# CloudFiles for Industrial Distribution and MRO | Document Automation for Salesforce

> Document automation for industrial distribution and MRO in Salesforce: customer account folders, large case files, purchase order processing and vendor packets.

*Industrial distribution document automation*

## CloudFiles for *industrial distribution and MRO*

Purchase orders, vendor paperwork and customer files arrive at each branch by email or on the scanner. Every manual step slows an order. CloudFiles builds account folders, turns PO PDFs into orders and sorts vendor packets in Salesforce.

[Talk to a document expert](https://meet.cloudfiles.io/salesforce?utm_content=sf-industries-manufacturing-industrial-distribution-and-mro-hero)

*Trusted by Salesforce teams across industries*
Logos: General Mills, Dun & Bradstreet, Wingstop, PenFed, Aviva, Ohio University, CA Conservation Corps, NC State Auditor, Arthrex, Commvault, Computacenter, Aggreko, ITW, Lummus, Northumbrian Water, Hamptons, Anteriad, BrightNight

*Distribution documents, before and after*

## From a PO in an inbox to a *shipped* order

Distributors run accounts, orders and cases in Salesforce, yet purchase orders still arrive by email and vendor packets come off the scanner. CloudFiles organizes, shares, checks and generates that paperwork on the account.

### The manual way

- Sales operations teams set up each new customer or dealer account by copying onboarding forms, price agreements and policies into folders by hand, picking the right version for every market. Every new account waits on that setup.
- Customer service reps ask customers to email photos, equipment logs and drawings that bounce off attachment limits, then collect them in a separate tool. The case owner never hears a file arrived, and the customer is asked to send it again.
- Inside sales reps type each emailed purchase order PDF into a new order line by line, checking part numbers against the account as they go. Orders queue behind the inbox, and a mistyped quantity ships the wrong part to a customer site.
- Accounts payable clerks scan stacks of vendor invoices, packing slips and material certifications, then split, name and file each packet under its vendor by hand. Payment runs wait, and a missing certification surfaces only when a customer asks.
- Pricing teams mail-merge a price change letter for each account outside Salesforce, so no account shows which notice went out or when. When a customer disputes a price, nobody can produce the letter that was actually sent.

### The CloudFiles way

- CloudFiles gives every new customer and dealer account its folder with the right onboarding package already inside. The package for the account's country and language is copied in when the account is created, so sales reps start from a complete set.
- CloudFiles lets customers attach large files straight to their support case through your Experience Cloud site. Photos, logs and drawings land in the case's folder in your storage, past Salesforce's attachment limit, and the case owner sees them on the record.
- CloudFiles turns every customer PO that arrives by email into a draft order before an inside sales rep opens it. The order header is filled from the PO, each part becomes an order line, and the rep checks a complete order instead of typing it in.
- CloudFiles sorts each scanned stack of vendor paperwork before a clerk touches it. The batch is split into separate packets, each packet is matched to its vendor, and every document lands in that vendor's folder with its details as SharePoint columns.
- CloudFiles generates every account's price change notice from its agreed pricing in Salesforce, in one background run. Each notice is filed in the account's folder as it is produced, so the exact letter a customer received is one click away.

*Distribution use cases in Salesforce*

## Branch paperwork, *handled* from onboarding to invoice

Each job runs in Salesforce Flow on the accounts, orders, cases and vendor records your branches already work in, with CloudFiles doing the document work.

- **Customer account folder automation** — CloudFiles creates a structured folder for every customer and dealer account in Salesforce and copies in the onboarding package for the account's market, so every branch starts each new relationship the same way.
  - Every new account gets its folder from the create folder flow action, called by a record-triggered flow
  - The copy resources flow action clones the onboarding package picked for the account's market
  - Each order and case folder sits inside its account's folder, so a branch sees one customer's full history
- **SharePoint integration for vendor and customer files** — CloudFiles connects Salesforce accounts and orders to the SharePoint libraries your branches already use, so vendor certifications, catalogs and customer agreements stay in one place and open from the record.
  - Branch staff keep working in SharePoint, and every account's folder opens from its Salesforce record
  - Vendor name and document type are set as SharePoint columns on every file branch staff upload from Salesforce
  - Inside sales reps open the vendor's current certification from the vendor account, with no shared drive search
- **Portal case submission with large files** — CloudFiles lets customers submit cases with large files, from photos and equipment logs to drawings, through the customer portal you run on Experience Cloud, and stores every file with the case in your own storage.
  - Customers upload into their case from the portal widget, with no attachment size cap from Salesforce
  - Each customer sees only its own cases and files, shared by the share with community user flow action
  - Every file waits beside the case in storage, opened from the case record by the support engineer
- **Purchase order processing into Salesforce orders** — CloudFiles processes customer purchase order PDFs in Salesforce. Each PO is mapped onto a draft order with its lines, matched to the customer's account and ship-to, so reps confirm orders instead of keying them.
  - A purchase order emailed to the order inbox starts the run, and the PO is recognized among its attachments
  - The document mapper flow action writes the PO number, ship-to address and each part line onto the draft order
  - An inside sales rep reviews the draft and activates it, so orders reach the warehouse before the shipping cutoff
- **Vendor packet splitting and filing** — CloudFiles splits scanned stacks of vendor paperwork into separate packets in Salesforce, matches each packet to its vendor and files every document in that vendor's folder, ready for the payment run.
  - The split document using AI flow action breaks a scanned stack into one packet per vendor shipment
  - CloudFiles matches each packet to its vendor and gives every document inside it a clear name
  - Each document is filed under its vendor with SharePoint columns recording what it is, for later search
- **Price change notice generation** — CloudFiles generates price change notices in Salesforce for every affected account from its agreed pricing, all in one run, and keeps a copy of each with the account as proof of what was sent.
  - The generate document (batch) flow action produces a notice for every account on the list in one run
  - Each notice draws the account's own products and new prices from Salesforce, with no mail merge file
  - A copy of every notice sits in the account's folder, ready the moment a customer questions a price

