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A prominent US-based manufacturer and supplier of industrial components serving the automotive, aerospace, heavy machinery, and energy sectors. The company operates across North America, Europe, and Asia, managing an average of 10,000-20,000 invoices monthly from over 400 vendors. Their invoice volumes fluctuate seasonally, with spikes during year-end and product rollout periods.
The client faced significant challenges in their Accounts Payable (AP) process:
The client needed a solution capable of:
We designed a customized RPA (robotic process automation) solution that integrated multiple systems and automated the entire invoice processing workflow. It used Document AI (AI tools tailored for processing documents) to capture and extract data from any invoice format and integrate it with the client’s ERP systems for seamless processing.
The RPA solution was built as an ecosystem of specialized bots, each focused on specific tasks to ensure optimal performance. These bots operated through a network of interconnected layers, having:
Solution Workflow:
The Capturing Bot had access to all emails, vendor portals, and shared file servers to capture all invoices. Using Document AI, the bot read and scanned handwritten documents to produce structured, digitized invoices for further processing.
The Processing Bot leveraged pre-trained ML models to extract critical details (vendor names, invoice dates, amounts, line items) and validate them against purchase orders and vendor records in ERP systems.
Another bot (trained on tax rules, currency data, and standard AP terms) was designed to apply this knowledge, handle currency conversions, and ensure approval thresholds were met. High-risk invoices (e.g., large amounts or flagged vendors) are automatically routed for manual approval, while routine invoices proceed to payment.
Once validated, the Integration Bot automatically uploaded invoices to the client’s ERP systems (SAP, Oracle, QuickBooks) via available APIs or secure screen scraping when APIs were unavailable.
The Exception Bot routed invoices that failed to meet the approval threshold to exception workflows managed by human experts. Expert AP teams then reviewed, corrected, and resubmitted the invoices. Detailed summaries were also created when explanations were required.
Another bot created detailed dashboards and reports that provided near-real-time visibility into invoice processing volumes, success rates, and cycle times. All bot actions were time-stamped and logged, ensuring compliance with internal and regional audit standards.
Here’s what our RPA solution achieved within six months (with ongoing exception handling support provided thereafter):
88% faster invoice processing time
92% decrease in payment errors
70% reduction in manual effort
99.92% accuracy rate maintained
Successfully handled 72000+ invoices during Q4 seasonal spike.
What previously took weeks is now completed within hours with near-perfect accuracy. Plus, the ongoing exception handling support has been a huge relief for our team. The framework is scalable, easy to maintain, exactly what we needed for the global AP team.
- VP, Accounts Payable, Global Operations
Since 1999, SunTec has been a trusted business process and software engineering partner for technology companies worldwide. Our team of over 1,500 full-time employees delivers innovative services every day to help our clients save time and money.
