How SAP Invoice Automation is Transforming Accounts Payable with AI

From digital assistants such as Siri and Alexa to recommendation engines on Netflix and YouTube, Artificial Intelligence has simplified our lives considerably. It has become more pervasive with its applications disrupting a wide range of industries and finance has been no exception. With its competence to unlock the trapped potential within the Accounts Payable (AP) department, AI has been transforming invoice processing allowing back-office finance and procurement employees to focus on higher-value-added activities.

Let's look at how artificial intelligence help in the automation of invoice processing and how AI-enabled intelligent invoice data extraction can alter your organization's accounts payable processes.

Shift in the Strategic Take on Accounts Payable

The constantly evolving financial landscape appears to be positioning AI-powered accounts payable (AP) departments at the forefront of generating ROI as they streamline and automate accounts payable procedures by offering improved visibility and control over vital financial data when compared to their legacy processes.

According to recent research conducted by Levvel Research, the expenses of processing invoices in a firm with low levels of automation are 20 times greater than in firms with high levels of automation. From the date of receipt, organizations with a low level of AP automation take an average of five days to move an invoice to the AP department, while those with no automation take even longer. Even after an invoice has been received by the AP department, inaccuracies, convoluted approval routing, and manual data input can cause additional delays resulting in lost early discounts and late payment costs, along with a negative impact on the supplier relationships.

Read more Accounts Payable Automation: You Can’t Afford To Be Without It

By leveraging AI, organizations can eliminate manual processes of accounts payable to generate tangible and strategic value; making AP a self-supporting system.

Artificial Intelligence in Accounts Payable

The AI technology can quickly learn how your company processes invoices and use that knowledge to recommend or automatically process and apply rules to new and existing vendor invoices. It can also help automate AP workflows by intelligently routing bills based on keywords, codes, and vendor data. When it comes to cost allocation, AI can automatically code vendor invoices based on past trends and process suggestions, eliminating the need for manual billing. All of these enhancements help speed up the overall accounts payable process while allowing employees to focus on more value-added activities.

It's important to note that deploying AI-based AP automation doesn't mean you'll have less control over your AP processing. On the contrary, you will be in charge of the AP system's automatic controls, which ensure that the rules and structures that you set in your process are followed.

Read more Strategic Approaches to Optimize Accounts Payable Management

Optical character recognition (OCR) leveraging AI improves the accuracy of invoice data captured; thereby reducing human errors that can occur during the process. Furthermore, AI also has the ability to identify duplicate invoices and detect other potential frauds that are on the rise.

Automating Invoice Processing with Applexus InSITE

Organizations should engage with the best solution and implementation partner to get the most out of an AP system in terms of process efficiency and cost effectiveness. To take advantage of the solution, your technological infrastructure and the ability to absorb new technology are crucial.

Read more SAP Accounts Payable Automation Software: Achieve Faster ROI with Shorter Implementation

Delivering an end-to-end automated vendor invoice processing for organizations, Applexus InSITE digitizes PO & Non-PO based invoices with a short implementation timeline. InSITE gathers invoices from multiple channels (Email, Scan, EDI, Idoc, Supplier Self Service Portal, Procurement Platforms) using Applexus Intelligent Data Extraction and Recognition (AIDER) technology; replacing the need for manual data entry.

Applexus InSITE also leverages automated invoice validation and exception handling to discover and correct issues early in the invoice processing cycle.  

To learn more about how our AI-based solutions can help your organization to develop autonomous AP operations, you can reach out to our industry expert at alan.young@applexus.com.