*Document types*

## Key documents we handle for *industrial distribution and MRO*

These six move through every branch. CloudFiles handles every other document an industrial distributor keeps in Salesforce as well.

- **Customer purchase orders** — PO PDFs from customers, mapped onto draft orders and kept with the order they created for any later question.
- **Vendor invoices and packing slips** — Paperwork from each vendor shipment, split out of scanned stacks and filed under the vendor it came from.
- **Material and mill certifications** — Certifications that ship with materials, filed with the vendor and opened from the vendor when a customer asks.
- **Customer onboarding packages** — Forms, agreements and policies for each new account, matched to its market and placed in its folder on creation.
- **Supplier catalogs and data sheets** — Product literature from each vendor, kept current in storage and shared with customers by secure link.
- **Price change notices** — Letters telling each account about new pricing, generated from Salesforce and saved to the account as sent.

*Security & compliance*

## Stay industry compliant

CloudFiles is independently audited for SOC 2 Type II, certified to ISO 27001, and compliant with HIPAA and GDPR. Data residency is supported in the US, EU, UK and AU. Your files stay in your own storage. CloudFiles never re-hosts them, and they are not used to train our AI models.

Certifications: SOC 2 (Type II), HIPAA (Compliant), ISO 27001 (Certified), GDPR (Compliant)

[Security overview](/security)

## Frequently asked questions

**Q: How do I set up document folders for every customer account in Salesforce?**
CloudFiles sets up a folder for each new account in Salesforce, customer or dealer, as soon as it is created, with the onboarding package for its country and language copied in. Orders and cases get their own folders inside it. Admins build this with the create folder flow action in a record-triggered flow.

**Q: Can a distributor keep customer and vendor documents in SharePoint and see them in Salesforce?**
Yes. Every account and vendor in Salesforce opens its folder in the storage your branches already rely on, whether SharePoint, Google Drive, Azure Blob, Amazon S3 or another provider, so agreements, certifications and catalogs never need moving. On the record page, a branch opens only the account folders its Salesforce access allows.

**Q: How can customers attach large files to a support case through a Salesforce portal?**
CloudFiles lets customers attach large photos, logs and drawings to their case from your Experience Cloud site, with the files kept in your storage beside the case rather than as Salesforce attachments. Every customer is kept to its own cases, and the support engineer opens every file from the case record.

**Q: How do I create Salesforce orders from customer purchase order PDFs?**
CloudFiles creates draft Salesforce orders from customer purchase order PDFs emailed to the order inbox. Each PO becomes an order under the customer's account with its header details and every part line filled in, and an inside sales rep reviews and activates it. Admins map the PO with the document mapper flow action.

**Q: Can CloudFiles split and sort scanned vendor packets in Salesforce?**
Yes. CloudFiles takes a pile of scanned vendor paperwork from the copier to the right folders in Salesforce. The pile is split into packets. CloudFiles ties every packet to the right vendor, gives each document a clear name and files it with SharePoint columns describing it, pausing for a clerk when the team wants a check.

**Q: How do I send price change notices to every account from Salesforce?**
CloudFiles sends a price change notice to every affected account from Salesforce in a single batch, building each from that account's products and agreed pricing on your template. Copies are kept with each account, so the team can show exactly what a customer received and when.

**Q: How do I share supplier catalogs and data sheets with customers from Salesforce?**
CloudFiles puts supplier catalogs and data sheets in front of customers without attachments. From the account or product in Salesforce, a rep sends a link that only the customer's domain can open and sees every view by email address. Portal customers browse the literature shared with them.

**Q: Can CloudFiles copy a different onboarding package for each country and language?**
Yes. CloudFiles copies the onboarding package that matches each new account's country and language from a template folder the team maintains, so every branch starts with the right forms and policies. Updating the template once changes what every new account receives.

**Q: Does CloudFiles work with Salesforce orders, cases and Experience Cloud portals?**
Yes. CloudFiles runs on accounts, orders, cases and custom vendor objects distributors already use, and inside Experience Cloud sites for customer and dealer portals. Delivered as a managed package on AppExchange, it adds document steps to the record-triggered and screen flows your branches already run.

## Book your *personalized* demo

Bring a customer purchase order, a scanned vendor packet and a support case with large files, and watch CloudFiles handle them in your Salesforce org.

[Book a demo](https://meet.cloudfiles.io/salesforce?utm_content=sf-industries-manufacturing-industrial-distribution-and-mro-footer)