How to deal with problematic invoices and not miss out on the benefits of automation

Manually rewriting invoices is time-consuming, error-prone, and puts an unnecessary burden on the accounting team. While automated extraction can significantly speed up the process, it doesn't always work flawlessly. How can you avoid manual corrections and avoid paying for expensive services you don't need?

Every month you get a bunch of invoices – some come via email as PDFs, others are in ISDOC , sometimes someone sends a scan or even a photo from their phone. And you have to get them all into your accounting system. Manually retyping them is slow, tedious and error-prone. Automatic extraction (or technology that extracts important data from invoices and forwards it to the system) is a great thing. But unfortunately – it doesn’t always work flawlessly.

Where is the problem?

Extraction technologies, like OCR , are great for standard invoices. But if the supplier has a non-standard document layout, a different format, or even poor print quality, the system can make a mistake. The result? You have to manually review and correct the invoice. And that's exactly what you wanted to avoid.

Most companies basically have two options:

1. Accept that a certain percentage of invoices will need to be manually checked .
2. Switch to a more expensive debt collection service , which will handle problematic invoices better, but will increase the cost of the entire process.

Neither option is ideal. That's why iNVOiCE FLOW comes up with a solution that combines the best of both approaches.

A smarter way to mine: three services that work together

iNVOiCE FLOW offers three different extraction services that you can combine as needed . This means you don't have to use just one service for all your invoices - instead, you can set up your system smarter :

1. You start with the cheapest service , which can handle most invoices without any problems .
2. If some invoices show errors , we identify where the problem is recurring .
3. For these "problem" invoices, we will use a more accurate extraction service that can handle them better - and we will only use it where it is really needed.

This will significantly improve your mining success and at the same time avoid paying for more expensive services where they are not necessary .

What does this mean in practice?

• Automation can handle most invoices without errors.
• More advanced mining will help with the more complex ones, but only where necessary .
• Your employees don't have to spend time checking and correcting invoices .
• And you don't pay unnecessarily high amounts for advanced services for all documents.

Plus, everything runs in one cloud solution , so you don't have to worry about anything. The system knows when to use which technology and makes sure everything runs as efficiently as possible in the background.

Do it smartly

Invoice extraction isn't perfect – but if done smartly, it can save you a lot of time and hassle. With iNVOiCE FLOW, you don't have to choose between a cheap but inaccurate service and a more expensive solution. You can have both – efficiently and without unnecessary costs.

Want to see how iNVOiCE FLOW could work in your company? Get in touch with us – we'll be happy to show you how.