Back-office automation
Invoice processing automation for a professional services firm: intake, validation and approval
This illustrative example shows invoice processing automation for a professional services firm that receives invoices, receipts and contracts by email and shared folders. The proposed workflow extracts and validates key fields, matches documents to suppliers and projects, sends exceptions to a review queue and exports data to accounting only after an authorised person has approved it.
A fictional 25-person consultancy with a part-time finance administrator. This page shows how we would design the workflow; it is not a client project and claims no results.
- Industry
- Professional Services
- Workflow type
- Back-office automation
- Services involved
The business problem
Where time and enquiries get lost
Invoices, receipts and project documents arrive in several inboxes and shared folders, in every layout and scan quality. Staff download, rename and file each one, then re-type supplier, date, amount and reference details into the accounting system.
Matching an invoice to the right project or purchase order means searching across spreadsheets, and approvals are tracked through email. Incomplete or inconsistent documents are sent back late, and there is no single record of who approved what.
The manual process today
- 01Download attachments and save them in the right folder
- 02Rename documents using internal conventions
- 03Re-type supplier, date, amount and reference details
- 04Search for the matching project or purchase order
- 05Send incomplete or inconsistent documents back for clarification
- 06Track approval status across email and spreadsheets
Proposed workflow
How the automation would work
- Automated step
- A person reviews or acts
- 01
Documents received (automated)
Approved inboxes and upload forms feed a controlled intake queue.
- 02
File checks (automated)
Permitted file types are enforced and the firm's security scanning is applied.
- 03
Fields extracted (automated)
OCR and AI identify document type, supplier, date, currency, totals, tax and references.
- 04
Values validated (automated)
Rules check required fields, arithmetic, duplicate invoice numbers and formats.
- 05
Records matched (automated)
The document is matched to an approved supplier, project or purchase order.
- 06
Exceptions reviewed (a person reviews or acts)
Finance resolves missing fields, conflicting totals, possible duplicates and uncertain matches.
- 07
Approval decision (a person reviews or acts)
The authorised reviewer approves or rejects using the summary and source document.
- 08
Approved data exported (automated)
Only records that pass every check and approval are sent to accounting.
- 09
Audit trail kept (automated)
Source file, extracted fields, corrections and approval stay traceable under the retention policy.
In a real project, rules, tools and approval points are agreed with you during design.
Responsibilities
What AI handles, and what stays with your team
Automation and AI
- Classifying incoming documents by type
- Extracting supplier, date, amounts, tax fields and references from varied layouts
- Checking totals, formats and duplicate invoice numbers
- Suggesting the matching supplier, project or purchase order
- Preparing an approval packet with the source document attached
People on your team
- Approving or rejecting each invoice for payment
- Any change to supplier bank details
- Tax treatment and accounting exceptions
- Resolving mismatches and suspected duplicates
- Correcting extracted fields before export
Systems
Systems and integrations involved
- Secure document intake
- OCR and extraction model
- Validation rules
- Supplier or project database
- Approval workflow
- Accounting integration
- Audit logging and access controls
Component types, not a fixed product list. We confirm which of your tools can be connected, and how, during discovery.
Safeguards
Security, privacy and exceptions
- The system never approves payments or changes bank details based on document content; bank-detail changes follow the firm's separate verification process
- Extracted values are labelled as unverified until a rule check or a reviewer confirms them
- A complete audit trail records the source file, extracted fields, corrections, reviewer and timestamp
- Intake accepts only permitted file types from approved sources, and access to documents is role-based
- Failed exports are retried and alerted, never silently skipped, so the accounting system and the queue stay in step
Measurement
What we would measure
No results are claimed for this illustrative example. A real project would record a baseline of processing time and error rates first, and measure extraction accuracy on a reviewed sample rather than assume it.
Potential business value
- Less repetitive re-keying for the finance team
- Duplicates and mismatches are caught before they reach the accounts
- A clear record of who approved each document and when
- Financial authority stays exactly where it was
- 01Time from document receipt to ready-for-review status
- 02Percentage of documents processed without manual re-keying
- 03Field-level extraction accuracy on a reviewed sample
- 04Duplicate or mismatched documents caught before export
- 05Average time spent resolving exceptions
- 06Percentage of documents with a complete audit trail
Related services
The services behind this workflow
Document & Data Automation
Extract fields from invoices, forms and contracts, validate them against your rules and send uncertain values to a person.
About Document & Data AutomationBusiness Process Automation
Automate repetitive admin: process incoming emails, extract data, keep systems in sync and produce reports without manual effort.
About Business Process AutomationFAQ
Questions about this workflow
- How accurate is the data extraction?
- It depends on document quality and layout, which is why every field is validated and uncertain values go to review. During a project we measure accuracy on a sample of the firm's own documents before relying on it.
- What if an invoice contains new bank details?
- The workflow flags the change and does not update any supplier record. Bank-detail changes follow the firm's existing verification process, such as a call-back to a known contact.
- Can it export to our accounting software?
- Most accounting systems offer an API or import format. We confirm the connection during the consultation and include it in the fixed-price quote.
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Next step
Discuss your automation project.
Tell us how this process works in your business today. We'll map what could be automated, what should stay with your team, and how success would be measured.