Automating invoice and document entry: what is possible today and what is not
Today a supplier invoice can be read automatically, with supplier, date, net amount, tax and line items extracted and posted into your business system with nobody typing it. What you cannot skip is the review: the system must flag whatever it is unsure about and hand it to a person. That combination — machine for volume, person for exceptions — is what actually works.
Which documents automate well
Not all documents behave the same. In our experience these give the best results from month one:
- Supplier invoices, even when every one has a different layout
- Goods received notes and their match against the purchase order
- Receipts and staff expense claims
- Forms and orders arriving by email as PDFs
- Bank statements and payment runs for reconciliation
- Contracts, to extract key dates, amounts and renewal warnings
How it works inside, without the jargon
The document arrives where it already arrives today: an inbox, a folder or a scanner. The system reads it, identifies what type it is and extracts the relevant fields. Then it compares against what is already in the business system: does the supplier exist, does the amount match the order, has this invoice already been posted.
From there it does one of three things: post it straight through if everything matches, park it in a review queue if something looks off, or reject it stating why. What matters is that every document leaves a trace of what was decided and on what grounds.
Where a person is still needed
Anyone promising a hundred per cent with no review is selling smoke. Some cases need judgement: invoices with items that do not match the order, scans that are skewed or poor quality, credit notes and adjustments, or new suppliers that must be set up with correct tax details.
What changes is not that human work disappears but what it is spent on: instead of keying two hundred invoices, you review the fifteen the system flagged. And those fifteen get reviewed properly, because there is time.
Where to start without launching a huge project
The sensible approach is to pick one document type with high volume and a repetitive layout — usually invoices from your ten regular suppliers — and automate that flow end to end. Within a few weeks you see the result in real hours and know whether extending it is worthwhile.
Extending later is easy, because the hard part is not reading the document: it is agreeing what to do with each exception, and that will already be settled.
How we do it at iDeo Networks
We build these flows connected to the business system the company already uses, rather than replacing it. We start by measuring how many documents arrive each month and how much time they consume today, so the decision is made on numbers and not expectations.
We cover the whole of Spain, including the Canary and Balearic Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, and we also serve Spanish branches of international groups that need to fit head office processes.
Related services
How many invoices are typed by hand at your company?
We measure the real volume and tell you what can be automated and what would still need review.
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