Preparing supplier invoices for approval

Multi-site distribution company

The company, which has 80 employees, processed 2,400 supplier invoices a month. Documents arrived in several email inboxes, and searching for purchase orders caused delays and reliance on outsourced administrative work.

Approach

1. 01

   Frame

   The finance director aimed to cut preparation time by 30%. Payments remained approved by authorized staff. The initial scope covered ten regular suppliers.

2. 02

   Investigate

   I reviewed 500 invoices, the hours billed by the contractor and the penalties actually paid, to determine whether the errors came from reading the documents, from accounting codes or from missing purchase orders.

3. 03

   Explain

   Two explanations were compared: manual data entry, or the lack of shared documents between teams. The diagnosis led to centralizing documents before choosing an extraction tool.

4. 04

   Build

   Four options were priced: the status quo, a standard form, rules-based automation and AI-assisted preparation. Structured invoices remain handled by rules where that is enough.

5. 05

   Test

   Across 400 invoices, the tool first ran alongside the usual process. The thresholds were at least 99% accuracy on critical fields and 30% time saved, review included. 398 invoices were processed without error, and time dropped from 10 to 6 minutes.

6. 06

   Decide

   The director approved a budget of $21,000, including $6,000 for strategy. The extraction is used to prepare validation and triggers no payment. Unusual invoices go back to manual processing.

7. 07

   Steer

   The monthly review compares the expected savings with the contractor’s invoices and penalties. Any new document type is tested before it is added to the scope.