Supplier invoices that queue themselves up
The most recognisable automation there is, and a logical first step. Small enough to be running within a few weeks, big enough to notice the difference.
How it works today
Invoices arrive at a general email address. Someone opens them, reads the amount and the VAT, looks up the supplier, picks the right ledger account and enters the invoice.
When in doubt an email goes to whoever placed the order. By the end of the month there is a pile nobody can reconstruct precisely any more.
The invoice is queued up in the package you already run — Exact Online, AFAS Profit or another accounting package with an integration or import route. You do the posting; we only take the retyping away.
- Fifty or more supplier invoices a month
- Invoices arriving by email as PDFs
- An accounting package with an integration or an import route
- Someone currently retyping and coding by hand
What happens, step by step
- 1Collect from the mailbox
Invoices are picked up from a mailbox or folder. Attachments are recognised, including when there are several in one email.
- 2Read the data
Supplier, invoice number, date, amounts, VAT and payment reference are read out, with a confidence score per field.
- 3Catch duplicates
An invoice number that already exists is flagged before anything is posted — which is what prevents duplicate payments.
- 4Check against the order
Where there is a purchase order, the invoice is laid against it. Differences in quantity or price go to an exceptions list.
- 5Propose the coding
Based on the supplier and the history, the system proposes a ledger account and cost centre. Proposing, not deciding.
- 6Queue for approval
The invoice sits ready in your package. Someone looks and approves; nobody retypes anything.
Where it goes wrong when it is built too simply
These are the questions we ask in the quick scan. If a supplier does not ask them, they surface later anyway — usually once there is already an invoice.
- An invoice with no purchase order: who has to approve that, and on what basis?
- A credit note that looks like an invoice, with a negative amount read as positive.
- VAT reverse-charged, several rates on one invoice, or an invoice in a foreign currency.
- A collective invoice with thirty lines belonging to five different projects.
- The same invoice arriving both by email and by post, scanned in by hand.
- A supplier changing their invoice layout without warning.
What it delivers
The monthly posting round turns from data entry into checking. Duplicate payments are caught before they happen, which often delivers more than the hours saved.
Because every invoice is logged, you can also see afterwards when what was processed — useful at year-end and when the accountant asks.
Below roughly fifty invoices a month — about ten hours of manual work — the gain is usually too small to carry the maintenance.
Build: €1,750 – €4,500
Category: Standard automation
Build time: 14 to 30 hours
Lead time: 2 to 4 weeks
Maintenance: Care, €195 per month
A range, not a quote. What it becomes for you follows from the Automation Check. All prices →
See all prices →Start with one process
Tell us which work gets retyped most often at your company. If automating it turns out to be a bad idea, you will hear that in the first conversation — before there is an invoice.
The first conversation is free and without obligation. Want it substantiated? The Automation Check is €295 — deducted if you have us build within 30 days.