Manual invoice processing can be one of the most expensive elements of the Finance Department, with it costing anything between £4 to £25 to fully process an individual invoice. These figures may seem reasonable when considered in small amounts, but when invoices are being received in their 100,000s weekly, the final total becomes less palpable. In addition to this, the tasks involved in manually processing invoices can be laborious and repetitive, significantly impacting job satisfaction.
Through deploying Intelligent Process Automation (IPA) organisations can significantly decrease the expense of invoice processing (an average reduction of 74% in costs can be achieved), whilst improving productivity, staff morale and enhancing security and compliance.
Key Benefits of IPA:
Reduction in processing costs
Faster processing ensuring SLA targets are met
Early payment discounts
Improved supplier relationships
Increased staff morale and productivity
Enhanced visibility of processing for management information and compliance
Celaton’s Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) platform, inSTREAM, enables organisations to automate the end-to-end process of invoice handling. inSTREAM’s combination of IPA technologies means it can streamline the tasks of data capture, validation and approvals including verification of supplier details, 2-3-way matching, currency conversions and other checks and measures including duplication and fraud detection.
inSTREAM’s machine learning capabilities mean that it can process a wide variety of semi and unstructured invoices through the natural consequence of processing and by collaborating with AP Clerks who provide teaching when confidence is low. inSTREAM learns from every transaction it processes, therefore as the volume of documents increases, its confidence and accuracy improve to a point where Straight Through Processing (STP) is achieved.
With over 82% of Financial Departments recently surveyed saying they feel overwhelmed by the volume of invoices received daily and neither the amount or variety received likely to decrease, IPA platforms offer Finance teams an effective and efficient solution.