Supplier sends a new catalogue PDF. New products staged for review in one session.
A supplier catalogue PDF arrives with new product lines, updated SKUs, and revised pricing. Instead of copying each product manually, staff upload the PDF to IBIOS. The AI reads it, extracts product names, codes, descriptions, dimensions, and prices, then stages them for review and activation.
What do manual supplier catalogue updates actually cost?
Suppliers issue new catalogues regularly. A bathroom showroom typically works with several suppliers, each with product ranges that run to hundreds of lines. When a new PDF arrives, someone has to go through it: finding new products, checking which existing products have changed codes or prices, and entering everything into the system one line at a time.
A large catalogue done manually can take days of staff time. During that window, your team is quoting from outdated prices, missing new products entirely, or holding off on quotes until the catalogue is loaded. Every day the update is delayed is a day you might quote the wrong price or fail to offer a new product a customer would have bought.
IBIOS bulk import turns that job into a review session. The AI does the extraction; your staff do the review. The difference is where human time goes: not on copying, but on decisions.
How does IBIOS import a supplier PDF catalogue?
From PDF upload to live catalogue in a single session, with staff in control of every activation decision.
Upload the supplier PDF
Staff upload the catalogue PDF directly to IBIOS — any size, up to a configurable page limit. No pre-processing or reformatting required. The file is queued for AI extraction immediately.
AI reads and extracts product data
The extraction engine reads each page, identifies product records, and parses names, SKUs, descriptions, dimensions, weights, and prices. It handles both tabular price lists and narrative product descriptions.
Confidence scoring applied
Each extracted field receives a confidence score. High-confidence fields are pre-approved for import. Low-confidence fields are flagged for manual review, with the raw source text shown alongside so staff can verify it quickly.
Staging list presented for review
Staff see the full list of extracted products with their field values. Inline editing is available for any field. Rows can be deleted, merged, or approved individually. Existing product matches are highlighted with change comparisons.
Bulk activation to live catalogue
Once the review is complete, staff approve the batch. Products are created or updated in the live catalogue instantly, linked to the correct supplier and brand, ready for quoting and ordering.
What changes for the business
Extraction works best with well-structured source PDFs: a supplier price list with consistent columns gives the cleanest results. Photographed or scanned catalogues with poor resolution will be less accurate, and IBIOS flags those fields for review so nothing incorrect goes live without a human check.
Questions about PDF catalogue import
What happens to products that are already in the catalogue — are they duplicated or updated?
IBIOS checks each extracted product against existing records by SKU and product code before import. Where a match is found, the system flags it as an update candidate rather than creating a duplicate. Staff review the changes — price, description, dimensions — and confirm or reject each one before it goes live.
Can IBIOS handle PDFs with images rather than text, such as photographed catalogues?
Yes. The AI extraction engine uses OCR to read text embedded in images as well as vector text in the PDF. Accuracy is lower on low-resolution scans, and IBIOS will flag confidence levels so staff know which extracted fields need manual verification before import.
What if the PDF has inconsistent formatting across pages?
IBIOS handles formatting variation page by page. Products from sections with consistent tabular layouts achieve the highest accuracy. Products from free-text description sections are extracted with a lower confidence score and flagged for review. Staff see the raw extracted text alongside the parsed fields, so corrections are straightforward.
Can staff review and edit extracted products before they go live?
Yes. Extraction produces a staging list, not a live import. Staff review the full list in IBIOS, edit any field, merge or delete rows, and approve individual products or the entire batch. Nothing reaches the live catalogue until a staff member explicitly activates it.
How are new supplier prices compared against existing prices to flag changes?
Where a product already exists in the catalogue, IBIOS shows the current price alongside the extracted price from the PDF, with the percentage change highlighted. Products with a price increase above a configurable threshold are flagged automatically so staff can review margin impact before activating the update.
Related features
Stop spending days on catalogue updates.
IBIOS imports a full supplier PDF catalogue in one session. Book a demo to see the extraction live.