The accounting expertise disaster is altering how companies deal with their funds. With the US market needing 340,000 new accountants and 45% of corporations struggling to draw expertise, extra corporations are turning to specialised expense administration suppliers to deal with their accounting operations.
However here is the catch: These service suppliers face the identical expertise scarcity.
We lately labored with one such supplier who processed over 50,000 payments and invoices month-to-month for his or her shoppers. As extra corporations got here to them for assist, they bumped into the identical impediment: they could not rent sufficient individuals to maintain up with the high-volume workload. It received to a degree the place they needed to flip down new shoppers.
Let me take you thru how the service supplier carried out automated bill processing and located a method to bulk-process payments and invoices with out continuously including extra employees.
What occurs when rising bill and invoice quantity breaks doc processing
The expense administration supplier in query makes a speciality of serving to organizations optimize their working expenditure. As a Enterprise Course of Outsourcing (BPO) companion, they deal with all the pieces from utility and telecom bills to IT prices—processing payments, validating expenses, and offering detailed analytics. They assist AP groups in healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and authorities organizations cut back their workload whereas delivering price financial savings by way of higher expense administration.
Nonetheless, as this supplier’s enterprise grew quickly, dealing with near 50,000 utility payments and invoices month-to-month turned greater than only a processing problem. It uncovered basic operational constraints that threatened their capability to scale and ship worth to shoppers.
This is what occurred:
1. Handbook processing turned a bottleneck: Their crew relied on guide information entry and will solely course of about 100 invoices per particular person per day. It created a rising backlog and restricted their capability.
2. Expertise scarcity worsened issues: Discovering and retaining certified in-house accounting analysts to supervise the method and guarantee accuracy turned more and more tough and costly. This made it tougher to scale their crew and meet rising calls for.
3. Shopper service suffered consequently: Processing inaccuracies and inefficiencies meant delays, errors, and, in the end, sad shoppers. In addition they struggled to fulfill consumer deadlines, resulting in potential penalties.
4. Revenue margins had been squeezed: Elevated labor prices and SLA penalties reduce into their profitability, making it tougher to put money into progress and innovation.
5. Progress alternatives had been restricted: They could not effectively onboard new shoppers or tackle new enterprise alternatives. It put them on the again foot in opposition to opponents with higher methods.
They wanted to take care of a big crew of information entry clerks always to key within the sheer quantity of payments and invoices. Whereas they had been in a position to outsource a few of it, the inherent limitations of guide processing remained.
The tipping level was when the service supplier began turning down new enterprise as a result of their operations couldn’t scale to serve them.
Why bulk bill processing turned sophisticated
Check out a typical utility invoice, it would look like a easy doc to course of. However it could shortly grow to be a headache while you’re processing 1000’s of them in bulk every month. Extra so while you’re aiming for the accuracy and element wanted for efficient expense administration.
Every bill incorporates important information factors that should be extracted and validated: account numbers, service addresses, meter readings, utilization information, cost descriptions, and cost phrases.
This is a fast glimpse into how sophisticated the utility invoice processing workflow was:
- Each utility invoice is totally different
- Lots of of utility corporations, every with distinctive bill codecs—some even utilizing 7-8 totally different layouts
- Some utility corporations ship each day payments, others month-to-month
- Single invoices can run from 1 to 372+ pages
- Every format wants particular dealing with
- Billing data is not easy
- A number of meter readings for various companies (electrical energy, fuel, water) may very well be scattered throughout the doc
- Service addresses for multi-location shoppers is perhaps unfold throughout pages, or buried inside tables
- Cost descriptions lacked consistency (“Buyer Cost” in a single invoice and “Cust. Chg.” in one other)
- An identical expenses may seem a number of instances on a single bill, requiring guide revisions
- Accuracy necessities are strict
- Meter readings should match their corresponding expenses
- Knowledge wants validation earlier than system import
- Errors might result in incorrect consumer reviews, flawed monetary insights, and missed optimization alternatives
- Processing delays result in SLA penalties
These complexities imply guide processing or primary OCR options, which frequently battle with inconsistent layouts and sophisticated information relationships, wouldn’t be sufficient. They wanted an answer that would not solely deal with excessive quantity but additionally adapt to the intricate particulars and variations of their shoppers’ utility payments.
Reworking high-volume bill processing with AI and automation
The expense administration supplier knew they wanted to automate bill processing earlier than progress turned inconceivable. Nonetheless, with 50,000+ month-to-month invoices, complicated validation necessities, and strict consumer SLAs, they could not afford any drops in accuracy or service high quality through the transition.
That is when their CFO found Nanonets. Our one-shot studying, customizable validation flows, hands-on assist for complicated vendor setups, and talent to deal with multi-page tables satisfied them that we might meet their particular wants:
- Distinctive doc layouts
- Complicated information extraction wants like a number of meter readings and repair addresses
- Excessive-volume processing with constant accuracy
- Validation necessities for his or her system import
Working with the supplier, we took a scientific method to automation. Quite than disrupting their complete workflow directly, we began with a vendor-by-vendor method to validate accuracy and construct confidence.
