The Esker Alternative Built for Operations Teams
Esker is a powerful platform—built for the Office of the CFO at enterprise companies. If you're a mid-market operations team that needs to automate purchase orders, supplier pricing sheets, packing list reconciliation, and ERP imports—without a 12-month implementation and an enterprise contract—you're looking for something different. That's TableFlow.
Why Operations Teams Look for Esker Alternatives
Esker is a comprehensive Source-to-Pay and Order-to-Cash suite trusted by companies like Siemens, Toshiba, and Heineken. It does a lot—and that's exactly the problem for most operations teams evaluating it.
Esker covers sourcing, supplier management, contract management, procurement, AP, payments, order management, AR, cash application, deductions, collections—and more. Mid-market ops teams don't need a full CFO suite. They need document automation that works.
Esker is sold and implemented like enterprise software—through consulting partners, with months of configuration and change management. Ops teams need ROI in weeks, not fiscal years.
Esker is optimized for invoices and structured financial transactions. Operations teams processing supplier pricing sheets, complex Excel catalogs, packing list reconciliation, and partner sales-through data hit walls quickly.
Esker's enterprise pricing—and requirement to license a broad module suite—puts it out of reach for most $10M–$500M companies that only need targeted document automation.
Esker vs. TableFlow: The Key Differences
| Capability | Esker | TableFlow |
|---|---|---|
| Platform & Pricing | ||
| Built for | Office of the CFO (enterprise) | Operations teams (mid-market) |
| Primary use case | Full S2P + O2C suite | Document automation + data extraction |
| Target company size | 500+ employees | 50–1,000+ employees |
| Mid-market pricing | Enterprise minimums | Transparent pricing |
| Core Document Automation | ||
| AP invoice automation | ||
| Sales order management | ||
| Operational Documents (TableFlow Only) | ||
| Complex Excel pricing sheets | — | |
| Supplier catalog automation | — | |
| Packing list reconciliation | — | |
| Partner sales-through data | — | |
| Freight / 3PL documents | — | |
| Implementation | ||
| Implementation timeline | 6–12 months, consulting partners | Weeks, we handle setup |
| Template-free AI | Partial (requires configuration) | Full |
What Differentiates TableFlow
Esker automates structured financial transactions well. But modern operations teams deal with a different class of documents—the messy, variable, business-logic-heavy files that Esker's platform wasn't designed for.
Your suppliers send pricing updates in Excel. Every supplier has their own format—indented product hierarchies, size run matrices, nested categories, summary rows mixed with line items, multiple tables per workbook.
TableFlow's one-template AI reads any Excel format. Understands indented rows, distinguishes data from summary rows, handles size matrices, maps to your internal SKUs, and validates against contracted pricing—automatically.
Real example: A national electrical distributor managing pricing from 40+ suppliers was spending 10+ hours per week on manual Excel processing. After TableFlow, it's under 1 hour per week reviewing exceptions.
Receiving a shipment? You need to verify the packing list matches the purchase order—catching quantity discrepancies, missing SKUs, and pricing mismatches before they become costly problems.
Built-in 2-way document matching. Upload your PO and packing list—TableFlow extracts both, matches line items, and flags every discrepancy. Ops teams review exceptions in Slack instead of spreadsheets.
If you're a retail brand selling through Costco, Target, REI, or regional chains, your partners send weekly or monthly sales data. Every partner uses a different format. This data drives revenue recognition, inventory planning, and replenishment.
TableFlow handles any partner sales report format—faxed reports, Excel files, CSVs. Extracts line-item detail, validates against shipment records, and posts to your ERP automatically.
Real example: A consumer apparel brand was manually processing faxed sales reports from a major national retailer weekly. TableFlow automated it completely.
Bills of lading, freight invoices, carrier rate sheets, 3PL inventory reports—operationally critical but rarely covered by AP-focused platforms.
TableFlow handles freight invoices, BOLs, delivery receipts, 3PL reports. Processes complex carrier rate tables. Integrates with your ERP or TMS.
What You Keep With TableFlow
Switching platforms doesn't mean losing functionality. TableFlow handles the document automation workflows that mid-market companies actually use Esker for:
Supplier invoices, regardless of format—PDFs, scanned documents, emails with attachments. AI extraction, 2-way PO matching, ERP sync.
