When copying invoices becomes a bottleneck

Supplier invoices arrive in email, shared folders and scans. Someone reads each document, enters its fields, checks the totals and decides where it belongs. We help automate that path when a ready-made accounting connector cannot cover your process.

  • Invoices in different layouts: capture supplier details, dates, currencies, amounts and line items in a consistent format.
  • Manual transfer between systems: connect the intake channel to a review screen and your accounting software, ERP or database.
  • Exceptions that need a person: route missing fields, unclear scans, duplicate candidates and unmatched purchase orders to the right employee.

The workflow we can build for you

  1. Collect. Receive documents from an agreed mailbox, upload screen or folder. Track each file so failed processing is visible.
  2. Extract. Read document text and map the fields you need. Test invoice OCR and extraction options on your supplier formats.
  3. Validate. Check required fields, arithmetic, supplier matches and duplicate candidates using explicit rules.
  4. Review. Show the source document beside the extracted values. Let staff correct fields and approve the record.
  5. Export. Write approved records to the destination, record the outcome and handle retries without creating duplicate entries.

QuickBooks, Xero, an ERP, Excel or a custom database can be the destination. We assess the available API or import format before committing to an integration. Invoice approval and payment authorization remain separate decisions.

Start with your documents and one destination

A useful pilot covers a representative set of invoices, the required fields and one complete route into your system. Include difficult documents as well as clean ones: phone photos, multiple pages, credit notes and suppliers with unfamiliar layouts.

Before building, we agree how to judge the result: field accuracy, how many documents need correction, time spent reviewing each invoice and successful exports. The pilot ends with measured results and a decision about the next stage.

Deliverables can include the working intake and extraction flow, review interface, destination connector, evaluation results, source code, configuration and handover documentation. The proposal spells out which of these are in scope.

Use an existing product, or add custom integration?

If an existing invoice capture tool supports your accounting system and approval process, it may be the best starting point. We can build around its API rather than replace it. Custom development becomes useful when you need supplier-specific fields, internal matching rules, an unusual destination or a particular hosting arrangement.

Our invoice data extraction guide explains the tradeoffs between a ready-made product, an extraction API and a custom workflow.

What determines the scope and cost

  • Document variety: formats, languages, scan quality, page counts and line-item detail.
  • Business rules: supplier matching, duplicate detection, tax checks and approval roles.
  • Integration access: destination API, import limitations, sandbox and authentication.
  • Operating requirements: volume, processing time, retention, hosting and support.

Running costs include extraction usage, hosting and maintenance. We assess those alongside implementation. For the wider budgeting framework, read what an AI feature actually costs to build.

Engineers who work across the whole process

GagarinSoft builds AI integrations alongside Python, .NET, TypeScript and cloud software. You work with the engineers building the workflow, including the review interface and the systems around extraction.

We also ship our own software, including Typeahead for Windows and Nano Summarizer for Chrome. Those products demonstrate our experience with local AI; the deployment choice for invoice processing depends on your documents and requirements.

Questions about invoice automation

Can you process scans and phone photos?
They can be included in the workflow, but quality affects extraction. We test representative documents and route unclear results for review instead of promising one accuracy figure for every supplier and scan.
Do we need to replace our accounting software?
Usually the aim is to connect to your existing system. We first check its API or import options and the fields it requires. If access is limited, we can scope an export file or a different handoff.
Can staff approve invoices before they are exported?
Yes. We can build a review step with the document, extracted fields, validation results and approval history. Payment authorization is a separate part of the process.
Can invoice data stay in our infrastructure?
We can assess a deployment inside your environment. The design must account for extraction models, hardware, storage, logs and every external service involved. Privacy requirements are agreed before choosing providers.
What do you need to estimate the project?
Start with your monthly document volume, document types, required fields, current review process and destination system. After discussing the workflow, we can agree how to share a representative set of redacted samples.