Find out how to implement automated bill processing for high-volume operations

The accounting expertise disaster is altering how companies deal with their funds. With the US market needing 340,000 new accountants and 45% of corporations struggling to draw expertise, extra corporations are turning to specialised expense administration suppliers to deal with their accounting operations.

However here is the catch: These service suppliers face the identical expertise scarcity. 

We lately labored with one such supplier who processed over 50,000 payments and invoices month-to-month for his or her shoppers. As extra corporations got here to them for assist, they bumped into the identical impediment: they could not rent sufficient folks to maintain up with the workload. It acquired to a degree the place they needed to flip down new shoppers.

Let me take you thru how the service supplier applied automated bill processing and located a technique to bulk-process payments and invoices with out continuously including extra workers.

What occurs when rising quantity breaks doc processing

The expense administration supplier in query makes a speciality of serving to organizations optimize their working expenditure. As a Enterprise Course of Outsourcing (BPO) companion, they deal with every thing from utility and telecom bills to IT prices—processing payments, validating fees, and offering detailed analytics. They assist AP groups in healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and authorities organizations cut back the workload whereas delivering price financial savings by means of higher expense administration.

Nevertheless, as this supplier’s enterprise grew quickly, dealing with near 50,000 utility payments and invoices month-to-month turned greater than only a processing problem. It uncovered basic operational constraints that threatened their capability to scale and ship worth to shoppers.

Here is what occurred:

1. Guide processing turned a bottleneck: Their workforce relied on guide information entry and will solely course of about 100 invoices per individual per day. It created a rising backlog and restricted their capability.

2. Expertise scarcity worsened issues: Discovering and retaining certified in-house accounting analysts to supervise the method and guarantee accuracy turned more and more troublesome and costly. This made it more durable to scale their workforce and meet rising calls for. 

3. Consumer service suffered because of this: Processing inaccuracies and inefficiencies meant delays, errors, and, in the end, sad shoppers. In addition they struggled to fulfill shopper deadlines, resulting in potential penalties.

4. Revenue margins have been squeezed: Elevated labor prices and SLA penalties minimize into their profitability, making it more durable to spend money on progress and innovation.

5. Progress alternatives have been restricted: They could not effectively onboard new shoppers or tackle new enterprise alternatives. It put them on the again foot in opposition to opponents with higher programs.

They wanted to take care of a big workforce of knowledge entry clerks always to key within the sheer quantity of payments and invoices. Whereas they have been capable of outsource a few of it, the inherent limitations of guide processing remained.

The tipping level was when the service supplier began turning down new enterprise as a result of their operations couldn’t scale to serve them.

Why utility bill processing will get sophisticated at scale

Check out a typical utility invoice. It would appear to be a easy doc to course of. However, it may shortly turn into a headache whenever you’re processing hundreds of them each month, particularly when aiming for the accuracy and element wanted for efficient expense administration.

Every bill incorporates crucial information factors that have to be extracted and validated: account numbers, service addresses, meter readings, utilization information, cost descriptions, and cost phrases.

Here is a fast glimpse into how sophisticated the utility invoice processing workflow was:

1. Each utility firm is completely different

• Lots of of utility corporations, every with distinctive bill codecs—some even utilizing 7-8 completely different layouts
• Some utility corporations ship day by day payments, others month-to-month
• Single invoices can run from 1 to 372+ pages
• Every format wants particular dealing with

2. Data is not easy

• A number of meter readings for various providers (electrical energy, gasoline, water) may very well be scattered throughout the doc
• Service addresses for multi-location shoppers is likely to be unfold throughout pages, or buried inside tables
• Cost descriptions lacked consistency (“Buyer Cost” in a single invoice and “Cust. Chg.” in one other)
• Similar fees may seem a number of occasions on a single bill, requiring guide revisions

3. Accuracy necessities are strict

• Meter readings should match their corresponding fees
• Information wants validation earlier than system import
• Errors might result in incorrect shopper experiences, flawed monetary insights, and missed optimization alternatives
• Processing delays result in SLA penalties

These complexities meant guide processing or fundamental OCR options, which frequently battle with inconsistent layouts and sophisticated information relationships, wouldn’t be sufficient. They wanted an answer that would not solely deal with excessive quantity but additionally adapt to the intricate particulars and variations of their shoppers’ utility payments.

How the service supplier applied automated bill processing for top volumes

The expense administration supplier knew they wanted to automate bill processing earlier than progress turned inconceivable. Nevertheless, with 50,000+ month-to-month invoices, complicated validation necessities, and strict shopper SLAs, they could not afford any drops in accuracy or service high quality through the transition.

That is when their CFO found Nanonets. Our one-shot studying, customizable validation flows, hands-on assist for complicated vendor setups, and talent to deal with multi-page tables satisfied them that we might meet their particular wants:

• Distinctive doc layouts
• Complicated information extraction wants like a number of meter readings and repair addresses
• Excessive-volume processing with constant accuracy
• Validation necessities for his or her system import

Working with the supplier, we took a scientific method to automation. Somewhat than disrupting their whole workflow directly, we began with a vendor-by-vendor method to validate accuracy and construct confidence.