Right now, their automated workflow processes a good portion of their 50,000 month-to-month payments and invoices. Right here’s the way it works:
1. Doc consumption
- Their crew collects invoices all through the day by way of a number of channels (mail, consumer emails, utility firm portals, and bodily invoices)
- On the finish of every workday, they place all collected invoices into a chosen SharePoint folder
- The SharePoint folder construction can go as much as 3 ranges deep (e.g., primary folder → vendor folder → date folder)
- Nanonets checks the SharePoint folders each 3-5 minutes for brand spanking new recordsdata
- When new recordsdata are detected, Nanonets robotically imports them
Observe: Backup strategies embrace direct add by way of the Nanonets interface, electronic mail forwarding to a devoted mannequin electronic mail handle, and different cloud storage choices (Google Drive, Dropbox)
2. Preliminary processing
- As soon as imported, Nanonets’ AI mannequin begins extraction instantly
- System identifies and processes:
- A number of meter readings as desk constructions
- Complicated cost descriptions
- Service addresses throughout pages
- Fee phrases and dates
- Constructed-in validation checks the payments for:
- Subject completeness
- Date format accuracy
- Quantity validity
- Required data presence
Observe: Their crew adopted an end-of-day batch add method, permitting our system to course of all the pieces in a single day. This ensures all paperwork uploaded through the day are processed and prepared for assessment the subsequent morning.
3. Error dealing with and high quality management
Error dealing with includes automated checks, adopted by guide opinions for corrections.
Among the automated checks finished by Nanonets:
- Flags lacking fields
- Identifies mismatched meter readings
- Catches incorrect cost descriptions
- Tracks accuracy charges by vendor
The processing crew then opinions error logs and output each day for:
- Cost descriptions within the fallacious columns
- Service addresses throughout a number of areas
- Meter readings matching their expenses appropriately
When points are discovered, the crew investigates the foundation trigger, corrects extraction errors straight within the Nanonets interface, and updates the AI Mannequin’s coaching recordsdata if wanted to enhance future accuracy. This steady suggestions loop helps keep excessive accuracy charges throughout all distributors.
Observe: Every day error reporting was carried out to forestall points from bleeding by way of all the week.
4. Submit-processing and output
As soon as paperwork cross validation:
- System applies customized formatting guidelines to extracted information
- Standardizes cost descriptions throughout distributors
- Knowledge is exported in customized CSV/Excel format
- Information are organized by vendor and date
- Knowledge is imported into the service supplier’s billing system
Observe: The crew processes 15,000-20,000 pages month-to-month this manner, which might scale to 30,000+ pages.
5. Steady enchancment
We work with the service supplier to take care of and enhance processing high quality. Their crew identifies areas for enchancment and supplies suggestions, whereas we constantly improve the AI mannequin’s accuracy. This includes:
- Common mannequin updates primarily based on their processing crew’s suggestions
- Centered enhancements in complicated areas like cost descriptions
- Gradual onboarding of latest distributors to make sure steady efficiency
- Utilizing our analytics dashboard to observe and optimize efficiency
This collaborative method helps keep excessive accuracy charges whereas steadily increasing processing capabilities.
The affect of automation on bulk bill processing
Inside three months of implementing Nanonets, the supplier noticed vital outcomes. For starters, they managed to automate processing for ~12,000 invoices per thirty days. This highlights the system’s capability to deal with their high-volume wants.
For utility invoices from recognized distributors, the AI mannequin achieved processing speeds of 173-174 invoices in simply 5 minutes — a activity that will’ve required hours of guide information entry.
However the affect went past simply pace.
Processing effectivity
- Nanonets can now course of 46 out of fifty distributors shared by the client
- Just one consultant file required per vendor for AI mannequin coaching
- Automated doc consumption by way of SharePoint integration
- Bulk in a single day processing of 500 invoices each day
Operational enhancements
- Workers free of guide information entry to deal with higher-value duties like consumer reporting and evaluation
- Quicker turnaround on consumer deliverables and assembly SLAs
- Extra constant processing high quality, with fewer errors and guide corrections
- Higher dealing with of complicated invoices with a number of meter readings and repair addresses
The trail ahead
The implementation remains to be within the early phases. With solely ~20% of the supplier’s complete invoice quantity presently automated, there’s vital room for progress.
Their subsequent steps deal with:
Increasing automation protection
- Processing telecom invoices (estimated 10,000 month-to-month)
- Scaling to deal with ~30,000 payments and invoices month-to-month
- Persevering with to onboard new invoice codecs from totally different utility corporations effectively
- Constructing on their profitable utility bill automation
Technical integration
- Implementing API integration by summer season 2025 to allow direct information circulate between Nanonets and their expense administration answer
- Automating error corrections the place attainable to scale back guide assessment time
- Constructing a extra strong integration between Nanonets and their in-house options
Managing utility payments and invoices for a number of shoppers?
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Managing utility payments and invoices for a number of shoppers?
See how automation may help you develop with out including headcount. Ebook a demo to see how we may help automate your expense administration service.
