Streamlining invoice approval workflow with document AI

Efficient invoice approval enables businesses to verify the precision of invoice information, encompassing pricing, quantities, and contractual terms. Companies can manage their cash flow adeptly while upholding compliance standards and fostering positive relationships with vendors.

However, achieving a 100% straight-through process (STP) rate in invoice approval faces numerous challenges, with paper invoices being a significant obstacle. They require scanning and verification before the approval workflow can commence. Even digital invoices come in different formats and layouts, making extracting relevant data difficult. Translating payment terms, line items, and billing codes into the organization's systems can be time-consuming and prone to errors. 

Businesses must leverage document AI for invoice approval to overcome the difficulties of disparate systems and manual paper invoicing. By streamlining the approval workflow, AI-based tools enable seamless integration between payment results and invoices while automating data translation from various sources. Consequently, companies achieve faster data extraction, validation, and verification from invoices, improving efficiency, accuracy, and cost savings.

 Let us understand the extensive benefits of document AI in more detail.

The challenges of manual invoice processing and approval

The accounts payable function is critical across organizations, ensuring efficient cash flow management while maintaining accurate records and timely payments. Additionally, it plays a crucial role in preventing unforeseen expenses and maintaining financial stability.

However, if your accounts payable department relies on manual invoicing processes, a slow processing rate, incorrect payments, lost invoices, inconsistencies, compliance errors, and a lack of visibility will be more likely.

Let us explore these challenges in more detail.

1. Inefficiencies and delays

Manual invoice processing and approval pose significant time and resource challenges. The manual handling of physical invoices, data entry, approval routing, and resolving discrepancies can consume substantial time, resulting in payment delays. Such delays can negatively impact supplier relationships, strain cash flow, and potentially lead to financial penalties. Additionally, manual processes burden accounts payable staff with increased stress and a heavier workload, diminishing overall efficiency and productivity. 

2. Lack of tracking and visibility

Manual processes often lack transparency and tracking capabilities. Determining the status of an invoice, locating misplaced or lost invoices, and tracking the progress of approvals become challenging tasks. The absence of proper visibility and tracking mechanisms also makes it difficult to provide suppliers and contractors with accurate estimates of payment clearance times.

3. Compliance risks

Manual processes raise the risk of non-compliance with regulatory requirements. Inadequate documentation, payment deadline oversights, or failure to adhere to tax regulations can result in penalties and legal complications and harm the organization's reputation.

4. Risk of fraud

Manual processes in accounts payable often lack robust internal controls, making it difficult to prevent and detect fraudulent activities. The absence of proper segregation of duties and oversight mechanisms creates opportunities for individuals involved in invoice processing to exploit vulnerabilities for personal gain. 

5. Lack of data analytics and insights

Manual processes limit the comprehensive analysis of invoice data. Valuable insights and trends that can be extracted from invoice data, including cash flow analysis, supplier performance evaluation, and identification of cost-saving opportunities, are frequently overlooked due to restricted data accessibility.

6. Reporting and documentation complexity

Manual processes pose challenges in generating accurate and timely reports and providing auditors with the required documentation. This can lead to inefficient audits, delays in financial reporting, and heightened compliance risks. They also make it challenging to identify fraudulent activities and gather evidence for investigations. 

Benefits of leveraging document AI for automated data extraction in invoice processing

Document AI technology employs machine learning algorithms to analyze and comprehend document content. It can automate invoice data extraction by leveraging technologies such as OCR, NLP, MICR, etc., to improve accuracy in invoice processing workflows. 

Following are its benefits in detail.

1. Time and cost savings

Document AI technology accelerates data extraction from invoices, surpassing the speed of manual data entry. As a result, businesses experience enhanced efficiency and faster turnaround times. Additionally, automated processing reduces the need for dedicated resources to handle manual tasks. It leads to cost savings by optimizing workforce allocation and minimizing the risk of errors that could result in financial discrepancies.

2. Improves vendor relationships and dispute resolution

Automated invoice processing systems can foster positive vendor relationships by ensuring on-time payments and minimizing errors. They also help with timely notifications and reminders, eliminating the need for time-consuming back-and-forth communication. These tools also enable efficient resolution, swiftly identifying and addressing issues in invoice discrepancies or disputes. 

3. Intelligent routing and approval automation

Manual routing of invoices is a significant challenge for many companies, with over 37% citing it as a pain point in the invoice processing workflow. After the initial processing, invoices must be manually routed to various stakeholders. However, the absence of a defined approval route can result in delays and even lost invoices in some cases.

Automated invoice processing addresses this issue by allowing users to establish a designated workflow that ensures invoices reach the appropriate approvers. Custom notifications are sent to notify and remind them about pending invoice approvals, providing timely processing and confirmation. This automated approach streamlines the routing process through predefined criteria, minimizes delays, and enhances overall efficiency in invoice approval workflows.

4. Efficient compliance and risk management

AI-based invoice processing assists organizations in practicing compliance with invoicing policies and regulations by automating the extraction and validation of crucial invoice data. It also ensures privacy by automatically identifying and classifying personally identifiable information (PII), to protect against potential data breaches and security incidents. AI-powered tools can also detect patterns and anomalies that may indicate fraudulent activities, enabling proactive measures to be taken.

5. Enhanced cash flow forecasting

Document AI enhances invoice cash flow management by providing improved visibility into invoice status, payment schedules, and real-time information on outstanding invoices. Through automated tracking and monitoring, businesses can access accurate data on payment due dates and cash flow projections, enabling more precise forecasting and effective fund allocation. Furthermore, they can analyze invoice patterns, payment histories, and trends to make informed financial decisions. 

