AUTOMATED invoice processing, workflows, approval process, and payments systems
ENABLED significant operational efficiency and financial gains
POSITIONED client with scalability and agility
Client
A Netherlands-based consumer goods company with operations across Europe, Middle East, & Africa
Scope of Work
End-to-end Accounts Payable including document imaging, indexing & management, invoice processing & exception handling, T&E processing, vendor management, payments, reconciliation, period-end support
Geography Serviced
EMEA
Industry Serviced
Consumer Goods
Client’s Challenges
Multilingual and non-standardized billing documents adversely impacted invoice processing accuracy, vendor payments timeliness, and response timelines
The client, a consumer goods organisation, faced delays in its invoice processing operations owing to the receipt of invoices in multiple formats across a number of local European languages, resulting in delayed vendor payments, enquiry acknowledgement, response, and resolution timelines.
Impact Generated
Continuous refining, optimizing the automated processes with machine learning capabilities, we have been able to deliver:
- Enhanced operational performance:
- Increased accuracy from 95% to 99%; improved invoice processing turnaround time (TAT) from 97% to 100%
- Invoice cycle time reduced from 4 days to 2 days; vendor query reduced by 15%; and exception handling reduced by 20%
- Overall, the automated workflow brought about 20% efficiency in invoice processing
- Financial benefits:
- Cost per invoice reduced by 25%, resulting in 40% drop in overall operating cost
- Enabled the client to bring 15% benefit from discounts for early payments
- Prevented additional costs associated with late payments
Cogneesol’s Solution
For the mid-sized client with mature operations, and investments in systems, the disparate invoicing process presented an opportunity for streamlining and enhancing operational efficiency through targeted RPA implementation.
Cogneesol’s F&A and Tech teams implemented the automation solution in two phases:
Initial automation: Focusing on high-volume vendors and critical tasks identified with the client, we implemented automation for a select segment of the invoicing process -- data extraction and entry from invoices. We:
- Developed AI-driven OCR and XML extraction rules and templates within the automation system to handle the most common languages used in the invoices
- Integrated a translation module to convert non-English text into English, ensuring consistency and accuracy in data entry and processing
- Created and deployed language-specific templates within the RPA system to process invoices in the most frequently encountered languages
Full rollout and optimization: With the success of the pilot phase, we extended the automation to cover remaining vendors and processes. We further deployed an auto matching algorithm to automated invoice matching with purchase orders and receipts, approval workflow, including for notifications and escalations, and exception and discrepancies handling. These led to the streamlining of the payment process by automating invoice approvals and integration with payment systems within 12 months of the engagement.
