Merlin FAQ: AI Quote & Order Desk questions, answered

Merlin is a bilingual AI Quote & Order Desk for industrial distributors and manufacturers with 10 to 200 staff, starting in Québec and then Ontario. It drafts quotes from RFQs that arrive by email, answers order-status questions, sends spec sheets and certificates, and follows up on open quotes. A human rep approves every message before it is sent.

The Quote Desk reads RFQs that arrive by email, including web-form submissions your website emails to you, and matches each line to your own price sheet. It drafts a complete quote with line items, quantity-break pricing, customer-specific pricing, lead times, terms and a PDF in minutes, 24/7. A rep reviews and approves the quote before it goes out.

Yes. The Order Status desk answers questions like "where's my order", "has it shipped" or "confirm my PO" from your order export, including carrier and tracking. It only shares order details with the customer the order belongs to, matched on email address or company domain, and a rep approves each reply.

The Documents desk sends spec sheets, SDS, certificates of analysis, RoHS, REACH and ISO certificates, and warranties from a document library you maintain. Every send is recorded in a send log showing who received what and when. Like every desk, each send is approved by a person.

Quote Follow-up drafts polite follow-up emails on open quotes on the days you choose, by default day 3 and day 7 after the quote. It stops as soon as the customer replies. Each follow-up is approved by a rep before it is sent.

Yes. Merlin reads incoming RFQs and drafts quotes 24/7, so a request that arrives at night is drafted and waiting for a rep in the morning. Nothing is sent until a person approves it.

No. Prices, totals and lead times are calculated in code from your price sheet, including quantity breaks and customer-specific pricing. The AI only chooses which catalog item matches each line of the request, and a rep approves the result.

Unclear, unmatched or missing-spec lines are flagged for a rep, never guessed. The rep can pick the right part or ask the customer for details before the quote goes out.

No. A human rep approves every quote, order-status reply, document send and follow-up before it goes out. Every draft, approval and send is recorded in an audit log.

Quotes over an amount you set, quotes for first-time customers and quotes that include low-stock items are flagged. The flag tells the rep to take a closer look before approving.

Yes. When a rep picks a different part than the one Merlin suggested, Merlin remembers that choice as a learned alias. The next time a customer uses the same wording, it matches the part your rep chose.

Shadow mode is a 1 to 2 week period where Merlin drafts on your real RFQs while nothing can be sent. Your team compares Merlin's drafts with the quotes they actually sent, so you can judge accuracy before anything reaches a customer.

Merlin works with Gmail / Google Workspace today. Microsoft 365 / Outlook support is coming soon. If your team is on Microsoft 365 now, contact us at hello@merlin.work to discuss timing.

Merlin imports price sheets and orders from Excel or CSV, or from any ERP that can export a report, such as Epicor, NetSuite, SAP Business One, Acumatica or JobBOSS. If your ERP can publish a scheduled export to a link, Merlin refreshes from it every 6 hours. There is no native real-time ERP connector in the standard product.

Direct ERP integrations are custom work done by our sister company, JCube Tech (https://jcubetech.ai), and are part of the Enterprise plan. The standard product uses exports from your ERP. We scope and quote any custom integration before you commit.

If your ERP can publish a scheduled export to a link, Merlin refreshes from it every 6 hours. You can also upload a new Excel or CSV file whenever your prices change.

Setup mainly involves connecting your Google Workspace mailbox and providing a price sheet and order export from Excel, CSV or your ERP. Setup is a one-time fee of $5,000 to $15,000, quoted before you commit, and we handle the configuration with your team.

Yes. The account owner sets permissions for each teammate. Every draft, approval and send is recorded in an audit log.

Prices are in CAD with taxes extra. After a $3,500 30-day pilot, Starter is $2,000 per month (Quote Desk and Quote Follow-up, unlimited users) and Growth is $3,000 per month (adds Order Status and Documents). Enterprise is custom, and setup is $5,000 to $15,000 one time, quoted before you commit. A typical first year on Starter comes to $30,500: $5,000 setup, the $3,500 pilot and 11 months at $2,000.

The pilot costs $3,500 and runs for 30 days on one workflow, the Quote Desk. Before it starts, we agree in writing on one success metric, for example a median quote response time under one hour. If the metric is missed, no monthly fee is owed.

No. There are no usage credits and no overages. Starter includes unlimited users, and plans are month to month after the pilot.

No. After the pilot, Starter and Growth are month to month. The only one-time cost is setup, which is quoted before you commit.

Enterprise is priced on a custom basis for needs like multiple sites or a custom ERP integration built with JCube Tech. Contact hello@merlin.work or call 438-905-4662 to scope it.

Merlin is hosted in Canada on Supabase in the Canada Central region. Your price sheets, orders and emails stay in Canadian hosting.

No. Your data is never used to train AI models. It is used only to draft your quotes and replies.

Merlin was built with Québec's Law 25 in mind, and our privacy officer is Tyler Pernitsch. Order details are only shared with the customer the order belongs to, and every draft, approval and send is logged. See the security page for details.

Yes. Merlin keeps an audit log of every draft, approval and send, and the Documents desk keeps a send log of who received which document and when. This makes it easy to check what went out and who approved it.

Yes. Merlin replies in the language the customer wrote in, English or Québec French. A customer who writes in French gets a quote and reply in French.

Part numbers and descriptions come from your price sheet, exactly as you maintain them. Merlin writes the surrounding message in the customer's language.

Yes. Merlin detects the language of each incoming email and drafts the reply in that language, so English and French requests can arrive in the same inbox.

Some Québec companies may be eligible for programs that support AI and digital adoption, such as DEC's IRIA or Investissement Québec's ESSOR. Eligibility depends on your company and project, and we cannot promise funding. Our Québec AI funding guide lists what to check.

We can describe the project, its costs and its expected results so you have the information a program may ask for. The decision belongs to the program, so always confirm current rules and amounts directly with them.

Merlin is built for industrial distributors and manufacturers with 10 to 200 staff that receive RFQs by email and quote from a price sheet. Typical sectors include fasteners and fluid power, packaging, metal fabrication and electrical distribution. We serve Québec first, then Ontario.

Not yet. Merlin is new and has no published clients, case studies or reviews. That is why we offer a 30-day pilot with a written success metric and shadow mode, so you can judge results on your own RFQs.

No. Merlin drafts quotes and replies so reps spend their time reviewing, approving and handling the requests that need judgement. A human rep approves everything before it goes out.

Merlin may not fit today if your team uses only Microsoft 365 email, since that support is coming soon, or if you need a native real-time ERP connector without custom work. It is also less useful if you rarely receive RFQs by email or do not quote from a price sheet.

Email hello@merlin.work or call 438-905-4662. We review your RFQ flow, quote the setup, agree on a success metric in writing and start with shadow mode during the 30-day pilot.