ERP AI Agents for UK Businesses: Drafts in Sage, NetSuite, Odoo or Xero

It is software that handles one office job inside the system that runs your stock, orders and accounts. It reads what arrives, such as a customer email asking for prices or a supplier bill as a PDF, looks up the matching records in your ERP and fills in a draft quote, order or bill. A named person on your team approves the draft. Only then does it post, under the agent’s own login.

Start with what your ERP already supports, then pick the model for the job. Oracle’s FAQ names Claude Pro and ChatGPT as AI clients its NetSuite connector currently supports. Odoo 19’s documentation names ChatGPT and Gemini for its AI app. Microsoft builds the Business Central Sales Order Agent on Azure OpenAI. For a custom agent we choose the model with you, by task, data rules and where the data may be processed.

Built-in assistants cover the jobs their maker chose, in the way the maker chose. Microsoft’s FAQ says the Business Central Sales Order Agent works only with sales quotes and orders, and reads email from a shared Exchange inbox. A custom agent is built around your process: purchase orders, supplier bills, marketplace orders, a second system such as Linnworks, or your own approval chain. Many firms use both.

Not in anything we build. The agent saves a draft and a named person approves it before it posts. The agent also signs in as its own user, with only the permissions that job needs, so the audit trail shows who did what. Microsoft takes the same line: its Business Central agent asks a person to review every outgoing message and does not post documents.

Yes. Microsoft’s documentation describes the Sales Order Agent: it watches a mailbox, finds the customer, checks stock, creates a sales quote and, once the customer confirms, converts it into an order. It always creates a quote first, because quotes do not affect planning or stock. Designated users approve every outgoing email. Microsoft says it is billed in Copilot Credits, its own usage units, so set up billing before you switch it on.

For the jobs outside its stated limits. Microsoft’s FAQ says the agent does not create items, contacts or customers, does not post documents, cannot change a sales order after it exists, and does not handle invoices, credit memos or purchase orders. It also says partners cannot extend it yet. A custom agent can draft purchase orders and supplier bills, or take orders from a marketplace feed, beside Microsoft’s agent.

Xero AI goes by the name JAX, short for Just Ask Xero. Xero’s September 2025 release describes JAX automating bank reconciliations, data entry and getting paid. Its July 2026 Xerocon London release adds document capture, bank matching, payment follow-ups and XeroForce, a plain-English builder for agents that link Xero to other apps. It says checks on bills before payment are coming, with no date. Neither release gives UK dates per feature.

Not on its own. An AI model needs a connection that signs in to your Xero organisation and is allowed to read or write specific records. Xero publishes a developer platform that uses OAuth 2.0 sign-in, and its July 2026 release describes XeroForce for building agents that connect Xero to third-party apps. A custom agent we build connects through Xero’s API, under its own permissions, with your approval step in front of every write.

No. They come from different companies. Sage Copilot is the name Sage uses for its own AI assistant. Microsoft Copilot is Microsoft’s, and in Business Central Microsoft documents the Sales Order Agent, which drafts quotes and orders from customer emails. If you run Sage 50, Sage 200 or Sage Intacct, ask Sage or your reseller in writing which Copilot features your licence includes, then plan a custom agent around the gaps.

Pick the accounting system on fit first: stock, number of companies, your accountant’s preference and the reports you need. On AI, one difference is public. Xero’s July 2026 release describes XeroForce, a builder for your own agents linked to other apps. Sage names its assistant Sage Copilot, and we could not read Sage’s own pages to compare features. A custom agent works with either, through an API or a file export.

Yes. Oracle’s help centre says NetSuite has adopted the Model Context Protocol, a standard for connecting AI tools to business systems, and offers a free SuiteApp called MCP Standard Tools. Its FAQ says the connector is not a paid feature, though your AI client may need a paid plan, and that it does not support Administrator roles. Give the agent its own role with only the permissions the job needs.

Yes, through Odoo’s External JSON-2 API, which uses API keys. Odoo 19’s documentation says the older XML-RPC and JSON-RPC addresses (the earlier ways in) are removed in Odoo Online 21.1 in winter 2027 and Odoo 22 in autumn 2028. Build anything new on JSON-2. Odoo also says the External API is not available on One App Free or Standard plans, so check your plan first.

