How to Squeeze the Most Value from Invoice Data with Intelligent Document Processing

The focus of many businesses' automation journey begins with accounts payable (AP), ensuring the organization stays on top of invoices.

Suncorp, an Australian financial services organization that offers insurance, banking, and wealth products and services to clients for over 100 years, has been able to successfully overhaul its AP department thanks to intelligent document processing (IDP), an AI tool that converts unstructured, or semi-structured, data into structured and usable information.

Tim Johnson, Head of Automation for Suncorp, has spent the last 17 years deploying automation technologies to Suncorp’s processes, and he believes IDP is the latest technology giving businesses more control of their finances. 

“When we started our automation journey years ago it was about turning paper into images,” Johnson said during “AP Invoice Automation” this July. “Now it’s about how do you understand the intent or context of a document coming from a customer or paid vendor, and IDP gives us those capabilities.”

IDP utilizes AI tools like optical character recognition (OCR) to gather and analyze text that previously could only be organized manually. The granular data that IDP provides is usually never-before-seen information and can help AP departments avoid challenges such as double payments, checking inflation estimates, and supplier performance management.

Many AP departments today are struggling to manage of the large volume of invoices that come in from a variety of vendors and clients from different backgrounds. According to Johnson, one way IDP can help these employees is by providing them with a document classification resource.

The process of receiving a document and then determining which team or skill set it should be sent to can be time-consuming for employees when handled manually. IDP can handle this task without any manual oversight and ensure peace of mind that those documents will end up in the right hands. IDP can also go so much deeper into document classification than what many would expect. The technology is capable of extracting information from a single data point or keystroke to ensure that a document is being shared with the right teams.

As with any new technology investment, Johnson recommends proper steps are taken before IDP is implemented into invoice processes.

“I always tell teams, let’s work out what the problem is we are trying to solve before we discuss the technologies we want to utilize,” Johnson says.  

Steps to Success 

Once the problems have been worked out, and IDP is selected, Johnson says it is important to gather a complete understanding of your invoices and which ones are still being operated manually. Then, you can go to your finance team and explain the labor savings of IDP, as well as other benefits such as customer service relationships, or overseeing supply performance.

Once you get buy-in to begin implementing IDP, Johnson suggests researching the minimal viable product you can deliver with IDP. This should serve as an example to C-Suite of the quick returns you can achieve by implementing IDP.

Another shortfall businesses come across when working with IDP is not taking the time to understand the full scope of solutions that IDP can provide your business. According to Johnson, many organizations will bring in IDP to their invoices just to focus on labor savings. However, they fail to look at other areas IDP can bring value.

One example Johnson gave is how IDP can help improve a business's relationship with its vendors. A business such as Suncorp handles tax invoices as one of its many forms of invoices. Australia’s tax office has a very clear set of rules and guidelines for what a tax invoice must comprise, and if you fail to include the right components your business might be liable. IDP is capable of categorizing tax invoices on a case-by-case basis to ensure both the vendor and organization remain complicit with local regulations. Protecting vendors from mistakes that could result in legal ramifications is a great way to ensure close ties between businesses and vendors.

Additionally, IDP can ensure suppliers are paid on time, if not faster, by quickly placing documents with its character learning capabilities. And faster payments typically mean a supplier will view you as a more reliable organization and trusts your business.

In conclusion, IDP is one of the best ways for businesses to gain new insights into their invoice data. IDP’s toolkit of AI resources such as OCR allows it to organize and disperse invoice data with limited human touchpoints, thus giving humans more opportunities to work on value-adding tasks such as fraud and risk prevention. However, a tool like IDP can only be implemented if AP departments understand the current problems they are facing, why IDP will help them, and sell to C-Suite the value the technology will bring to their teams. 

If you’re interested in learning more, join the IDP Summit taking place this December.