Architecture Overview
Automation & AI Orchestration
This diagram shows how Crème Collective's invoicing, shipping, and sales workflows are being automated in two layers.
The Automation Layer handles the plumbing — connecting to external systems, pulling data on a schedule, and organising files.
The AI Agent Layer handles the intelligence — applying business rules, validating data, flagging exceptions, and deciding when to involve a human.
Together, they shift Andrea, Danny, and Tyler from routine data entry to exception review only.
Architecture Overview
🏭
Camelot (3PL)
Shipment & fulfillment data per brand
📦
Fulfillment System
Shipping charges, weight data, tracking
🚚
UPS / USPS
Address validation & carrier data
🛍️
Shopify (Orders)
Customer addresses, order details
🎙️
Field Notes App
Sales rep voice/text submissions
🧾
QuickBooks
Invoice status, payment records
scheduled pulls & real-time hooks
CC-291
✓ Live
Daily Shipment Files
Pulls wholesale shipments from Camelot daily. Filters out non-wholesale rows. Creates one file per sales order in Google Drive, organised by date → brand → SO number.
CC-293
Weekly Shipping & Fulfillment Report
Extracts Danny's shipping and fulfillment charge data weekly (currently monthly). Raw report ready for the Warehouse Agent to validate before Sage invoicing.
CC-294
UPS Address Validation API
Integrates with UPS and USPS APIs to check addresses before orders ship. Flags residential vs. commercial mismatches, missing apt/suite numbers, unverifiable addresses.
CC-292
QuickBooks API Integration
Establishes authenticated connection to QuickBooks. Enables reading invoice status and creating invoice line items programmatically. Required by both Accounting and Sales agents.
agents read pipelines & apply business rules
Core Tasks
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Weekly report validation — runs Danny's manual audit checks as automated rules: weight entries, brand codes, duplicate detection, date validation. Flags exceptions for Danny's non-blocking review.
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Pre-shipment address validation — intercepts orders before they ship, flags bad addresses before UPS fees are incurred. ~$20K/year in savings.
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Brand configuration management — maintains per-brand processing rules (Nordstrom, Revolve, Sweed, etc.) so each brand's data is handled correctly without manual configuration.
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Audit trail & exception reporting — logs every flagged item, reason, resolution, and who fixed it. Weekly exception summary with trend analytics.
Reads from
CC-293 Weekly Report
CC-294 Address API
Core Tasks
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Shipment approval & validation — validates each daily shipment file for completeness and data quality. Flags issues with specific reason codes. Sends Andrea a daily approval summary.
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Invoice status monitoring — queries QuickBooks daily for all invoice statuses. Tracks days outstanding. Generates weekly aging report with 30/60/90-day overdue buckets. Alerts Andrea on past-due accounts.
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Cash flow analysis — weekly analysis of payment patterns by brand. Calculates DSO. Projects the working capital improvement of weekly vs. monthly invoicing cadence.
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QuickBooks admin & security — maintains API credentials, logs all system actions for compliance, monitors for errors and unusual activity.
Trust Model — Phase-Gated Automation
Phase 1
Flag & Review
Phase 2
Approve & Create
Phase 3
Full Auto
Reads from
CC-291 Daily Files ✓
CC-292 QuickBooks API
Why Two Tasks, One Agent
Tyler is the brand translation layer between raw data and structured records. Both tasks follow the same pattern: raw input → apply brand knowledge → correctly formatted output. The Sales Agent encodes that knowledge.
Core Tasks
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Field notes processing — receives raw voice/text submissions from sales reps via the Field Notes app. Cleans, categorises by brand/account/visit type, and compiles into the monthly field report. Tyler reviews only flagged entries.
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QuickBooks line-item entry — triggered when the Accounting Agent passes an approved shipment file. Maps each line item to the correct QB account code per brand and creates the invoice entries automatically. Tyler reviews and sends.
Reads from
CC-292 QuickBooks API
CC-319 Field Notes
CC-344 Accounting Agent
exceptions & approvals surfaced to humans
🏗️
Danny
Warehouse / Fulfillment
Reviews flagged exceptions only from the weekly shipping report — weight anomalies, brand code mismatches, duplicate orders. The rest goes through automatically.
Non-blocking · As needed
📊
Andrea
Controller
Receives a daily approval summary from the Accounting Agent. In Phase 1: approves files before invoicing. In Phase 2: agent auto-creates invoice on approval. In Phase 3: full automation — Andrea only sees exceptions.
Phase 1: Daily approve · Phase 3: Exceptions only
📋
Tyler
Sales Coordinator
Receives ready-to-send QuickBooks invoices — line items pre-filled by the Sales Agent. Reviews for accuracy and clicks send. For field notes, reviews only ambiguous or unclassified rep submissions.
Review & Send · Per invoice cycle
approved outputs delivered
🧾
QuickBooks Invoices
Invoices created with all line items, sent to brands on approval. Weekly cadence replaces monthly.
📁
Google Drive Shipment Files
Daily organised files by date → brand → SO number. Ready for Andrea to review without any manual extraction.
📈
Weekly Aging & Cash Flow Reports
Invoice aging by brand (30/60/90 days), DSO trends, and cash flow optimisation recommendations.
📝
Monthly Field Report
Structured summary of all rep field notes, categorised by brand and account. No manual compilation by Tyler.
Business Impact
~$20K / year
UPS Carrier Fee Prevention
Address validation catches residential vs. commercial mismatches and missing apt numbers before orders ship — before fees are charged.
4 weeks faster
Invoice Cycle Improvement
Shifting Sage invoicing from monthly to weekly reduces the window Danny and Andrea spend catching up on billing.
60→30 days float
Cash Flow Improvement
Creme currently floats ~$200K for up to 60 days before reimbursement. Weekly invoicing and payment tracking cuts this by an estimated 30–50%.
3 roles freed
Manual Data Entry Eliminated
Danny, Andrea, and Tyler shift from routine data entry and report generation to exception review — higher-value work with less repetition.
Legend
Automation pipeline (CC-290)