Your AP team is keying invoice data into your ERP for 4 hours a day?
Invoice errors causing payment delays and vendor relationship problems?
Manual invoice processing is expensive and error-prone. The average company spends $12--$15 to process a single invoice manually. AP teams touch every invoice 3--4 times before it's paid. Errors in data entry cause late payments, vendor disputes, and compliance issues.
We build automated invoice processing systems that read invoices, extract data, validate against purchase orders and contracts, and route for approval -- with no manual data entry required.
AI-powered OCR that reads invoices in any format -- PDF, email, scan, or EDI
Automatic matching against POs, contracts, and GL codes
Approval workflow routing with exception handling for mismatches
We've built OCR and document automation systems for industrial and enterprise use
RaftLabs builds automated invoice processing systems that use AI-powered OCR to read invoices in any format, extract structured data, match against purchase orders and contracts, and route for approval without manual data entry. Manual invoice processing averages $12–$15 per invoice — automated systems reduce that by up to 80%. We deliver production-ready invoice automation at a fixed cost, typically replacing 4+ hours of daily AP team data entry.
If your AP team processes 500 invoices a month at $12 per invoice, you're spending $6,000 a month on invoice processing. That's $72,000 a year. The industry benchmark for automated processing cost is $1--$3 per invoice.
At 500 invoices a month, automation saves $4,500--$5,500 per month. An automation system that costs $50,000 to build pays for itself in 9--12 months. Every month after that is margin.
The math gets better at scale. At 2,000 invoices a month, the savings are $18,000--$22,000 per month.
For broader back-office automation beyond invoices, see our business process automation services. For the underlying document intelligence that powers the extraction, see AI document intelligence.
Invoices arrive via email, supplier portal, EDI, API, or upload. The system captures them from all channels, deduplicates, and queues for processing. No manual collection step. Invoices are in the system the moment they arrive.
We built an AI OCR system for gas station fuel delivery invoices that automated what was previously a fully manual data entry process. The same technology applies to any invoice format -- structured or unstructured, digital or scanned. Header data and line items extracted and validated automatically.
Three-way matching: extracted invoice data checked against purchase orders, receiving records, and contract terms. Quantity, price, and vendor all verified automatically. Matched invoices post to the ERP. Mismatches get flagged with specific discrepancy details.
Exception invoices routed to the right approver based on your rules -- by amount, by cost centre, by vendor, by department. Approvers get a notification with all the context they need to approve or reject. Approval is logged with timestamp and user ID for audit.
Approved invoices posted to your ERP automatically -- AP record created, GL coding applied, payment terms calculated, and payment scheduled. No rekeying. No delay between approval and ERP entry.
Complete audit trail for every invoice: when it arrived, what was extracted, what matched, who approved, when it was posted. Month-end reporting on processing volumes, exception rates, processing time, and supplier payment performance. The data your auditors and AP manager need.
Tell us your current invoice volume and the systems you use. We'll estimate the savings and scope the build.
Tell us how many invoices you process monthly and what systems you use. We'll model the ROI and scope the build.
What clients say
Three-year average engagement. Founders and operators describing the work in their own words. No marketing varnish.
“All of the sprints were completed on schedule and on budget. We highly recommend RaftLabs!”
Business Process Automation — End-to-end automation of your complete AP workflow, not just the invoice extraction step
AI Document Intelligence — AI reading and extraction from any document type -- contracts, forms, shipping docs, reports
Data Extraction Automation — Extract structured data from emails, websites, databases, and documents at scale
Document Automation — Automated document generation, approval routing, and archiving for outbound documents
OCR Development — Custom OCR systems for industry-specific document types
Tell us your invoice volume and ERP. We'll model the savings and give you a fixed build cost.
Frequently asked questions
Automated invoice processing works in four stages: (1) Capture -- invoices arrive via email, supplier portal, EDI, or scan. The system receives them and queues them for processing. (2) Extraction -- AI-powered OCR reads the invoice and extracts structured data: vendor name, invoice number, date, line items, amounts, tax, and totals. (3) Validation -- the extracted data is matched against your PO, contract, or approved vendor list. Discrepancies are flagged for exception handling. (4) Routing -- matched invoices are posted to your ERP automatically. Exceptions go to the right approver with context.
For clean, well-formatted invoices from known vendors, AI extraction accuracy is 95--99%. The harder cases are handwritten invoices, poor-quality scans, and non-standard formats from occasional vendors. We handle these through a combination of AI confidence scoring (low-confidence extractions are flagged for human review), vendor templates (we build specific extraction rules for your highest-volume suppliers), and continuous learning (corrections feed back into the model). In production, most systems reach a straight-through processing rate of 80--90% -- meaning only 10--20% of invoices require any human touch.
PDF invoices (both digital and scanned), image files (JPG, PNG, TIFF), email body invoices, XML and EDI structured formats, and Excel or CSV invoices from certain suppliers. The extraction approach differs by format -- structured formats like EDI are parsed directly, unstructured formats like scanned PDFs go through OCR. We build a unified data model at the output so your downstream systems get consistent data regardless of how the invoice arrived.
Yes. We've built integrations with SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, NetSuite, Xero, QuickBooks, and Sage. The integration posts validated invoice data and creates the payable record automatically. For ERPs with well-documented APIs, integration is straightforward. For older ERPs with limited APIs, we use file-based exchange or a direct database connector. We scope the integration requirements during discovery.
Exceptions are a normal part of invoice processing. The system flags them (price mismatch, missing PO, duplicate invoice number, vendor not in approved list) and routes them to the right person with context -- what was extracted, what was expected, and what action is required. Approvers resolve exceptions in a web interface without touching the underlying data. The resolution is logged for audit. We tune the exception rules to match your actual approval policy.
A focused invoice automation system -- email ingestion, AI extraction, PO matching, approval routing, and ERP integration -- typically runs $30,000--$70,000. The cost depends on the number of invoice formats, the complexity of the matching rules, and the ERP integrations required. For high-volume AP departments (1,000+ invoices/month), the ROI is typically positive within 6 months. We calculate the expected savings based on your current volume and processing cost before we scope the project.
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