AI agent · Purchasing
Business Central Vendor Source and Price Agent
One agent for your vendors. It keeps purchase prices current and finds new vendor candidates. Your buyer approves before anything changes.
Stale Prices and Slow Vendor Searches Cost You Margin
Keeping purchase prices current means emailing vendors, waiting, reading spreadsheets and email text, and retyping numbers into price lists. Finding a new vendor means searching marketplaces and keeping track of what you found. Both get done late, or not at all.
The Vendor Source and Price Agent does both jobs and hands your buyer a clean, checked result. It never posts a price, creates a vendor or sends an email. A buyer decides.
Watch: The Vendor Source and Price Agent at Work
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Job One: Keep Prices Current
From a vendor request to approved prices in six steps.
1. Start a request
From the vendor card, one click creates a numbered request listing the vendor’s items that have a current purchase price.
2. The agent drafts the email
It prepares the message with your current prices and an Excel workbook. Your buyer reads it and presses Send.
3. The vendor answers
In the Excel file or just in an email reply. No sign-in and no Business Central account needed.
4. Answers are read and checked
The agent reads replies, quoting the sentence it used for each price, and Business Central validates every value.
5. Unclear answers go to a person
Partial, unclear or conflicting answers are flagged Needs Human instead of being guessed.
6. The buyer approves
Changes wait in a price batch. The buyer reviews, approves and posts. Only then do price lists change.
Job Two: Find New Vendors
When a product has a single source, a supplier lets you down, or you need a better price. It works from the same vendor request record as price updates.
1. Create a sourcing request
A buyer describes the product to source. Every request gets a number and one record that tracks it.
2. The agent searches
It searches the marketplaces your company has approved. The open web is used only when you ask for it.
3. Candidates with evidence
Each candidate vendor arrives with what the agent found, so your buyer can judge it quickly.
4. The buyer decides
Accept the candidates that fit and create the vendors yourself, then ask them for quotes with the same agent.
Guardrails Built Into Business Central
It never posts or sends
The agent fills staging records only. It cannot post a price, create a vendor or send an email.
Rules live in Business Central
Price checks and tolerance limits are enforced by Business Central, not only by the AI. Rejected lines show the reason.
You choose where it looks
Approved marketplaces are set up by your administrator, and every candidate comes with its evidence.
Full audit trail
Every event, who or what did it, and when, is recorded in the Vendor Agent Audit Log. Excel files with macros are refused.
What You Need to Get Started
The agent runs inside Business Central, and your vendors need nothing at all. Four things need to be in place on your side.
1 · PLATFORM
Business Central online
The agent is an extension that works from your vendors, items and current purchase prices. An administrator switches the agent on in the setup page.
2 · AI CONNECTION
NAV SEAL AI Connector
Our shared app installs first. It holds your AI model key, your model choice, spending limits and the usage log.
3 · EMAIL AND SOURCES
Vendor emails and approved marketplaces
An email address on each vendor card and a shared mailbox the app reads every 15 minutes for replies. Your administrator lists the marketplaces the agent may search.
4 · PEOPLE
Buyers with the right permissions
Buyers start requests, review price batches and candidates, approve and post. Only the buyer’s posting path can change a price list, never the agent.
Offered through our pilot program. We set the agent up with you and test it on a small group of vendors first, then measure the results before you widen it. Not sure everything is in place? The Agent Readiness Assessment checks it for you.
Vendor Source and Price Agent: Your Questions
Straight answers to what buyers and finance teams ask first. Have a different question? Book a free call and ask us directly.
Do my vendors need an account or software?
No. Vendors answer in an Excel workbook or in an ordinary email reply. No sign-in and no Business Central account.
Does the agent email my vendors by itself?
No. It drafts the message and your buyer reads it and presses Send. The agent cannot send an email.
What if a vendor’s answer is unclear?
Partial, unclear or conflicting answers are marked Needs Human and a buyer decides. The agent does not guess.
Can a price change without a buyer approving it?
No. Changes wait in a price batch. Only a buyer can review, approve and post, and Business Central enforces your price checks and tolerance limits. Rejected lines show the reason.
Will it create vendors in Business Central?
No. For new vendors the agent only fills staging records. A buyer accepts the candidates that fit and creates the vendors.
Does it search the whole internet for vendors?
It searches the marketplaces your administrator approved. The open web is used only when a buyer asks for it, and each candidate comes with the evidence the agent found.
Can I see what happened and who did it?
Yes. Every event, who or what did it, and when, is recorded in the Vendor Agent Audit Log.
Keep Prices Current and Find Better Vendors
Book a free call and we will walk through how it would run with your vendors.