ECLASS classification for your product and purchase data
ECLASS (formerly written eCl@ss) is a classification standard for the technical attributes of a specific item at the material master level: its properties, its specifications, the details an engineer needs to specify or match a part correctly. It's the standard most often requested across manufacturing and industrial companies, and it's especially strong in Germany and the wider DACH region, where a parent company, client or engineering team may require ECLASS-level detail on material records that were never classified that way to begin with.
What this means for your data
ECLASS (formerly written eCl@ss) is a classification standard for the technical attributes of a specific item at the material master level: its properties, its specifications, the details an engineer needs to specify or match a part correctly. It's the standard most often requested across manufacturing and industrial companies, and it's especially strong in Germany and the wider DACH region, where a parent company, client or engineering team may require ECLASS-level detail on material records that were never classified that way to begin with.
What it costs to leave it
Bad data doesn't stay behind when you migrate. It gets carried into the new system, where it causes extra test runs, a delayed go-live, and spend reports nobody trusts once the dust settles.
How classification to ECLASS works
Assess what you have
Pearstop reviews your product and purchase data to see what's classified, what's missing, and how consistent the existing descriptions are.
Classify with AI and a person reviewing uncertain lines
AI classification handles the clear cases, and a person reviews anything uncertain, so the ECLASS labels you get back are ones you can trust.
Hand back classified data
You get your data back with ECLASS codes mapped to your system's fields, ready to load or report against.
Where ECLASS classification matters
- Material master records, where ECLASS attributes are usually requested at the individual part level, not the category level.
- Product descriptions, which need enough consistency for classification to be reliable.
- Whether ECLASS needs to sit alongside an existing category standard such as UNSPSC, rather than replace it.
What good data looks like
- One record per supplier, with no duplicates across entities.
- Every spend line labelled to one standard (UNSPSC or your own).
- Item and material descriptions written the same way.
- Units of measure consistent.
- Inactive suppliers and items flagged, not migrated.
- Every field mapped to the new system and documented.
- Material descriptions consistent enough to classify reliably.
- ECLASS attributes recorded at the material level, not guessed at category level.
How Pearstop handles it
The data doesn't need to be clean first. AI classification handles the clear cases, and a person reviews anything uncertain. ECLASS labels are mapped to ECLASS's fields, in the format your migration needs. New invoices stay classified after go-live, so reporting doesn't slip back into the same mess.
Work with your partner
Most migrations run through an implementation partner. We work alongside them, or directly with you. Your partner sets up the new system; we give them clean, classified data in the format their import tools need. Nobody's scope changes, and your partner's team can spend their time on the new system instead of fixing records.
Why start early
Bring us in when you assess the data, not after the first test run fails. You find duplicates, free-text lines and missing categories while there is still time to fix them, nothing has to be cleaned twice, and the test runs go faster because the data goes in cleanly. Some problems only show up once you look closely at how the data behaves, which is why it pays to work with someone who handles this data every day.
Frequently asked questions
What is ECLASS classification?
ECLASS (formerly written eCl@ss) classifies the technical attributes of a specific item at the material master level, giving the properties and specifications an engineer or procurement system needs to identify or match a part precisely.
What is the difference between ECLASS and UNSPSC?
UNSPSC classifies what category a purchase belongs to, for spend analysis and category management. ECLASS classifies the technical attributes of a specific item at the material level. They answer different questions rather than competing to answer the same one.
Can AI classify products to ECLASS?
Yes, with a person reviewing uncertain lines. AI handles the clear cases reliably, and routing anything uncertain to a person keeps the output accurate enough to use for engineering and procurement decisions.
Related reading
Send us 200 lines
We'll classify a sample of your purchase data and send it back so you can see what good data looks like before you commit to cleaning the rest.
