95% Straight-Through
Invoice Processing for AP
(Account Payable)

• 

  Layout variability

  Invoices arrive in every shape and size-scanned PDFs, system-generated PDFs, EDI/XML, even photos. Tables run across pages, totals live on a last page, and stamps/notes break the layout. A single extraction approach won’t work across thousands of supplier formats.

• 

  Matching complexity (2/3-way)

  The system must reconcile invoice lines to POs and goods-received notes (GRNs), while handling partial receipts, backorders, and price variances. Freight, discounts, and tax treatments differ by vendor and item, so tolerances and allocation rules are essential.

• 

  Data quality

  Low-quality scans, skewed pages, or faded prints can trip OCR and misread key fields. Line-item parsing is brittle when columns shift. Even after extraction, values need normalization-currency, units of measure, and tax codes-before they’re safe to post.

• 

  Controls & compliance

  Finance needs speed without losing separation of duties or audit trails. Every auto-post must be explainable and traceable, with approvals where required. On top of that, vendor fraud risks (duplicate invoices, bank detail changes, look-alike domains) must be flagged early.

• 

  Scale & latency

  Volume spikes at month-end and during seasonal peaks demand steady performance. The pipeline should parse and validate most invoices in under 10 seconds, support concurrent processing, and handle bulk backfills without slowing down day-to-day work.

• 

  Ingestion

  Invoices flow in from AP inboxes and supplier portals to an email listener and S3 watcher that accept PDF, image/PDF. Each file is virus-scanned, signature-checked, and de-duplicated using hashing before the immutable original is stored.

• 

  Parsing & Extraction

  A layout-aware vision+LLM pipeline reads headers, totals, and multi-page tables with header/footer detection. It uses vendor-adaptive few-shot hints with a fallback OCR path and outputs strict, schema-validated JSON with per-field confidence.

• 

  Normalization & Validation

  The system enriches records from the vendor master (currency, terms, bank details) and normalizes taxes and units of measure, suggesting GL codes where appropriate. Confidence scoring and configurable thresholds determine which invoices auto-approve versus route to review.

• 

  Matching & Business Rules

  A tolerant 2-/3-way engine reconciles invoice ↔ PO ↔ GRN, handling partial receipts, line-level taxes/discounts, and freight allocation. Fraud checks run in-line (payee/IBAN drift, look-alike domains) and every mismatch is tagged with a clear reason code.

• 

  Human-in-the-loop (HiTL)

  Exceptions land in a focused inbox that shows the PDF side-by-side with extracted fields, field-level highlights, and suggested fixes. Analysts can trigger one-click supplier queries and close the loop without leaving the console.

• 

  Posting & Integrations

  Clean invoices post to the ERP (NetSuite, Zoho, QuickBooks) via hardened n8n connectors with idempotent retries and an outbox/DLQ pattern. Webhooks emit events for downstream BI and notify teams in Slack/Teams.

Conclusion

• STP Achievement

  95-97%

  STP across top 200 suppliers after 60 days; long-tail at ~90% with continuous learning.

• Cycle Time

  <24 hours

  Reduced from 3-5 days to under 24 hours for compliant invoices.

• Cost Reduction

  40% ↓

  Late fees and missed early-pay discounts down by 40%.

• AP Staff Time

  Reallocated

  Staff time reallocated from data entry to vendor management and analytics.