All five workflows
Use case 01 · Finance operations

Invoice-to-pay automation

Invoices arrive in every format and get re-keyed by hand. Automate capture, matching and posting, and keep people on the exceptions only.

Every sectorManufacturingConstructionHospitalityHealthcareRetail
The evidence

Why this workflow costs more than it should.

$9.84Average cost to process one invoice (Ardent Partners, State of ePayables 2025)1
79%Lower processing cost at best-in-class AP teams than at their peers1
18.4%Average invoice exception rate: nearly 1 in 5 invoices needs manual handling1

The problem

Invoices arrive as PDFs, scans and email bodies in many formats. People re-key them into the ERP, chase approvals and resolve price or quantity mismatches by hand. Invoices take an average of 8.2 days to process, and AP staff spend 21.9% of their time answering supplier questions1.

Market demand

Analysts put the AP automation market at USD 3.4B (Future Market Insights) to 5.7B (Custom Market Insights) in 2025, growing 10–14% a year2,3. Growth is driven by cloud ERP adoption and e-invoicing mandates. Every company that buys on credit has this workflow.

Integration footprint

  • Input: AP inbox or supplier portal
  • System of record: accounting or ERP API (e.g. Xero, QuickBooks, NetSuite, SAP Business One)
  • Match data: purchase orders and goods receipts
  • Approvals: Slack, Teams or email
  • No rip-and-replace: the ERP stays the source of truth
The workflow

Five steps, one human checkpoint.

The agent does the repetitive work. People decide the exceptions. Every action is logged against the baseline.

01 · INTAKE

Capture every invoice

Watch the AP inbox and portal. De-duplicate and log each document.

02 · EXTRACT

Read header and lines

Pull supplier, amounts, VAT and line items, with a confidence score for each field.

03 · MATCH

2- and 3-way match

Check against the PO and receipt. Flag price, quantity and duplicate exceptions.

04 · HUMAN CHECK

Exceptions only

Low-confidence items and mismatches go to a reviewer with the evidence attached.

05 · POST & PROVE

Post to ERP, log

Create the bill, route it for approval and write an audit trail for every action.

KPIs tracked from day oneCost per invoiceTouchless rateException rateCycle timeEarly-payment discounts captured
The product

What your team works in.

One screen for the queue, the evidence and the decision. Exceptions come with the reason and a suggested action, so reviewing one takes seconds.

Product preview · sample data
The savings model

What it could be worth.

Market research model · based on published benchmarks

Mid-size company, 2,000 invoices a month

Baseline uses the Ardent average cost per invoice. The scenario assumes automation halves the cost per invoice. That is well short of the 79% gap Ardent reports between best-in-class teams and their peers.

Annual volume24,000 invoices
Baseline × $9.84$236,160 / yr
Scenario: −50% cost / invoice$118,080 / yr
≈ $118k / yr
How to read this model. It uses the published benchmark as the baseline and states every assumption. Your own figure comes from measuring your workflow during the feasibility audit.

Sources

  1. 1
    Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025: AP's Unfinished Journey — “Part Nine: AP Benchmarks and Best-in-Class Performance” (22 Jan 2026). payablesplace.ardentpartners.com/2026/01/state-of-epayables-part-nine-ap-benchmarks-and-best-in-class-performance/
  2. 2
    Future Market Insights, Accounts Payable Automation Market (USD 3.4B in 2025, 10.3% CAGR to 2036). futuremarketinsights.com/reports/accounts-payable-automation-market
  3. 3
    Custom Market Insights, Accounts Payable Automation Market (USD 5.7B in 2025, 14% CAGR to 2034). custommarketinsights.com/report/accounts-payable-automation-market/
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