Digital Invoice Processing
Digital invoice processing should be a formality. After all, an invoice follows an order or contract. In practice, however, invoice processing is quite a time-consuming affair. Especially when the invoice is incorrect and needs to be communicated with colleagues and supplier.
From paper to digital invoice processing
Invoice processing is an information-driven and repetitive process. It therefore lends itself well to automation. Even for invoices that are incorrect because of, say, a discrepancy with the order that preceded the invoice.
Automatic invoice processing is not the same as digital invoice processing. In digital invoice processing, only the form in which an invoice is communicated and stored changes. A paper invoice can be passed through a scanner, and then the invoice is digitized as an image or PDF. One step further in digitization is the use of OCR, or Optical Character Recognition software. This allows data extraction from a scanned document or PDF. The information on an image is thus automatically recognized and the invoice is then also available as data.
We offer document scanning and recognition solutions. But with tens or hundreds of thousands of incoming invoices annually, scanning or having scanned documents recognized by itself can be a lot of work. Asking suppliers to send their invoices as e-invoices, i.e. directly as data files, may be a bridge too far. An excellent alternative is the Basware Network, which also takes all of the document scanning out of your hands.
From digital to automated invoice processing
With the scanning and recognition of invoices, the invoice, both at header level and line level, becomes available as data. This fulfills a necessary condition for automatic invoice processing. After all, now that the invoice is available as data, an invoice can be automatically coded (what is what), validated with creditor master data in an ERP system, and matched with, for example, a purchase order or payment plan. If the invoice matches the corresponding order, then the invoice can be submitted directly to an ERP/financial package for payment.
In the case of a non-match, several scenarios are possible. For example, marginal discrepancies can be tolerated in order to avoid digging out. Or the discrepant invoice can be automatically submitted to a budget holder by e-mail.
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