Yes, if each system’s owner is agreed first. In most UK stacks the order system holds channel orders and stock movements, and Sage holds customers, credit terms and the ledger. The agent reads from the system that owns each record and writes only where the map says it may. We check what your Sage edition and order system expose, by API or export, before we quote.

It can prepare them for your ERP. Marketplace orders usually reach the ERP through an order system such as Linnworks, Brightpearl or Mintsoft, or through a connector. The agent’s job is the exceptions: an unknown SKU, a trade buyer ordering through a marketplace, a price below your floor, or an address Royal Mail, DPD or Evri will reject. It flags each one with the reason, for a person to clear.

It can sit inside them. VAT Notice 700/22 says Making Tax Digital requires all VAT-registered businesses to keep records digitally, and that data moving between software must travel by digital link. API transfer is on HMRC’s list of accepted links; copy and paste is not. An agent that writes to your ERP through its API keeps that chain intact. Your accountant should still check the whole set-up against the notice.

Yes, against the fields HMRC lists. VAT Notice 700, paragraph 16.3.1, says a full VAT invoice shows a unique number, the time of supply, the supplier’s VAT registration number, the VAT rate and amount before VAT for each line, and the total VAT in sterling. The agent flags any missing field. GOV.UK runs a service to check a UK VAT number is valid, and a person can confirm a flagged one there.

The agents on this page draft records for a person to approve, so a human makes the decision. Where a business does use solely automated decisions with significant effects, GOV.UK says the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, which received Royal Assent on 19 June 2025, sets a more permissive framework with safeguards: people must be told, can challenge the decision and can obtain human intervention. Take data protection advice for your case.

It can. Article 2 covers firms outside the EU that build an AI system (providers) or use one (deployers) where its output is used in the Union. A UK wholesaler running an agent only on its own UK books differs from one whose agent emails quotes to EU buyers. The European Commission says the Act became applicable on 2 August 2026, with some exceptions.

FactoryJet designs, builds and supports custom AI agents for UK businesses on Sage, Xero, NetSuite, Business Central and Odoo. Our ERP work covers Odoo, NetSuite, SAP Business One, ERPNext and custom ERPs, on RFQ automation (requests for quotation), daily bookkeeping and purchase and sales order generation. We work beside your ERP partner and your accountant, and we show working software on your own data before you sign.

Two published UK ranges. Fulminous puts a back-office agent covering data entry, invoice processing and multi-system workflows at £30,000 to £90,000, excluding VAT. LeverX puts a single-workflow agent at £10,000 to £30,000 and a multi-step agent with integrations at £30,000 to £80,000, and does not say whether its figures include VAT. These are market figures, not our prices. FactoryJet quotes a fixed price per phase in writing after scoping.

LeverX’s UK guide lists 5 to 9 weeks for a single-workflow agent and 10 to 18 weeks for a multi-step agent with integrations. An agent that only reads and answers is quicker than one that writes orders. The slow part is often access: a test copy of your ERP, a role for the agent, sign-off from the system owner and your accountant agreeing the posting rules. Our timeline goes in writing with the quote.

Yes. Before a contract we show working software on your own data. For an ERP agent that usually means a quote request you have already answered, or a week of supplier bills, run through a first version in a test copy of your ERP. You compare its drafts with what your team sent or posted, line by line.

You own the code and the repository from day one. The AI and hosting can run in your own accounts, at cost, with no markup. Defects are fixed inside the build price for a cover period we agree before work starts. Support is optional: each change is quoted and approved, with no monthly minimum. We can keep managing the servers, AI models and API connections either way.

Name the ERP and its edition, the other systems in the chain, and the one job you want drafted first. Add three real examples of that job: a quote request, a purchase order or a supplier bill, with what your team did with each. Say who approves today and what an error costs you. A written brief like that lets us quote a fixed price for phase one.

Yes, and we ask to. Your ERP partner knows the customisations, roles and extensions in your system, and Microsoft notes that custom fields need adding to its own agent’s profile before it can use them. Your accountant decides how bills, VAT and journals should post. We build the agent to follow those decisions and write the rules down so all three parties can read them.