Purchase invoice booking from A to Z: how does the digital processing process work?

Booking a purchase invoice can take a lot of time and effort if you are still processing it manually. Do you recognize the following process? Invoices that arrive by e-mail are printed first. If you also receive paper invoices, you soon have a pile on your desk to process. This task, which involves many repetitive actions, takes quite a few hours – after all, you have to book the purchase invoices into your ERP system one by one. When you finally finish the job, you put all the invoices into colored folders to pass them along the various approvers within your organization. The process that follows is often drawn out: invoices get lost or your colleagues forget to approve them, leaving you to do a lot of searching. A shame, because you would rather spend that time on tasks that add more value to the organization. If you want to book a purchase invoice in an instant, the digital processing process is indispensable. But what exactly is digital purchase invoice processing like? And why can it be incredibly relevant to you?

Booking purchase invoice via the digital route: 6 steps

To understand what digital invoice processing is all about, first think away the piles of paper and colored folders. Next, eliminate the many actions you take in the manual processing process – from overtyping to approval rounds. Booking a purchase invoice digitally is much faster and easier. Want to know exactly how this process works? We’ll walk you through the 6 steps!

Purchase invoices arrive in a special invoice mailbox that you have created. You can pre-sort and edit these according to a system you have developed yourself within your mail program. Or you can use a handy tool, such as the SMART Email Handler. This works 24/7 to divide the mails in your invoice mailbox into purchase invoices and other messages (such as payment reminders or spam mails). This way, all invoices received by mail are fully automatically processed and ready to be read into your OCR or workflow solution.
OCR software reads the invoices and recognizes the data on them, including creditor, bank account, VAT and invoice number, invoice and payment date, net and gross amount and purchase orders. If you want to book a purchase invoice into your ERP system, this is a crucial step: basically, a good solution will read all the data needed for proper administration in your ERP system. Moreover, if you work with smart OCR software, you can train the system, which means recognition will only get even better over time.
After recognition, the registration of the invoice in the ERP system takes place. A good automation solution will take care of the so-called header registration (which invoice is it and when should it be paid?) as well as the itemization (on which ledger card should the invoice be broken down?).
Via a digital workflow, the invoice passes all the approvers. Of course, these can differ per invoice. Perhaps it is the case within your organization that the ICT manager approves the ICT costs, while the project manager approves an order for the workshop. Good workflow software allows you to arrange for each invoice – based on recognition – to be sent to the correct approver(s). The advantage of a digital workflow is that you know exactly where and to whom a purchase invoice lies. Among other things, this makes it easier to meet payment dates.
When the last approver has given their approval, the digital workflow is complete. At that point, the invoice is released for payment in your ERP system.
Now that you have completed so many important steps – booking, approving and paying the purchase invoice – in rapid succession, you need to complete the process properly. It’s time to file the invoice. Will the printer and filing cabinets get involved? Fortunately, no. In fact, a copy of the invoice is automatically archived in your ERP system. If you want to reference the invoice at a later time, you can retrieve it at the touch of a button. If you work with a solid solution, you will immediately see all the notes and communications associated with the invoice. This gives you a picture of the complete process that went through per invoice at a glance.

Getting digital purchase invoice processing up and running: tips

Want to book, approve, pay and archive a purchase invoice using the above process? Then it’s time to get started with digital purchase invoice processing. But where do you start? We give you some tips!

Look for a good scanning and recognition solution with workflow. If you also want to eliminate the initial sorting and editing tasks, see if a tool for coordinating the flow of incoming invoices is for you.

Find out if the solution of your choice interfaces with your ERP package. Or partner with a party that can interface with your financial system. After all, a seamless integration is essential if you want to work optimally.

Choose smart OCR software so that you benefit from high recognition, a self-learning system and a community in which users learn from each other. In this way, recognition rates will rise to around 98% within a very short time.

Replace colored folders with a digital workflow. In this day and age, it is crucial that employees can approve an invoice at any time and from any location – be it the construction site, the living room or a vacation location. Choose a system that supports this principle as well as simplifies the approval process to the max. For example, it is very convenient when you have the entire process together in one picture, so that no one has to search through multiple systems before approving the invoice.

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Do you always want to keep an overview and have more time to work on tasks that bring out the best in you? Feel free to contact us. Booking a purchase invoice can be very easy. We are happy to discuss with you how we can help your organization in this area!