When it comes to an organization’s core operations, a small subset of systems and functions can have an outsized impact on the rest of the business. Invoice processing, in particular, is a fundamental component of business accounting— but it can also become one of the organization’s most challenging tasks.
Between the process’s long, tedious nature, the susceptibility to mistakes and fraud, and the long-term impact on a business’s finances, invoice processing can quickly become one of the most complex issues in your organization. By taking advantage of advancing technology, however, business operators can streamline this process, consolidating the entire procedure into a high-speed driver of productivity.
Invoice Data Capture Software
It’s easy to view invoice processing as an isolated step in an organization’s overarching financial strategy, but this is a major misconception. Invoice processing serves as a cornerstone component for optimizing a myriad of financial workflows, from managing accounts payable and accounts receivable to processing remittances.
A key capability to look for in an effective process is the ability to quickly and accurately capture invoice data. Fortunately, thanks to cutting-edge advancements in the fields of machine learning and optical character recognition, financial departments are increasingly able to optimize and accelerate this entire process. InvoiceMax, for example, is an invoice capture platform offered by OCR Solutions that gives users control over the entire A/P invoice processing workflow, automating tasks like data entry, approval routing, and document verification.
By transforming the invoicing process into a strategic financial tool (rather than an operational obstacle), businesses can more intelligently optimize their cash flows, resulting in major cost savings across their organization.
How the Automation Process Works
Although invoice processing can be a somewhat fragmented procedure, InvoiceMax presents a unified platform, providing dozens of capabilities that help organizations accelerate and optimize their system at every step. There are 6 major stages to the automation process: capture, image processing, classification, extraction, validation, and delivery.
Capture
The process begins with document onboarding, using external sources (in either an electronic or paper format) to capture an image of the document. Document images can be extracted from a variety of sources, including email, fax, scanners, CMS, MFPs, and mobile devices.
Image Processing
Once documents are scanned and captured, the document images are cleaned up and normalized, preparing the document for optical character recognition processes. This typically involves rotating, resizing, and removing blank spaces from various sections of the document, improving the accuracy of your data digitization.
Classify
The OCR docMax system assists with organization, automatically detecting document type and classifying every asset it stores in your database. With just 1-3 sample images, the OCR system can be trained to classify documents with customized contexts.
Extract
During the extract stage, powerful machine learning algorithms capture additional image metadata, and predetermined business terms are identified within your documents (i.e. invoice number, amount, purchase date, etc.).
Validate
The system generates a confidence score for metadata extraction, and if results are acceptable, the document and its data can be exported automatically. If results are unacceptable, the user is directed to a thin-client “verification station,” where extractions can be visualized, modified, and improved.
Deliver
Extraction exports can be connected and delivered to a variety of ERP, ECM, and BPA systems. These systems are able to be deployed across a variety of computing environments, from on-premises infrastructure to a public, private, or hybrid cloud.
Leveraging Automated Invoice Processing
Invoice processing is a challenge that almost every organization must tackle. It’s likely that businesses that fail to properly optimize this critical function also struggle in almost every area of their financial operations.
Fortunately, recent advancements in document analytics have produced a number of powerful new invoice processing solutions including OCR Solutions’ own offering, InvoiceMax. By streamlining and automating every stage of the workflow, business users will begin to view invoice processing not as a challenge, but as a strategic financial tool. As a result, businesses will be able to more readily optimize their cash flows, saving time and money at every level of their organization.
At OCR Solutions, we strive to make a similar impact across all of the work that we do. From invoice processing software to contact tracing systems, OCR is skilled at creating customized business solutions, making once time-consuming tasks more efficient, effective, and effortless. Through best-of-class customer service and constant research and development, OCR has emerged as the industry’s leading expert in document imaging. No matter what challenges your organization is facing, we’re ready to help design a solution catered to your specific business needs.
