The Problem: Manual Order Validation Every Single Day
When running a small B2B operation, I spent hours every day validating order data in spreadsheets manually. Checking buyer names, quantities, delivery dates one by one, then jotting down notes when something looked off.
Then it hit me. "What if I could automate this repetitive task with Claude Code?"
First Attempt: Building a Basic Validation Bot
Step 1. Prepare Your Data
I organized the order data in an Excel file on my Windows device.
Buyer Name | Quantity | Order Date | Delivery Date
-----------|----------|---------|----------
ABC Corp | 500 | 2025-01-10 | 2025-02-10
XYZ Ltd | 0 | 2025-01-11 | 2025-02-11
Step 2. Write the Bot in Claude Code
I entered this prompt in Claude Code:
Create a Python script that does the following:
1. Read order data from a CSV file
2. Mark as "ERROR" if quantity is 0 or negative
3. Mark as "IMPOSSIBLE" if delivery date is before order date
4. Save results to a new file
Claude Code auto-generated the code. I just clicked "Run."
Step 3. Execute and Review Results
The bot validated 100 orders in 10 seconds flat. It found several issues I would've never caught manually.
3 Hidden Patterns We Discovered
Pattern 1: "Extremely Tight Delivery Windows"
The automation bot suggested adding this rule:
If delivery date is less than 5 days from order date → flag as "URGENT"
Manually, I'd just think "Oh, Friday delivery." But the bot quantified it: 12% of all orders were urgent.
Pattern 2: "Duplicate Orders from the Same Buyer"
Claude Code caught this:
ABC Corp ordered 500 units on 2025-01-10
ABC Corp ordered 300 units on 2025-01-10 (same day, different qty)
That's invisible in manual review. The bot automatically flagged "same buyer, same day" cases and revealed several duplicates.
Pattern 3: "Day-of-Week Clustering"
The bot's analysis report showed:
Monday: 42 orders
Tuesday: 8 orders
Wednesday: 5 orders
Thursday: 3 orders
Friday: 42 orders
Orders spike on Mondays and Fridays. We adjusted team schedules based on this insight.
Steps Any Non-Developer Can Follow
Step 1. Export Data as CSV
• Right-click your Excel file
• Select "Save As"
• Change format to "CSV"
• Save
Step 2. Open Claude Code
• Go to claude.ai
• Start a new chat
• Click the "Code" button in the bottom left
Step 3. Write Your Prompt
Be specific:
I need to validate order data from a CSV file.
File path: C:/Users/YourName/Desktop/orders.csv
Validation rules:
1. Is quantity ≥ 0?
2. Is delivery date after order date?
3. Is buyer name not empty?
Save the validation results to a new file.
Step 4. Run the Code
Claude Code generates the code. Click "Run." No programming knowledge needed.
Results: 70% Time Reduction
• Before: 2 hours to validate 100 orders
• Now: 5 minutes to validate 100 orders (bot run + review)
Plus, we now catch patterns we used to miss.
What's Next
The plan is to schedule this validation bot to run automatically every day. But that's another story.