Invoice Processing Automation: 15 Hours to 45 Minutes

The Problem

A small accounting firm was drowning in invoice processing. Their team spent 15 hours per week manually entering data from invoices into their system. Errors were constant — wrong amounts, duplicate entries, missed invoices — and the team was miserable.

They were processing around 200 invoices per week from multiple clients, each with different formats, currencies, and line item structures.

What We Built

We designed a complete invoice processing pipeline:

• Email intake — invoices arriving via email are automatically detected and extracted
• AI document parsing — OCR + LLM extracts vendor name, amounts, line items, tax, and payment terms from any format (PDF, image, or scanned document)
• Validation engine — cross-references extracted data against vendor records and flags anomalies
• Accounting system sync — validated invoices are pushed directly into QuickBooks with correct GL codes
• Exception dashboard — anything the AI isn't confident about gets queued for human review with the AI's best guess pre-filled

Technical Details

Email arrives → Document extraction → AI parsing (GPT-4o)
→ Validation rules → QuickBooks API → Confirmation

The AI achieves 97.3% accuracy on first-pass extraction. The remaining 2.7% are flagged for review, not silently processed.

Results After 6 Months

Key Takeaway

The firm now processes 4x the volume in 5% of the time, with virtually zero errors. The team that used to dread Monday mornings now focuses on advisory work that actually generates revenue.