AI-Based Procurment Automation for F&B | ERP Oracle Netsuite

Project Title: AI-Enabled Procurement Automation with WhatsApp and Oracle NetSuite

We are seeking an experienced freelancer or development team to design, develop and deploy an end-to-end procurement automation solution for an F&B / hospitality environment.

The solution should automate the procurement cycle from request creation through approval, Purchase Order creation in Oracle NetSuite, goods receipt, GRN / Item Receipt creation, variance reporting, notifications and audit trail.

Core Workflow

WhatsApp Request
→ AI Extraction
→ Item Matching
→ User Confirmation
→ Cut-Off Validation
→ Request Consolidation
→ Approval
→ NetSuite PO Creation
→ Goods Receipt
→ GRN / Item Receipt
→ PO vs GRN Variance
→ Management Reporting

Scope of Work

1. WhatsApp Procurement Requests

Authorized users should submit purchase requirements using:

• Text messages
• Voice notes
• Images

Each mobile number must link to a registered user, branch and business unit.

2. AI Request Extraction

The system should extract:

• Item
• Quantity
• Unit of measure
• Delivery date where provided
• Business unit
• Requester
• Instructions

Voice notes require speech-to-text processing.

Images require OCR / AI document understanding.

3. NetSuite Item Matching

Extracted items must match against the Oracle NetSuite Item Master.

Matching should support:

• Exact item descriptions
• Partial descriptions
• Abbreviations
• Spelling errors
• Common kitchen terminology
• Item aliases

The system should use confidence scoring.

Low-confidence or multiple matches must require user confirmation.

4. WhatsApp Confirmation

The system should send interpreted items back to the requester.

Example:

Fresh Tomato, 20 KG
Chicken Breast, 15 KG

Options:

Confirm
Edit
Cancel

Only confirmed requests should proceed.

5. Master Data

The solution should manage or synchronize:

• Users
• Phone numbers
• Business units
• Branches
• Delivery addresses
• Cut-off times
• Suppliers
• Item mappings
• Approval hierarchy

6. Cut-Off Validation

Each business unit should have a configurable procurement cut-off time.

Requests received before cut-off enter the current procurement cycle.

Requests received after cut-off move automatically to the next cycle.

The requester should receive a WhatsApp notification.

7. Request Consolidation

At cut-off time, confirmed requests should be consolidated based on:

• Supplier
• Business unit
• Item
• Delivery location
• Delivery date

Original branch quantities must remain traceable.

8. Approval Workflow

The system should support:

• Single or multi-level approvals
• Approval by value
• Approval by business unit
• Approval limits
• Approve
• Reject
• Return for correction
• Comments
• Escalations
• Full approval history

9. Oracle NetSuite Integration

Direct NetSuite integration is mandatory.

Required data and transactions include:

• Item Master
• Vendor Master
• Subsidiary
• Location
• Department / Class where applicable
• Purchase Orders
• PO status
• Item Receipts / GRNs

10. Automated PO Creation

After approval, automatically create the Purchase Order in NetSuite.

PO fields should include:

• Entity / subsidiary
• Supplier
• Location
• Items
• Quantities
• UOM
• Rates where applicable
• Delivery date
• Request reference
• Approval reference

The NetSuite PO number and internal ID must return to the application.

11. Supplier Communication

The solution should support automatic emailing of approved Purchase Orders to suppliers, including PO PDF attachment and communication history.

12. Goods Receipt

At delivery, users should record:

• PO number
• Delivery note image
• Invoice image where applicable
• Received quantities
• Damaged quantities
• Rejected quantities
• Comments

AI should extract delivery details and match them against the relevant Purchase Order.

13. Receipt Confirmation

Before posting the receipt, show:

• Ordered quantity
• Previously received quantity
• Current received quantity
• Remaining quantity
• Variance

User options:

Confirm
Edit
Report Issue
Reject

14. Automated GRN / Item Receipt

After confirmation, automatically create the NetSuite Item Receipt / GRN.

Capture:

• NetSuite internal ID
• GRN / Item Receipt number
• Posting status
• Errors

Partial receipts must be supported.

15. PO vs GRN Variance

Automatically identify:

• Short deliveries
• Excess deliveries
• Missing items
• Damaged quantity
• Rejected quantity
• Outstanding quantity

Variance reporting should be available by branch, supplier, item and date.

16. Exception Management

Create an exception queue for issues including:

• Unknown WhatsApp number
• Item not matched
• Multiple item matches
• Missing quantity
• Missing supplier
• NetSuite API error
• PO creation failure
• PO not found
• Receipt above PO quantity
• Duplicate request
• GRN posting failure

Authorized users should correct and retry failed transactions.

17. Dashboard

Provide a web dashboard showing:

• Requests
• Pending confirmations
• Pending approvals
• Approved / rejected requests
• POs created
• Open POs
• PO errors
• Goods received
• Pending GRNs
• GRN errors
• PO vs GRN variances
• Exceptions

Filters should include date, entity, branch, supplier, item, PO and status.

18. Management Reporting

Automated reports should cover:

• Procurement requests
• Purchase Orders
• Outstanding POs
• Goods receipts
• PO vs GRN variance
• Exceptions
• Branch performance
• Supplier performance
• Approval turnaround

Notifications should support WhatsApp and email.

19. Audit Trail

Maintain a complete audit history covering:

Request
→ AI Extraction
→ Item Match
→ Confirmation
→ Cut-Off
→ Approval
→ PO
→ Receipt
→ GRN
→ Variance

Audit data should include users, timestamps, changes, AI results, approvals, NetSuite references, errors and notifications.

20. Security

Required controls:

• Role-based access
• Authorized WhatsApp numbers
• Secure authentication
• Secure API credentials
• Encrypted communication
• Activity logs
• Error logs
• Backup and recovery
• Production access controls

Required Deliverables

• Functional specification
• Technical architecture
• Database design
• WhatsApp integration
• AI extraction
• Voice processing
• Image processing
• Item matching
• Cut-off workflow
• Approval workflow
• NetSuite integration
• Automated PO creation
• Goods receipt workflow
• Automated GRN creation
• Variance reporting
• Exception management
• Dashboard
• Notifications
• Audit trail
• Admin portal
• Source code
• API documentation
• Deployment documentation
• UAT support
• Production deployment
• Training
• Post-go-live support

Mandatory Experience

Applicants must demonstrate experience with:

• Oracle NetSuite SuiteTalk REST / SOAP
• NetSuite Purchase Orders
• NetSuite Item Receipts
• WhatsApp Business API
• AI / LLM integrations
• Speech-to-text
• OCR / image processing
• API development
• Workflow automation
• Cloud deployment

F&B or hospitality procurement experience is preferred.

NetSuite integration experience is mandatory.

Proposal Submission

Please provide:

• Relevant portfolio
• NetSuite integration examples
• WhatsApp automation examples
• Proposed architecture
• Technology stack
• Timeline
• Milestones
• Fixed project price
• Third-party/API costs
• Warranty period
• Post-go-live support

Acceptance Criteria

The standard process must work end-to-end without manual re-entry into NetSuite:

WhatsApp Request
→ AI Extraction
→ Item Matching
→ User Confirmation
→ Cut-Off Check
→ Approval
→ NetSuite PO
→ Goods Receipt
→ NetSuite GRN
→ Variance Reporting
→ Management Reporting

Full source code, documentation and technical ownership must be transferred at project completion.