How a BPO hit SLAs for high-volume invoicing with automation

The accounting expertise disaster is altering how companies deal with their funds. With the US market needing 340,000 new accountants and 45% of companies 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 just 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 individuals to maintain up with the high-volume workload. It received to a degree the place they needed to flip down new shoppers.

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

What occurs when rising bill and invoice 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) accomplice, they deal with every thing from utility and telecom bills to IT prices—processing payments, validating expenses, and offering detailed analytics. They assist AP groups in healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and authorities organizations scale back their workload whereas delivering price financial savings by way of higher expense administration.

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

This is what occurred:

1. Guide processing grew to become a bottleneck: Their workforce relied on handbook information entry and will solely course of about 100 invoices per particular person 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 grew to become more and more troublesome and costly. This made it tougher to scale their workforce and meet rising calls for. 

3. Shopper service suffered in consequence: Processing inaccuracies and inefficiencies meant delays, errors, and, in the end, sad shoppers. Additionally they struggled to satisfy consumer deadlines, resulting in potential penalties.

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

5. Development alternatives had been restricted: They could not effectively onboard new shoppers or tackle new enterprise alternatives. It put them on the again foot towards opponents with higher programs.

They wanted to keep up a big workforce of information entry clerks always to key within the sheer quantity of payments and invoices. Whereas they had been capable of outsource a few of it, the inherent limitations of handbook 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 bulk bill processing grew to become sophisticated

Check out a typical utility invoice, it would look like a easy doc to course of. However it will possibly shortly turn out to be a headache if you’re processing 1000’s of them in bulk every month. Extra so if you’re aiming for the accuracy and element wanted for efficient expense administration.

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

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

1. Each utility invoice is completely different

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

2. Billing data is not simple

• A number of meter readings for various companies (electrical energy, fuel, water) could possibly be scattered throughout the doc
• Service addresses for multi-location shoppers may be unfold throughout pages, or buried inside tables
• Cost descriptions lacked consistency (“Buyer Cost” in a single invoice and “Cust. Chg.” in one other)
• An identical expenses may seem a number of instances on a single bill, requiring handbook revisions

3. Accuracy necessities are strict

• Meter readings should match their corresponding expenses
• Information wants validation earlier than system import
• Errors may result in incorrect consumer stories, flawed monetary insights, and missed optimization alternatives
• Processing delays result in SLA penalties

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

Reworking high-volume bill processing with AI and automation

The expense administration supplier knew they wanted to automate bill processing earlier than progress grew to become unattainable. Nevertheless, with 50,000+ month-to-month invoices, advanced validation necessities, and strict consumer 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 advanced vendor setups, and skill to deal with multi-page tables satisfied them that we may meet their particular wants:

• Distinctive doc layouts
• Advanced 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. Slightly than disrupting their complete workflow directly, we began with a vendor-by-vendor method to validate accuracy and construct confidence.

At the 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 way of a number of channels (mail, consumer emails, utility firm portals, and bodily invoices)
• On the finish of every workday, they place all collected invoices into a chosen 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 new information
• When new information are detected, Nanonets routinely imports them

Be aware: Backup strategies embody direct add by way of the Nanonets interface, e-mail forwarding to a devoted mannequin e-mail deal with, 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 constructions
  • Advanced 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

Be aware: 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 overview the subsequent morning. 

3. Error dealing with and high quality management

Error dealing with entails automated checks, adopted by handbook evaluations for corrections.

Among 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 evaluations error logs and output every day for:

• Cost descriptions within the improper columns
• Service addresses throughout a number of places
• Meter readings matching their expenses appropriately

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

Be aware: Day by day error reporting was carried out to forestall points from bleeding by way of the whole week.

4. Publish-processing and output

As soon as paperwork cross 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

Be aware: 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 keep up and enhance processing high quality. Their workforce identifies areas for enchancment and offers suggestions, whereas we repeatedly improve the AI mannequin’s accuracy. This entails:

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

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

The impression of automation on bulk bill processing

Inside three months of implementing Nanonets, the supplier noticed vital outcomes. For starters, they managed to automate processing for ~12,000 invoices monthly. This highlights the system’s potential to deal with their high-volume wants. 

For utility invoices from identified distributors, the AI mannequin achieved processing speeds of 173-174 invoices in simply 5 minutes — a activity that may’ve required hours of handbook information entry.

However the impression 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 way of SharePoint integration
• Bulk in a single day processing of 500 invoices every day

Operational enhancements

• Workers free of handbook information entry to deal with higher-value duties like consumer reporting and evaluation
• Quicker turnaround on consumer deliverables and assembly SLAs
• Extra constant processing high quality, with fewer errors and handbook corrections
• Higher dealing with of advanced invoices with a number of meter readings and repair addresses

The trail ahead

The implementation continues to be within the early phases. With solely ~20% of the supplier’s complete invoice quantity at present automated, there’s vital room for progress.

Their subsequent steps deal with:

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 movement between Nanonets and their expense administration resolution
• Automating error corrections the place potential to scale back handbook overview time
• Constructing a extra sturdy integration between Nanonets and their in-house options

Managing utility payments and invoices for a number of shoppers?

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

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