quantity ordered and the quantity invoiced are not in the same unit.

A pack size that has changed. The supplier has moved from cases of 12 to cases of 10. The customer keeps ordering “2 cases”, expecting 24 units.

A worked example, line by line

Take a hypothetical order received in the body of an email by a plumbing and heating wholesaler, from a plumbing contractor:

“Hi, please prepare for Thursday: 2 cases brass elbows 15x21, PEX 16 bare 3 coils, 45 pipe clips dia. 32, 1 fibre washers 15x21 (€4.80). Thanks.”

Here is how each line is handled:

• Brass elbows 15x21, 2 cases. The item is managed by the piece in the ERP, with a case of 25. The customer gave the unit and the factor is known: 50 pieces. Nothing to flag.
• PEX 16 bare, 3 coils. The item is stocked by the metre and sold in 100 m coils. 3 coils make 300 m. The conversion is safe, provided the 100 m coil is the only pack size; if a 50 m coil also exists, the line needs checking.
• Pipe clips dia. 32, 45. The item is sold in bags of 10. 45 is not a multiple. Depending on the rule set for this customer, the quantity is rounded up to the next bag (5 bags) or the line is flagged for sales admin to decide.
• Fibre washers 15x21, 1, at €4.80. A single washer costs a few cents; the bag of 100 is priced at €4.80. The price the customer wrote shows they mean a bag, not a washer. Without this check, a single piece would have been entered.

Out of four lines, two convert without difficulty, one depends on a customer-specific rule, and one is only right because the price was taken into account. That is typical of what sales admin handles all day long.

Checks to run after conversion

Multiplying by a factor is not enough. A reliable conversion is checked from several angles:

• Does the pack size exist for this item? A customer asking for “1 pallet” of a product never sold by the pallet should be flagged, not interpreted.
• Does the result respect the sales multiples? If not, the rule defined for this customer applies: rounding, or a question.
• Is the price consistent with the unit chosen? If the customer quotes a price, it should match the converted unit, allowing for minor pricing differences.
• Does the quantity look like the customer’s usual orders? A customer who normally orders 2 cases and now asks for 200 has probably written pieces.
• Is there enough stock? A correct conversion that exceeds available stock should trigger the same alert as any other line.

None of these checks is complicated. The problem is doing them on every line, all day, without missing one.

What Eledone does

Eledone reads the unit the customer used together with the reference and quantity, whether the order arrives as a PDF, an Excel file, in the body of the email or as a scan. It looks up the item’s units and pack sizes in your ERP, applies the factor, then checks the result against the quoted price, the customer’s history and their terms.

When everything lines up, the line follows the rules defined with you: direct entry or validation. When some doubt remains (missing unit, a quantity that does not divide evenly, a price that does not fit), the line is flagged with a low confidence score and the team decides. Specific rules, such as “for this customer, always round up to the next case”, are set customer by customer and product by product. You will find how it works on our order entry page.

Getting your pack data in shape

AI interprets a request; it cannot invent a conversion factor that exists nowhere. Before automating, a few checks in the ERP make the result far more reliable:

• every item has its pack sizes recorded, with up-to-date factors, including when the supplier changes packaging;
• unit labels are clear (case, pack, bag…) and consistent from one item to the next;
• sales multiples are defined, so the tool knows what is allowed;
• rounding rules are decided and written down, rather than left to each person’s judgement.

This work also benefits the warehouse and invoicing teams, well beyond order entry.

Frequently asked questions

What happens if the customer gives no unit?

AI relies on the item’s usual sales unit, the customer’s history and the price, if one is given. If these clues are not enough to remove the doubt, the line is flagged rather than entered at random.

Can quantities be rounded up to the next pack size automatically?

Yes, if that is your rule for this customer or item. Some companies prefer to round up, others want sales admin to confirm with the customer. Both work, as long as the rule is decided in advance.

How are catch-weight items handled?

The quantity ordered (in cases or pieces) is entered in the unit set in the ERP, and invoicing by actual weight happens afterwards, as it does today. What matters is that the order unit is correctly recognised at the start.

How can we check this on our own orders?

The simplest way is to take a real order, with its cases, pallets and quantities that do not divide evenly, and submit it through our online trial.

Want to see how your pack sizes are converted on your own orders?
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