New AI System Streamlines 15,000 Monthly Invoices for Company

Understanding the situation

A Minnesota-based food manufacturer for major clients was struggling with a complicated and time-consuming invoice process following a series of acquisitions. The company had several distinct legal entities, each with its own back-office accounting software and processes.

As the company aimed to unify operations under a single entity, they needed to present a consolidated front to their vendors. This unification required all vendors to send invoices to a central accounts payable (AP) inbox but the invoices had to be processed according to the correct legal entity.

Exploring the challenge

Despite having several different accounting systems, none were suitable for handling the company’s new invoice and AP needs. The company needed AI-driven software to automatically classify and route each invoice correctly.

The company reached out to CLA’s data science team to create a custom tool. The tool had to:

• Use an intelligent system capable of distinguishing between invoices and other documents,
• Extract key details from the invoices, and
• Integrate with their existing SAP cloud system to determine the correct legal entity based on purchase order (PO) information or the invoice address for non-PO invoices.

CLA developed a custom Microsoft Power Automate flow integrated with document computer vision. The tool can:

• Identify if an email attachment is an invoice,
• Redirect non-invoice documents,
• Extract PO details from the invoices and verify them with the ERP system,
• Route invoices to the correct legal entity’s AP inbox, and
• Use the invoice address to determine the appropriate routing for non-PO invoices.

Achieving results

The company now has a simple, AI-enhanced way to process invoices for its several entities. This system is a core component of the AP process, routing approximately 15,000 monthly invoices.

The new tool replaces time consuming manual processes of sorting invoices by hand, saving countless hours of staff time. Invoices can now be processed faster and with improved accuracy.