Finance Company in South Africa
Agentic Invoice To Pay Process
Business Challenge
Finance and procurement teams were burdened with the manual intake and processing of a large volume of invoices arriving from multiple sources — including emails, portals, WhatsApp messages, and physical scans. These documents came in a variety of unstructured formats, many of which were unsupported or not relevant, causing bottlenecks even before processing could begin.
- Unstructured Document Chaos
Invoices, receipts, and reconciliation reports in unsupported or inconsistent formats landed in finance inboxes, many without clear subject lines or tags. Irrelevant or incomplete submissions caused delays and confusion. - Manual Classification Effort
Analysts had to manually determine whether a document was a Tax Invoice, Regular Invoice, Credit Note, or Reconciliation Sheet. This classification process was time-consuming and error-prone. - Internal & External Communication Complexity
Managing internal (employees) and external (vendors) submitters created coordination overhead. Clarifications and follow-ups cluttered inboxes, extending resolution time.
- Operational Bottlenecks in SAP Entry
Matching line items with totals, detecting missing amounts, or invalid VAT fields delayed invoice approvals. Exceptions often required escalation to finance managers, further slowing down the process. - Scalability Constraints
Volume fluctuations, especially during month-end, could not be met without increasing headcount, limiting the department’s ability to scale cost-effectively.
Finance / Agentic AI
Agentic AI - Agentic Invoice To Pay Process
Application
| Integration Service
Suppliers submit invoices via email, Teams, WhatsApp, or self-service portals
Multi-channel intake via Outlook, Teams, WhatsApp, etc. All intakes are monitored for incomplete documents. Extracts structured data from unstructured sources. Sends confirmation or guidance to submitters instantly.
Downloading and Document Processing
RPA bot downloads all attachments and forwards them to the AI Queue
Supports PDF, Word, Excel, ZIP, PNG, JPEG formats. Email body content is also processed (not just attachments). AI-ready file preparation for Document Understanding.
Document Understanding
| Document Understanding
Classify Invoice and Extract Required Fields
Digitizing of all types of attachments. Extracting required fields like Date, Amount, Supplier Name.
Trained AI Agent - Validation
| Agentic Automation
Agentic AI validates invoice content and performs rule-based checks
Verifies vendor and company details. Validates totals vs. line-item sum. Checks VAT, currency, and banking info. Flags duplicate or invalid invoices. Confirms purchase order or contract references.
Trained AI Agent - Compliance
| Agentic Automation
Agentic AI ensures compliance with business rules and routing logic
Matches PO and confirms delivery/service note (if applicable). Validates accounting postings. Determines approval and escalates when needed. Handles exceptions from contractual terms. Routes exceptions to appropriate teams via ServiceNow.
Record Update
Record Update and Posting
Accurate invoice data posted to ERP. Financial records automatically updated. Integrated ServiceNow ticket updated with status.
Record Storage
Record Indexing and Storage
All records stored with metadata. Seamless data structure supports audits and reporting. Document integrity and traceability maintained.
Reporting
Supplier and Stakeholder Communication
Status updates and exceptions are communicated automatically. Manual intervention alerts. Real-time process transparency. SLA and processing reports fed into dashboards. Continuous learning from resolution outcomes.
How Agentic AI Helped
- Multi-Channel Intake with AI Bots
Agentic AI-powered virtual agents were deployed across email, Teams, WhatsApp, and web portals to receive invoices, regardless of source or format. - AI-Based Document Filtering & Classification
Documents were automatically scanned and classified into types: Tax Invoice, Credit Note, Reconciliation Statement, etc. Irrelevant or invalid documents were filtered out before processing. - ServiceNow Integration for Workflow Triggering
Valid submissions were automatically pushed to ServiceNow, where appropriate records were created based on the invoice type and issue category (e.g., Missing PO, Amount Mismatch, VAT Validation). - Exception Handling with Auto-Routing
AI identified line-level mismatches, missing data, or structural inconsistencies and routed them to relevant queues (e.g., AP Review, Vendor Contact, or Tax Team). - Human-in-the-Loop for High-Value Invoices
Invoices over predefined thresholds were flagged and routed to authorized finance managers for manual approval before ERP posting. - SAP Posting via RPA
Once validated, invoices were posted to SAP through RPA bots, completing the Invoice-to-Pay cycle automatically.
Results
- 80% Reduction in Manual Processing Time
End-to-end automation eliminated the need for finance staff to triage and classify incoming invoices. - High Accuracy in Classification and Matching
AI maintained over 95% accuracy in identifying invoice type and validating line-item totals against headers. - Improved Transparency and Tracking
ServiceNow integration provided a clear audit trail and status tracking across internal and external users. - Reduced Approval Delays
High-value invoices reached the right approver automatically with supporting context, speeding up decision-making. - Scalable and Channel-Agnostic
The system now supports all document types, languages, and submission channels, with minimal configuration changes. - Enhanced Compliance and Risk Control
Structured exception handling ensured tax compliance, correct VAT treatment, and reduced regulatory exposure.
Simplifying Complex Operations Through Automation-as-a-Service
Unite powers transformation through AI, automation, and orchestration—where you only pay for results.
Contact
London
Unite Information Technologies UK LTD
Second Floor, 3 Liverpool Gardens, Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 1TF London/UK
Tel: + 01903624664
Istanbul
Cumhuriyet Mah. Abdi İpekçi Cad. Mermer Sok. No:4 Kartal 34876 İstanbul/Türkiye
Tel: +90 (216) 453 40 00