6. Increased scalability

AI solutions offer exceptional scalability, enabling seamless handling of extensive invoices. As businesses expand and invoice volumes grow, these solutions can effortlessly accommodate the increased workload without requiring significant adjustments or additional resources. Moreover, they can be customized to suit the enterprise's specific needs. For instance, if invoices are received through various channels such as emails, postal mail, or fax, the tool can be configured to extract data from all these sources. Similarly, if a multi-step approval process is in place, you can set up the workflow accordingly. 

How document AI extracts data from invoices

1. Extraction of key fields

Document AI combines powerful techniques to accurately extract key fields from invoices, including invoice numbers, dates, amounts, and vendor details. It leverages layout analysis, OCR, NLP techniques, and pre-trained ML models to Ingest and classify multi-format invoices while identifying duplicates.

2. Data validation

Extracted data is compared against predefined validation rules and cross-checked with existing databases or systems. This critical step ensures the extracted data's accuracy, validity, and consistency, aligning it with the organization's established data standards. 

3. Exception handling

Document AI flags invoices that deviate from predefined criteria or require manual review. For example, it can identify invoices with unusually high amounts, invoices from new vendors, or missing information. It helps the finance team prioritize their efforts and focus on resolving exceptional cases.

4. Workflow automation

Document AI seamlessly integrates with the company's financial systems, including accounting or ERP systems, enabling the automatic transfer of extracted invoice data. This integration eliminates the requirement for manual data entry, resulting in accelerated processing and payment cycles. To stay updated on workflow automation, take a look into these accounting workflow resources.

5. Reporting and analytics

AI provides insights and analytics on processed data from invoices. Using them, organizations can uncover trends, vendor performance, payment cycles, and opportunities for cost savings. This enables businesses to make data-driven decisions, optimize processes, and enhance overall financial efficiency.

A complete guide to implementing document AI in invoice approval workflow

Here’s a step-by-step guide to implementing document AI effectively.

1. Identify your workflow requirements

Gain a deep understanding of your existing invoice approval process, including its steps, stakeholders involved, and pain points. Identify the manual tasks, inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and sources of errors within the workflow. Clearly define the goals and objectives you aim to achieve with document AI implementation. For example, reducing manual effort, improving accuracy, enhancing speed, streamlining the approval process, and achieving cost savings.

2. Pick the right document AI tool

Conduct thorough research and evaluation when choosing a document AI solution for your specific needs. Consider factors such as accuracy, scalability, integration capabilities, and ease of use. Consider the size and scale of your business, ensuring that the software can accommodate your needs and deliver a positive return on investment (ROI). While cheaper template-based OCR solutions may be suitable for startups and small businesses, enterprises dealing with complex documents often benefit more from intelligent document processing systems. 

3. Prepare your data

Gather a dataset of invoices that represents your data accurately. Ensure that it encompasses various invoice formats and contexts to provide a comprehensive training experience. Additionally, perform data cleaning and preprocessing to maintain consistency and quality throughout the dataset. 

4. Choose an appropriate learning algorithm

Choose the correct learning algorithms based on the specific requirements of your invoice processing workflow. For instance,  supervised learning can be used when you have a labeled invoice dataset, where each invoice has been annotated with relevant information such as invoice numbers, vendor names, dates, and line items. 

On the other hand, unsupervised learning techniques can be used for tasks such as clustering similar invoices or extracting patterns from a large dataset of invoices. Examples include k-means and hierarchical clustering that can group invoices based on their similarities, helping to identify common patterns or anomalies.

5. Train the document AI model

Leverage techniques like layout analysis and machine learning to train the AI model effectively. During the training process, continuously evaluate its performance and incorporate feedback to refine its capabilities iteratively. The refinement ensures that the model improves over time, becoming more accurate and reliable in extracting information from invoices.

6. Integrate with your workflow

Integrate the document AI system with invoice approval workflow systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) or accounting software. This integration facilitates smooth data transfer between systems and automates the workflow. 

However, implementing software updates at an enterprise level can be challenging, especially when dealing with legacy technologies like mainframe-based platforms. These systems are often decades old and have limited interoperability with other systems. Moreover, integrating legacy systems with newer technologies can be resource-intensive and time-consuming.

Employing adaptable and flexible automation solutions to mitigate costs and project timelines is advisable. Consider technical debt, business objectives, and data security when planning an implementation. Adopt a phased approach that allows incremental changes while avoiding drastic operational disruptions.

7. Ensure security and compliance

Enforce strong security measures during the implementation process. This involves rigorous access controls, encryption techniques, and compliance measures to adhere to data protection regulations and maintain the confidentiality of invoice information.

For instance, implement compliance measures with laws such as the CCPA, CCPA, SEC, and HIPAA

8. Monitor and iterate

Continuously monitor the performance and accuracy of the document AI system. Analyze the results, collect feedback, and iterate on the models and processes to improve the performance and efficiency of the invoice approval workflow.

9. User support and training

Provide ongoing support to users using the document AI system. This can include offering a helpdesk or dedicated support team to address queries, troubleshoot issues, and provide guidance when needed. Regular communication channels, such as email updates, newsletters, or knowledge-sharing platforms, can also be established to inform users about system updates, tips, and best practices. Offer thorough training sessions, ensuring they clearly understand the new workflow and how to utilize the document AI system effectively. 

Gaining a competitive edge with document AI

Implementing document AI in invoice processing brings numerous benefits to organizations, streamlining the approval workflow and improving operational efficiency. By leveraging automated data extraction and accurate classification, companies can significantly reduce manual effort and errors in invoice handling. It not only leads to cost savings and faster processing times but also provides a competitive advantage in today's fast-paced business environment. With improved accuracy, enhanced data insights, and the ability to deliver advanced products and services, organizations can differentiate themselves, provide superior customer experiences, and stay ahead of the competition.