Due to the ongoing digitalization and through enormous leaps in development, artificial intelligence has turned into a major future topic in recent years. "Artificial intelligence" is referred to with a wide variety of terms. (xSuite offers an overview in the blog article Artificial Intelligence - the most important terms.) When people talk about artificial intelligence, especially in connection with self-learning software systems they usually mean a special sub-form: "machine learning". Machine learning refers to algorithms that can learn autonomously from information and data based on experience. This enables the system to improve results over time and generate solutions by recognizing patterns. Data can then be linked intelligently, correlations recognized, and predictions made.

Artificial intelligence is already applied in a wide variety of contexts, including chat bots and purchase recommendations in online shopping and risk analyses, and for protection against attempted fraud. Business applications also use AI, providing companies with ways to optimize business processes in invoice processing and to evaluate new potentials for more efficient control of processes.

Many companies are, in fact, still facing the challenges of manual invoice capture– which is just what this article is intended to shed light on. We will indicate some options with an automated invoice capture solution and take a closer look at what kind of future potential the use of artificial intelligence in invoice capture really possesses.

Automation of invoice capture without artificial intelligence

Manual entry of invoices into the ERP system is no longer up to date: It is time-consuming and error-prone, especially where large document volumes are concerned. When processing invoices, even in the invoice-entry phase, accounts payable clerks still have to work around numerous impediments. A recent survey examined the challenges most frequently faced in invoice processing. The encumbrance that tops paper documents, invoices gone lost or missing, manual routing for invoice verification and the non-utilization of discounts and rebates appears to be manual data entry in invoice capture. Almost half of the respondents identified manual data entry from documents and the inefficient processes resulting from them as the biggest hurdle in invoice capture.

But why is it that manual data entry is seen as the biggest challenge in invoice processing? On the one hand, however well-intentioned an employee may be, if a task is both monotonous and time-consuming, there is great likelihood that focus will momentarily be lost, which is the way errors creep in. On the macro level, it goes without saying that the larger the volume of manually processed documents, the greater the susceptibility to error. Putting aside the probability of error with manual entry, increases in document volumes simply render manual data entry unfeasible in a business sense. Automation of these kinds of activities, and in particular of data capture, clearly represents such a gain in efficiency and solution to the problem of error that there can really be no argument against it.

Automated invoice capture makes data entry easier and eliminates the need for manual processing of paper invoices. Documents are digitized, and then the data is read out using centralized extraction, after which an employee can validate the results. The extraction process uses defined fields to identify the data in the document. An automated invoice entry solution such as this can be implemented using templates which determine where certain data is found in the document. For example, an invoice number is generally expected in the header area of a document. Similarly, rules are also defined which can be used to identify the invoice number if it follows a certain character string. A due date can be identified with the anchor phrase "due on" combined with a date in the future.

In a conventional automation tool for invoice entry, if there are changes to rules for vendors, invoice numbers, etc., they must be continuously adapted in the configuration. In order to avoid having to make such adjustments, therefore, the option of supporting it with artificial intelligence can be considered.

Whether it comes in digital form as e-mail or in traditional letter-post form, incoming mail is crucial for every organization. For most companies, managing a mixture of digital and paper-based mail presents a major challenge, particularly given the many different types of documents received, from invoices and customer correspondence to job applications. In many companies, letter post is still organized and processed in paper form.
Distributing mail manually can seem rather old-fashioned, especially in companies that have fully digitized many of their other divisions. Yet mailrooms tend to be much the same as they were 50 years ago, with staff manually sorting mail into pigeonholes and then either distributing it to colleagues over the course of the day or waiting for colleagues to pick up their mail themselves.

Digitization is now firmly rooted in the strategy of many companies, and procurement departments are no exception. Digitization is not an end in itself, however; in fact, the opposite is true. In this blog, we explain why digitization adds real value to operational procurement.

Quality assurance (QA for short) is a complex topic and, in a rapidly changing environment such as software development, a real challenge, as well. QA plays an important role at our company, which is why we start the day with discussions about the quality of our coffee, apply the four-eye principle to our blog posts, put our fire protection equipment through regular tests, and never stop improving the work processes in departments and work groups. 

Since its peak in 2017, the hype surrounding bitcoin has heightened interest in blockchain, the technology behind the cryptocurrency. Numerous academic articles and studies on blockchain have been published over the last few years, and in late 2019, the state of Bavaria decided to promote this technology by establishing the Bavarian Center for BlockChain, or [bc]2. In the light of these developments, we would like to examine whether blockchain technology might be deployed to improve procure-to-pay processes.

Big changes are currently affecting electronic invoicing in Europe. In EU states, these changes are being made in response to EU Directive 2014/55/EU, which stipulates that all public contracting authorities and entities in the EU must be able to accept and process electronic, machine-readable invoices.

According to EU Directive 2014/55/EU, all public contracting authorities and entities must be able to receive and process electronic invoices. But in transposing this directive into national law, many EU states have gone one step further, introducing mandatory e-invoicing for suppliers and contractors. This means that all invoices sent to public contracting authorities must be electronic, and that invoices in paper form will no longer be accepted. Italy has gone so far as to impose mandatory e-invoicing for all domestic invoices, including those sent to companies and private citizens.

New technologies such as modern cloud solutions create many new interfaces. As a result, potential vulnerabilities increase. These vulnerabilities can arise both at the cloud provider and in the company's internal network. It is therefore important to safeguard against possible dangers before a risk arises. Even though many security aspects are the responsibility of the cloud provider, each company is responsible for the security of its data itself. So if a company wants to use cloud solutions, it is in a company's best interest to consider in advance the various requirements for sufficient coverage of security needs, as well as which provider is most likely to fulfill them.

The cloud market is teeming with providers. With its product "Azure," Microsoft is among the leading players in the field, butting up against other major corporations such as Amazon with AWS, IBM with its IBM Cloud, and, last but not least, Google itself. They provide Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), or even Software as a Service (SaaS). In addition to these corporations, all of which are American-based, there are many other providers of cloud services. Particularly in the SaaS environment, providers from Germany are to be recommended, not least because of their location.

In all different areas, digitization is in full swing. Quite frequently, this is intertwined with the cloud. Cloud solutions are being offered more, and they are being used more. Not only individual consumers, but also companies are relying on cloud solutions — in particular, for processes that can be standardized, as they are easy to move. Outsourcing reduces costs for infrastructure and configuration and enables agile response to changing market requirements. Popular software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions allow companies and users to access services right on the internet. The cloud covers a diversity of applications, ranging from CRM systems to personnel management solutions and document management systems (DMS) for digital archiving, automated invoice processing, etc.

As a representative of a software manufacturer installing solutions to improve workflows, I get around a lot in different companies. What I see on a daily basis is that the demand for digitization and process automation is at an all-time high; what is less obvious, however, and yet equally prevalent, is an uncertainty as to what is actually needed.

Discounts have long been part of the practice of business negotiations, typically offered by vendors to customers. Discounts might be offered when a large volume has been purchased or when a deal is closed shortly before a certain cutoff date such as the end of the quarter.