If your Accounts Payable (AP) team is overwhelmed, it is likely they are spending too much time resolving invoice exceptions. Invoice exceptions commonly result from suppliers who submit incomplete or errored invoices, AP data entry mistakes, invoices that don’t match the PO, and inability to determine the relevant invoice approver.

Sometimes AP teams are overwhelmed simply with the number of suppliers asking for payment status or the need to chase down tardy internal approvers. If your AP experiences any of these issues, it is a clear sign that that your AP department is ready for AI-powered AP automation.

Let's take a look at a real-world scenario: a retail company expanded quickly, and their invoice volume grew accordingly. While the expansion was good for revenue, the new onslaught of invoice exceptions was too much for the AP department’s manual processes to handle. The team needed a way to eliminate invoice exceptions for PO based invoices and non-PO invoices quickly. After researching options, this company teamed up with Transcepta. This partnership not only eliminated its invoice exceptions but revolutionized its entire AP process.

Transcepta AP automation eliminates the need to key or scan invoices, performs invoice matching to the PO at the line level, and automates the entire GL coding and approval process. Here are 3 tips to eliminating invoice exceptions:

1. Say NO to Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
   Are you using OCR to capture invoice data from your suppliers? If so, you’ll need to verify “read errors” and update “OCR maps,” because OCR makes mistakes. The best strategy is to skip OCR altogether and switch to a Digital Supplier Network.
2. Embrace the Digital Supplier Network
   Digital Supplier Networks are the secret sauce behind eliminating 100% of invoice exceptions. First, they process invoices digitally, ensuring 100% accuracy and eliminating the need for manual review of invoice capture processes. Additionally, they create a feedback loop with suppliers, allowing them to resolve invoice exceptions before they even reach your AP inbox.
3. Use the AI Wisely
   AI plays a vital role in getting rid of invoice exceptions. But if you’re using AI to boost OCR, you’re using AI in the wrong way.
   Transcepta AP automation uses AI to automate PO matching and GL coding processes.

Transcepta learns not only from every one of the invoices you process, but also from the invoices processed through the entire Transcepta Network. This means, every time you use Transcepta, you experience a platform that was even smarter and more efficient than the last time you used it.

If you’re interested in eliminating invoice exceptions and learning what happened with the retail company, check out the case study here.