Effective Invoice Processing is a cornerstone of a successful accounts payable workflow. That fact is true across all industries, but it is especially important in areas such as the public sector. The costs associated with processing and paying invoices aren’t borne by a private company in this case. Finding ways to save money and improve processes effectively is key. Such outcomes are possible with advanced AI-powered automation solutions available right now in the Tungsten Marketplace.

Experts in financial processes and automation contribute Marketplace solutions to assist organizations and companies on their automation journey. Built on top of Intelligent Automation platforms from Tungsten Automation, these solutions can offer a faster path to valuable advantages. Before exploring what’s available and what the Marketplace can do for your public sector workflows, we should first consider the need for such automation in the first place.

What’s holding back today’s Invoice Processing workflows?

Invoice Processing can be labor-intensive, especially for businesses operating at higher levels of volume or scale. Your company might need to process hundreds or thousands of invoices a month. Even with computer software to track data and manage payments, that software usually requires a human AP worker to work with it directly. That’s not to mention manual tasks such as gathering invoices from different sources and extracting their information. Manually typing invoice data can take a huge number of person-hours every month.

All this manual work creates many problems and often contributes to data silos that reduce visibility into key financial indicators. The most common outcome of errors in AP are payment delays. Such delays can rankle suppliers and damage relationships or the company’s reputation. Delays often incur late fees, which have a further negative impact.

Matching errors might mean your business pays for an invoice before receiving any goods or services. Other errors might also lead to double payments. In the midst of it all, the risk of potential fraud increases. With an overburdened and stressed AP team, fraudulent invoices might escape detection. Today, many businesses still face some of or even all these problems—and that’s a barrier to growth and greater success.

Introducing Intelligent Automation solutions

Intelligent Automation is the solution to these persistent challenges facing Invoice Processing. Using technology, we can automate many of the most tedious manual steps in accounts payable today. Between rules-based robotic process automation and the advent of powerful machine learning and AI, businesses have the opportunity to transform AP. At Tungsten Automation, we build the tools to help make that happen.

Low-code/no-code Intelligent Automation solutions such as Tungsten TotalAgility provide a robust framework for developing business-specific applications. Tungsten AP Essentials provides a highly automated and extremely reliable solution for capturing high-quality invoice data. With these solutions, automating core workflows is possible.

It’s possible to go one step further, though. Tungsten solutions offer the frameworks, but the Tungsten Marketplace features ready-made applications built upon that foundation. With the Marketplace, you can access and deploy adaptable solutions that reduce manual workloads and increase productivity.

Discover advanced AI-powered automation in the Tungsten Marketplace

Tapping into the power of AI-driven automation is simple when you use solutions from the Tungsten Marketplace. Our partners are proven developers and automation experts with years of experience in this space. Let’s spotlight two of the most potent solutions for accounts payable and Invoice Processing in the Marketplace today.

SoftCoAP, based on AP Essentials, offers a short roadmap to implementing groundbreaking machine learning in your invoice workflows. SoftCoAP works with both PO-invoices and non-invoice POs and automates processes that include:

• Invoice capture
• Invoice data extraction
• Matching
• Invoice approvals and exceptions
• Query management
• Sending invoices for final payment

According to the developers, an effective deployment could result in processing cost savings as high as 89%. These savings derive from the largely “touchless” Invoice Processing based on machine learning. This solution capably extracts and classifies invoice data and can even make complicated matches with less human intervention.

Alongside SoftCoAP, the Marketplace also contains transcendAP by Optima Global Solutions. Based on TotalAgility, this solution also provides end-to-end Invoice Processing. Capable of unifying invoice data from multiple incoming sources, transcendAP uses document intelligence to extract data, validate invoices, and more. Both SoftCo and Optima provide consulting services to assist companies in deploying AI-powered solutions.

Unlocking the benefits of automation for invoicing

When your business begins leveraging AI for Invoice Processing, you equip your team with game-changing advantages. Just as important, the business as a whole sees benefits from improving this core process. Some of the biggest changes you can see are in areas such as:

• Processing times. Automation reduces friction at every stage, especially capture and data validation. Invoices spend less time in your system, which drops associated AP expenses.
• Accuracy. Using AI to “read” documents, extract their data and validate that information eliminates a common source of errors. Better accuracy reduces missed payments, late payments and payments made by mistake.
• Fraud detection. AI tools raise red flags when common signs of fraud or patterns of suspicious behavior appear. Reduce unauthorized spending and streamline anti-fraud activities.
• Vendor satisfaction. On-time payments that come faster and more regularly keeps customers satisfied.
• Performance and cost monitoring. Get real-time feedback from AI-powered systems with insights into process performance, invoicing costs and more. Better understand your daily financial position.

Beyond these benefits, automation improves the daily experience for knowledge workers. With less need to intervene in tedious processes, these individuals can instead contribute to more “big picture” efforts in the finance department. The smart usage of AI today leads to lower costs and better results across the board.

Investigate what you could achieve with automation

Reduce the errors that slow down your work and lead to unnecessary expenses. Improve workflows in ways that increase the value of AP team members by exercising their skills beyond manual processing. Solutions from Tungsten partners such as SoftCo and Optima Global Solutions lay the groundwork for a more effective investment in automation.

With the Tungsten Marketplace, you can obtain valuable tools ready to integrate with your systems. Skip the grueling process of developing automation solutions from the ground up on your own. Instead, combine Tungsten platforms and Marketplace solutions to innovate, iterate, and automate successfully. Take your first steps today.