Right this moment, their automated workflow processes a good portion of their 50,000 month-to-month payments and invoices. Right here’s the way it works:

1. Doc consumption

• Their workforce collects invoices all through the day by means of a number of channels (mail, shopper emails, utility firm portals, and bodily invoices)
• On the finish of every workday, they place all collected invoices into a delegated SharePoint folder
• The SharePoint folder construction can go as much as 3 ranges deep (e.g., principal folder → vendor folder → date folder)
• Nanonets checks the SharePoint folders each 3-5 minutes for brand spanking new recordsdata
• When new recordsdata are detected, Nanonets mechanically imports them

Word: Backup strategies embrace direct add by means of the Nanonets interface, e-mail forwarding to a devoted mannequin e-mail tackle, and different  cloud storage choices (Google Drive, Dropbox)

2. Preliminary processing

• As soon as imported, Nanonets’ AI mannequin begins extraction instantly
• System identifies and processes:
  • A number of meter readings as desk buildings
  • Complicated cost descriptions
  • Service addresses throughout pages
  • Cost phrases and dates
• Constructed-in validation checks the payments for:
  • Subject completeness
  • Date format accuracy
  • Quantity validity
  • Required data presence

Word: Their workforce adopted an end-of-day batch add method, permitting our system to course of every thing in a single day. This ensures all paperwork uploaded through the day are processed and prepared for evaluation the following morning. 

3. Error dealing with and high quality management

Error dealing with includes automated checks, adopted by guide opinions for corrections.

A number of the automated checks executed by Nanonets:

• Flags lacking fields
• Identifies mismatched meter readings
• Catches incorrect cost descriptions
• Tracks accuracy charges by vendor

The processing workforce then opinions error logs and output day by day for:

• Cost descriptions within the fallacious columns
• Service addresses throughout a number of places
• Meter readings matching their fees accurately

When points are discovered, the workforce investigates the foundation trigger, corrects extraction errors straight within the Nanonets interface, and updates the AI Mannequin’s coaching recordsdata if wanted to enhance future accuracy. This steady suggestions loop helps keep excessive accuracy charges throughout all distributors.

Word: Day by day error reporting was applied to stop points from bleeding by means of your complete week.

4. Publish-processing and output

As soon as paperwork go validation:

• System applies customized formatting guidelines to extracted information
• Standardizes cost descriptions throughout distributors
• Information is exported in customized CSV/Excel format
• Information are organized by vendor and date
• Information is imported into the service supplier’s billing system

Word: The workforce processes 15,000-20,000 pages month-to-month this fashion, which may scale to 30,000+ pages.

5. Steady enchancment

We work with the service supplier to take care of and enhance processing high quality. Their workforce identifies areas for enchancment and gives suggestions, whereas we repeatedly improve the AI mannequin’s accuracy. This includes:

• Common mannequin updates primarily based on their processing workforce’s suggestions
• Centered enhancements in complicated areas like cost descriptions
• Gradual onboarding of latest distributors to make sure secure efficiency
• Utilizing our analytics dashboard to watch and optimize efficiency

This collaborative method helps keep excessive accuracy charges whereas steadily increasing processing capabilities.

The influence of automation on bulk bill processing

Inside three months of implementing Nanonets, the supplier noticed important outcomes. They scaled their automated processing from zero to 12,000 pages month-to-month, demonstrating the system’s capability to deal with their high-volume wants. 

For utility invoices from recognized distributors, the AI mannequin achieved processing speeds of 173-174 invoices in simply 5 minutes — a job that might’ve required hours of guide information entry.

However the influence went past simply velocity.

Processing effectivity

• Nanonets can now course of 46 out of fifty distributors shared by the shopper
• Just one consultant file required per vendor for AI mannequin coaching
• Automated doc consumption by means of SharePoint integration
• Bulk in a single day processing of 500 invoices day by day

Operational enhancements

• Employees free of guide information entry to concentrate on higher-value duties like shopper reporting and evaluation
• Quicker turnaround on shopper deliverables and assembly SLAs
• Extra constant processing high quality, with fewer errors and guide corrections
• Higher dealing with of complicated invoices with a number of meter readings and repair addresses

The trail ahead

The supplier’s journey into automated bill processing continues to be in its early phases. With solely ~20% of their whole invoice quantity at the moment automated, there’s important room for progress. However extra importantly, it has laid the muse for a big transformation of their operations.

Their subsequent steps concentrate on:

Increasing automation protection

• Processing telecom invoices (estimated 10,000 month-to-month)
• Scaling to deal with ~30,000 payments and invoices month-to-month
• Persevering with to onboard new invoice codecs from completely different utility corporations effectively
• Constructing on their profitable utility bill automation

Technical integration

• Implementing API integration by summer season 2025 to allow direct information circulation between Nanonets and their expense administration answer
• Automating error corrections the place doable to scale back guide evaluation time
• Constructing a extra strong integration between Nanonets and their in-house software program

Managing utility payments and invoices for a number of shoppers?

▼

See how automation can assist you develop with out including headcount. Ebook a demo to see how we can assist automate your expense administration service.

📅 Schedule a Demo