OCR Invoice Processing Software

Automatically extract line item, vendor and total data from invoices and then export to your ERP system. Also processing purchase orders and do two or three way matching.

person holding a document containing words "invoice"

Invoice processing software provides the functionality to automate the extraction and exportation of data from invoices and purchase orders. The OCR invoice software provides a two-way match between the invoice and the purchase order and can also provide a three-way match to the shipping documents through some additional configuration. User Friendly Consulting® provides several industry leading invoice processing software solutions including ABBYY FlexiCapture® for Invoices and IRISXTract™.

Benefits of Automated Invoice Processing Software

Invoice processing software performs several mission critical functions that help to greatly reduce labor expenses in the accounts payable department by:

  • Improving the ability to pay invoices on time and more accurately. AP analysts won’t have to worry any longer about invoices stacking up in their physical mailbox and sitting in email inbox. Invoices can be routed to the invoice processing software automatically by monitoring an email inbox or by importing the physical documents through an MFP device or a scanner.
  • Providing a mechanism for a company to grow their invoice processing volume without adding staff.
  • Allowing companies to gain insightful information from invoices by capturing the information contained in them more quickly. This advanced access to information enables companies to create better forecasting and budgeting.
  • Giving companies a means to pay invoices more quickly. This allows companies the ability to capture time sensitive discounts if they exist for that vendor.
  • Providing companies a means to create a much more robust audit trail during the invoice payment process. Work flows can be established for routing of invoices for approval based upon many different criteria, such as total dollar amount.
  • Providing a central point of capture for not only all invoices (from paper mailing and email attachments), but also makes it possible to capture other types of documents, such as survey forms and expense accounts. The data from these other types of documents can be automatically extracted and sent to critical back office systems.

Typical Automatic Invoice Processing Software Process

The following diagram illustrates the normal flow of the invoice processing software application. [Image provided by ABBYY USA.]

four boxes connected by arrows showing the invoice processing flow

First, the documents are captured in either electronic or paper format.  Documents received by physical mail are first scanned and then automatically imported through the built-in functions in the invoice software. Electronic versions of invoices, such as those attached to an email, are also automatically routed to the software.

Second, the software analyzes the invoice to determine the vendor and business unit, then determines whether the document is an invoice or a purchase order.

Third, the invoice continues through the invoice processing workflow to extract the information from the document using OCR invoice software. Validation of the data is done through database lookups; the AP clerk also provides a visual inspection as necessary to verify that the information was extracted correctly. It is at this stage that the two or three way matching occurs to further confirm the accuracy of the data.

Finally, the invoice data is exported to the accounting or ERP system. This can include a copy of the invoice in PDF/A format or the EDI data using a particular schema.

Understanding the Cost and ROI of OCR Invoice Software:

The total cost of an invoice software processing solution consists of several components. Understanding these components is essential to grasp the return on investment for your project and to recognize labor savings as high as 50% in the accounts payable invoice processing function.

  • Purchase price of the software itself along with annual maintenance. UFC® provides a wide range of purchase options including methods to finance the purchase or spread out among multiple years.
  • Labor to configure the system to capture and export invoice data and perform the two way matching.  This includes what we call “training” which is a software function where the system learns new invoice formats such that every vendor format performs as expected.
  • Server infrastructure, either onsite or in the cloud. UFC® will help you configure either option and has expertise in Amazon AWS should you desire to host your own cloud server.
  • User and administrative training. We can provide these services at your location, through web conference, or via our online training portal.

The savings for the invoice OCR system is recognized through the reduction in the time required to process the payment of an invoice along with savings due to the reduction of payment errors. Accounts Payable personnel can focus upon more important functions during the invoice payment cycle rather than keying in line items from purchases and struggling with information overload from stacks of paper on their desks.