Customer POs in any format—PDF, Excel, email. Extract line items, validate against your catalog, route to fulfillment. No template setup required.
B2B orders from customers in any format. Accurate extraction, business rule validation, straight to your ERP.
Native integration with NetSuite, plus API/webhook connectivity for any ERP or operational system. A complement to your ERP—just like Esker.
Who Chooses TableFlow Over Esker
Managing purchase orders from dozens of customers, supplier pricing from 20–40 vendors, packing list reconciliation, and freight invoices. You need automation that handles all of it—without enterprise pricing or a 12-month rollout.
TableFlow deploys in weeks and covers every document in your operations workflow.
You started DTC and now you're selling through Costco, Target, regional chains, and distributors. You're drowning in partner sales reports in 15 different formats, POs with complex size runs, and faxed data that somehow keeps coming.
Esker's Order-to-Cash is designed for AR collections and invoice delivery—not the operations automation retail brands need when scaling wholesale. TableFlow was built for this use case.
Esker implementations involve IT projects, ERP integrations through consulting partners, and months before you see ROI.
TableFlow is set up by our team. You send us your documents, we configure the automation, and you're processing real files in weeks—not quarters.
How TableFlow Deploys vs. Esker
Sales process and contract negotiation for suite licensing
Kickoff with Esker + implementation partner
System configuration and ERP integration (8–16 weeks)
Change management and user training (4–8 weeks)
Go-live
Timeline: 6–12 months | Requires: Internal IT + external implementation partner
Discovery call: Share your documents, walk us through your rules and workflows
Week 1–3: Our team configures and validates rules-based automation, sets up integrations
Week 3–6: Live processing with your real documents, validation and testing
Go-live: Your team trained, processing live
Timeline: 2–6 weeks on average | Requires: Your operations lead, a few hours of your time
Real Workflows. Real Results.
Pricing updates from suppliers arrived as Excel files weekly—each in a completely different format with indented hierarchies, nested categories, and inconsistent structures. Manual processing required.
After TableFlow:
- Automated extraction for all 40+ supplier formats, zero templates
- 90% reduction in weekly pricing update time
- Real-time ERP updates—sales team always has current pricing
- AI flags unusual price increases for buyer review automatically
After expanding into major retail chains, the team was manually processing weekly faxed sales reports. Complex table formats, size runs, store-level breakdowns. Hours per report, every week.
After TableFlow:
- Faxed reports automatically routed and processed
- Line-item extraction with size run detail
- Direct ERP import, no manual entry
- Financial close significantly accelerated
Pricing: Mid-Market vs. Enterprise
Esker's website doesn't publish pricing—and for enterprise platforms, that usually means the number is significant.
TableFlow pricing is built for mid-market:
TableFlow doesn't require enterprise suite licensing or implementation partner fees. Pricing is tailored to your document volume and workflow—talk to us to get a number that makes sense for your situation.
The goal: ROI within 60 days. Most customers hit it.
Book a DemoIs TableFlow the Right Esker Alternative for You?
- You're a $10M–$500M company in distribution, retail, or operations-heavy industries
- Your ops team processes complex documents beyond just AP invoices
- You're dealing with supplier pricing sheets, packing list reconciliation, or partner data
- You need automation live in weeks, not quarters
- You want transparent pricing without enterprise contract negotiation
- •You need a full enterprise Source-to-Pay suite with sourcing, contract management, and supplier financing
- •You're a 5,000-person company needing global multi-entity AP automation at scale
- •You need AR collections, deductions management, and cash application in one platform
We'll tell you honestly in a demo call if we're not the right tool for your situation.
Ready to See the Difference?
Bring your actual documents—supplier pricing sheets, POs, packing lists, partner sales reports, freight invoices. Whatever your team is manually processing right now.
We'll show you automated extraction on your real files in your first demo.
No slides. No generic examples. Just your documents, running through TableFlow.
See how TableFlow compares to other platforms: Conexiom Alternative | Rossum Alternative
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about TableFlow as an Esker alternative
See TableFlow in Action with Your Documents
Schedule a demo to see how TableFlow handles your specific document types—from supplier pricing sheets to packing list reconciliation and partner sales data.