Key Results
- ✓75% reduction in manual invoice processing time
- ✓Exception resolution time reduced from 3 days to 4 hours
- ✓Full audit traceability across all 6 country operations
- ✓Zero compliance findings in first post-deployment audit
The Challenge
A global manufacturing company with operations in 6 countries processed over 12,000 invoices per month. Each country had its own AP team, its own ERP instance, and its own set of manual workarounds.
The symptoms were familiar:
- Invoice data was re-keyed manually from PDF to ERP
- Three-way matching (PO, goods receipt, invoice) was done in Excel
- Exception handling relied on email chains between AP, procurement, and warehouse teams
- Month-end close was delayed by 3–5 days due to reconciliation backlog
- Audit preparation required weeks of manual evidence gathering
Our Approach
Phase 1 — Workflow Discovery (3 weeks)
We mapped the invoice lifecycle in each country, from receipt through payment approval. We documented every manual step, every handoff point, and every workaround.
Key findings:
- 6 different invoice formats with country-specific requirements
- 30% of invoices required manual intervention due to PO mismatches
- Average exception took 3 days to resolve across 4 email threads
- No centralised visibility into processing status
Phase 2 — Pilot (8 weeks)
We deployed in the highest-volume country first:
- AI extraction for structured invoice data with schema validation against the local ERP master data
- Automated three-way matching with configurable tolerance rules per document type
- Intelligent exception routing that classified mismatches by type and severity, routing to the right team with full context
- Audit dashboard providing real-time visibility into processing status, exception rates, and resolution times
Phase 3 — Multi-Country Rollout (12 weeks)
We extended to the remaining 5 countries, adapting extraction models and validation rules for each country's invoice formats, tax requirements, and approval workflows.
The Technology
- Document extraction using trained AI models with schema-level validation
- Integration with SAP instances via standard APIs
- Workflow orchestration with rule-based routing and escalation
- Real-time dashboards built on operational data captured at every step
The Result
Within 6 months of full deployment:
- Manual processing time dropped by 75%
- Average exception resolution went from 3 days to 4 hours
- Month-end close was no longer delayed by AP reconciliation
- The first post-deployment audit found zero compliance issues — every action was logged with full traceability
- AP team members were redeployed to vendor management and cash flow analysis