Hardware stores
In a hardware store the whole catalogue fits into two dimensions and a finish — and two millimetres separate one part from another. Tablia reads each line in full and returns the quote for the salesperson to check.
The customer asks three stores and buys from whoever answers first. How long does your salesperson spend scrolling the screw table looking for the right line?
Book your demoUnião Hardware
online
Good afternoon! I need to restock the joinery fixings.
Good afternoon! Send the list right here — text, a photo of the paper or a file.
500 screw 4.2x32 pozi zinc 300 screw 3.5x25 pozi 200 wall plug 6 with screw 50 hinge 3 inch stainless 20 interior lockset 5 kg nails 18x27
Got it. That is 6 items — I am checking them against the store's stock now.
Quote #FU31 is ready. 5 of the 6 items; I marked the 3 inch stainless hinge as missing.
📄 quote-FU31.pdf
The hinge can be zinc plated.
Done. Here is version 2 of #FU31 with the zinc plated hinge; the previous one is now superseded.
📄 quote-FU31-v2.pdf
Illustrative conversation. Store, items and codes are examples.
The first two lines look like the same thing and are different products. The difference fits in seven millimetres of length.
Store WhatsApp
Good afternoon! I need to restock the joinery fixings, here goes:
500 screw 4.2x32 pozi zinc
300 screw 3.5x25 pozi
200 wall plug 6 with screw
50 hinge 3 inch stainless
20 interior lockset
5 kg nails 18x27
07:12
What Tablia read
5 of 6 items found. Whatever is missing goes to the salesperson with the customer's original wording — nothing disappears from the quote quietly.
Illustrative example. The list and the catalogue names are fictional.
In hardware the whole description is specification. Take any piece of it away and the item becomes another item — with another price and another use.
A 4.2x32 screw and a 3.5x25 take up two almost identical lines on the list and two distant bins in your warehouse. That is why a diverging specification discards the candidate instead of accepting it as close enough.
Hundreds and thousands
The customer asks by the piece and the store sells by the hundred. The sum is the salesperson's, and they need to see the number that came in.
Finish decides the use
Zinc plated, galvanised and stainless cost differently because they belong in different places.
Two hundred similar lines
A fixings catalogue is long and repetitive. It is where looking items up one by one eats the most of the day.
Five hundred is a quantity; 4.2 and 32 describe the part. All three are numbers on the same line and only one is a count.
Both dimensions stay attached to the product, instead of becoming loose text that gets lost in the search.
Pozi, slotted, hex, zinc plated and stainless are specification: a diverging candidate is discarded rather than offered.
“Screw 4.2x32 pozi zinc” finds the item in your catalogue even abbreviated as CHIPBOARD SCREW. Alternative names are searched too.
A part your store does not carry goes to the salesperson with the customer's original wording, instead of becoming the part two millimetres along the shelf.
The list can arrive as
Handwriting is the only one that does not go in — returning a wrong quantity that looks right is worse than refusing the file.
What you upload
The stock file your store already uses, in CSV, XLS or XLSX. Tablia recognises the code, description and price columns with the help of artificial intelligence, and you check the mapping before it takes effect. An abbreviated all-caps description, like CHIPBOARD SCREW POZI ZINC, does not block the search.
What it does with what it could not find
The part appears to the salesperson flagged as not found, with the customer's original wording. Tablia does not round the gauge or the length to find something similar. The decision is your team's: add it, propose an equivalent, adjust the quantity or say the store does not carry it.
Nothing is sent to the customer automatically. The salesperson reviews item by item, adjusts quantities, swaps products, sets the price and decides when to send.
In hardware it is at the review that quantity becomes packaging: five hundred pieces may go out as five hundreds, and that conversion is yours, not the machine's.
Tablia takes on
You decide
Yes. Both dimensions are specification and stay attached to the product, so the two lines are looked up as distinct items. That is the most expensive error in this trade, because on the list the two lines look the same and in the warehouse they are different bins.
It is inferred from the item and from the context of the other lines — screws usually come by the piece, nails by the kilo, plugs with screws as a set. The inference appears next to the item, and the salesperson corrects it if they disagree.
No, and it is better to say so now than in the demo. Tablia delivers the quantity the customer asked for. Five hundred pieces become five hundreds by the salesperson's decision, because they know how your store packs and sells that item.
No. You upload the stock file you already use, in CSV, XLS or XLSX, and Tablia recognises the code, description and price columns with the help of artificial intelligence. You check the mapping before it takes effect.
It appears to the salesperson flagged as not found, with the customer's original wording beside it. It does not become the part two millimetres along and it does not vanish from the list. The decision is yours: add it, propose an equivalent, or say the store does not carry it.
PDF, a photo in JPG or PNG, a spreadsheet in XLSX or XLS, a document in DOCX, CSV or typed text. The only one that does not go in is a handwritten list: Tablia does not accept handwriting, so it never returns a wrong quantity that looks right.
Never. Nothing is sent without the salesperson. They review item by item, adjust quantities, swap products, set the price and decide when to send. Tablia takes on the typing and the searching; the decision stays with whoever knows the customer.
Vamos conversar
In the demo we use a list your store received this week, against your own catalogue. It is the fastest way to find out whether Tablia can handle what you sell.
Book your demo