Let's be honest, nobody joins a finance team because they enjoy typing invoice numbers into a system all day.
Yet for many businesses, that's still the reality. Invoices arrive by email or post, someone forwards them to the right person, another colleague checks them against a purchase order, approvals are chased, and eventually the invoice is entered into the finance system for payment.
One invoice isn't a problem, but when you're dealing with hundreds - or even thousands - every month, those small manual tasks quickly add up. Before long, your team is spending more time managing paperwork than focusing on the work that really adds value.
In this guide, we'll look at what automated invoice processing actually involves, where manual processing quietly drains time and money, and how a document management solution (like DocuWare) supports invoice processing and can streamline the whole process without replacing the finance systems you already use.
The biggest cost of manual invoice processing isn't just the hours spent entering data. It's everything that comes with it.
Someone has to type invoice details into your finance system. Another person checks figures against purchase orders and delivery notes. Approvals get delayed because someone is on holiday or misses an email. Then, when an invoice needs checking six months later, someone has to hunt through folders or shared drives to find it.
On their own, these tasks don't seem significant. Together, they create bottlenecks that slow down the entire accounts payable process.
The result? Finance teams spend their time chasing paperwork instead of analysing spend, supporting the wider business, or planning ahead. Backlogs build up, suppliers wait longer for payment, and the risk of mistakes increases simply because people are trying to process too much, too quickly.
Despite what some people assume, automation doesn't take people out of the process - it takes the repetitive jobs away from them.
As invoices arrive, they're captured digitally, whether they come in by email, post or EDI. The system automatically extracts the important information, so there's no need to type everything in manually. From there, invoices are sent through the correct approval workflow and matched against the relevant documents before being posted into your finance system.
Instead of spending hours on admin, your finance team can focus on reviewing exceptions, resolving queries and making informed decisions.
In other words, workflow automation handles the routine work while your people focus on the work that actually needs human judgement.
Three-way matching is one of the most important controls in accounts payable, but it's also one of the most time-consuming when handled manually.
The process simply checks that three documents all agree before an invoice is paid:
When everything matches, the invoice can move forward confidently. If there's a pricing difference, a quantity mismatch or an unexpected invoice, it's flagged for someone to review.
When this is done manually, someone has to locate each document and compare every line. It's effective, but not particularly efficient.
With automated invoice processing, the system performs these checks in seconds and only sends exceptions to your finance team. That means fewer errors, stronger financial controls and greater confidence that you're only paying valid invoices.
One of the biggest misconceptions about invoice automation is that you'll need to replace your accounting software or ERP.
In reality, that's rarely the case.
Document management solutions like DocuWare are designed to work alongside the systems you already have. They capture invoices, extract the data, manage approvals and matching, then pass everything into your existing finance software.
Your team continues using the system they're familiar with. The difference is that invoices arrive there already processed, approved and ready to go.
It's a smarter way of working without the disruption of replacing your existing technology.
It's natural to assume a project like this will take months and cause major disruption.
For most organisations, implementation is much simpler than expected.
The process usually starts by understanding how your current invoice approvals work. From there, workflows and matching rules are configured around your existing processes, before everything is tested using real invoices.
Because DocuWare integrates with your current finance systems, businesses can often be up and running within a matter of weeks rather than months, with very little disruption to day-to-day operations.
If your finance team is spending more time chasing approvals, correcting errors and entering data than adding strategic value, it might be time to rethink the process.
Book a free demo with the Keeley Travis team and see how DocuWare automated invoice processing can simplify invoice processing from start to finish. We'll show you exactly how it works with your existing systems, and how much time your team could save.
Get in touch with our team today!
Image Source: Envato