Pain-free AP Automation

Your supplier will send you an invoice as a PDF or as another electronic document. It might be in Word or Excel. Most are already doing this.

The platform accesses and extracts the hidden data within the PDFs received from your suppliers and converts the data into a standard digital format. It then processes them in much the same way as electronic invoices received via EDI PO numbers, dates, references, VAT numbers, and contact names. We can even extract this information out of the email the invoice is attached to.

Invoice processing is a function performed by the accounts payable team which consists of a series of steps for managing vendor or supplier invoices from receipt to payment and is recorded in the general ledger. This sounds simple right? But there are a few steps that go in between, and these steps can quickly get complex depending on the size of your business. Invoices come in all variations these days, such as emails, PDFs, and even paper, so extraction accuracy is paramount at the start of the processing.

The simple answer is no, we do not use OCR. The Pitney Bowes platform maps data direct from application-generated documents, such as PDFs. When a PDF is generated by an application, in almost all cases, it carries the data within the PDF, as put there by the application that originally generated it. As we act on the data (no OCR), we can never make the mistakes that OCR makes – as a result, we guarantee 100% data quality (header & line). We process images as well!

The Pitney Bowes platform has been designed to support the landscape of today and well into the future. As we access the data as put there by the application that generated it, we can never make the mistakes that OCR makes and guarantee 100% data quality, at header and line in real time. Documents are processed in minutes 24x7. Pitney Bowes supports a client’s digital strategy and work in transformation

Although suppliers' preferred method is to submit an invoice, it is almost always an application- generated PDF file via email. Pitney Bowes e-invoicing can support any data document, including PDF, HTML, DOC, XML, EDI, CSV, XLS, etc.

We support any submission method, including email, FTP/SFTP, HTTP, AS2 and PEPPOL.

Yes, but it’s not SaaS; it’s better than that it’s actually a Service as a Service. Customers do not operate our software – we do. We take responsibility for it being fit for purpose and for making sure that it works well to our customers’ requirements. Our customers do not have to worry about the difficulties or idiosyncrasies of extracting data from their documents. We do all that. Furthermore, we do it for a fixed price, regardless of how complicated or weird any of these documents might turn out to be.

No, but we can provide data feeds to RPA systems. Our problems are not robotic, we program. But if you do decide to use RPA to manage the simple and robotic tasks in your company, make sure you supply your bots with perfect data from Pitney Bowes. Give them reliable data so at least they can complete their simple tasks.

It is vital that it is extracted and recorded accurately during this stage because errors result in compounding downstream effects. Errors in capture lead to errors in processing, errors in payment, errors in record keeping, and an extended close period. This can result in problems with vendors getting paid correctly and on time, and eventually poor supplier relations.

Yes, we do. Our AP Automation platform is a cloud-based solution that streamlines and automates the entire accounts payable process - from invoice reception to payment - to help save cost, get the books closed on time, and ensure full visibility of spend.