A Finance Agent That Reads Invoices and Prepares the Entry

The Challenge

Hundreds of invoices, all keyed by hand

Supplier invoices arrived by email and post in every format. The accounts team opened each one, read it, found the matching purchase order, and keyed the lines into the ERP. It was slow, error-prone, and the month-end close waited on the backlog.

• Invoices arrived in many formats by email and post.
• Each was read and keyed into the ERP by hand.
• Matching to purchase orders was manual.
• The close waited on the invoice backlog.

The Solution

An agent that reads, matches and prepares

We built an agent connected to the invoice mailbox, the ERP and the document store. It reads each invoice, extracts the lines, matches it to the purchase order and receipt, and prepares the entry. A person reviews and approves, and the agent posts it.

• Reads invoices in any format and extracts the data.
• Matches to the purchase order and receipt.
• Flags mismatches for a person instead of guessing.
• Prepares the entry and posts it on approval.

How We Delivered

Approval first, autonomy as trust grew

Every entry waited for human approval at first, so the team could check the agent and correct it. As accuracy proved out on clean three-way matches, we let those post automatically, while exceptions and new suppliers still go to a person.

The agent went live in seven weeks.

The Outcome

Less keying, a faster close

Manual data entry fell by about 60 percent because the agent reads and prepares the entries. Errors dropped with consistent matching, the invoice backlog cleared, and the month-end close moved earlier because the data is ready.