Hundreds of supplier invoices arriving by email are now OCR'd, matched against purchase orders and posted to accounting automatically. Clean invoices book themselves in 40 seconds; only genuine mismatches reach a human, highlighted and ready to approve in Slack.
Typical results
86%
Invoices posted touch-free
400+
Invoices processed monthly
9 hrs
Monthly AP workload, was 63
Figures reflect typical results for this kind of automation.
The challenge
Over 400 supplier invoices a month landed in a shared inbox, each retyped into the accounting system by hand — nine minutes apiece, plus the hunt for the matching purchase order. Data-entry errors crept into component costs, month-end close dragged, and finance was hiring just to keep up with paper.
Before and after
Processing time per invoice
−93%Invoices posted touch-free
AP hours per month
−86%The automation
We connected the invoice inbox to an OCR pipeline that extracts supplier, line items, totals and PO references from every attachment. Each invoice is three-way matched against its purchase order and goods-received record: clean matches post straight to the accounting system, with approvals firing in Slack. Mismatches route to an exception queue with the exact discrepancy highlighted — wrong quantity, price drift or missing PO.
How it works
- 01
Invoice arrives
Supplier emails land in a monitored inbox and attachments are pulled automatically.
- 02
OCR reads everything
Supplier, line items, totals and PO references are extracted into structured data.
- 03
Three-way match
Each invoice is checked against its purchase order and the goods-received record.
- 04
Clean invoices post
Matches book straight into the accounting system, with approvals firing on Slack.
- 05
Exceptions get eyes
Mismatches route to a human queue with the exact discrepancy highlighted.
Starts from
- Supplier invoice emails
- Purchase orders
Delivers
- Auto-posted to accounting
- Slack approvals
- Exception queue
The impact
Processing time per invoice fell from nine minutes to 40 seconds, and 86% of invoices now post without anyone touching them. Accounts-payable workload dropped from 63 hours a month to nine, data-entry errors vanished from cost reports, and invoice volume can typically grow without an extra AP hire.
Questions about this automation
What is three-way matching?
Three-way matching checks that the supplier invoice, the purchase order and the goods-received record agree on items, quantities and prices. The automation runs this check on every invoice once OCR has extracted the data. When all three line up within tolerance, the invoice posts to the accounting system without manual entry.
What happens when an invoice does not match?
Mismatches go to an exception queue with the exact issue highlighted, such as a wrong quantity, a price that differs from the purchase order or a missing PO reference. A finance team member reviews the case, contacts the supplier if needed and approves or rejects it in Slack.
Which invoice formats can the OCR read?
It reads PDF invoices and scanned images attached to emails sent to the monitored inbox, including multi-page documents with many line items. Supplier, invoice number, dates, line items, totals and PO references are extracted into structured fields. Low-confidence fields are routed for a quick human check instead of being posted.