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Case Study: Automating vendor invoice processing to cut finance handling time

By  Oleh K. | Automation Consultant  ·  1 minute read

Client Challenge

Client's finance team processed 40–50 vendor invoices per month across multiple departments.
Invoices were submitted inconsistently by multiple channels (emails, chat), and the finance team had to manually extract invoice details and upload data into the finance system.

Baseline effort:

  • Manual processing: ~15 minutes per invoice

  • Monthly effort: ~11–12 hours

  • Pain point: finance time was spent on data entry instead of validation and control

As invoice volume grew, effort scaled linearly and created avoidable operational overhead.

Our Approach

We designed a no/low-code invoice intake and parsing workflow that automated data extraction while preserving financial oversight.

The focus was on:

  • one simple submission channel

  • reliable structured data extraction

  • clear audit trail

  • human review only where it adds value

How it works

  1. Centralized invoice intake
    All employees email invoices to a single address: invoices@company.com

  2. Automated intake & storage
    Using Zapier:

  • invoice attachments are automatically saved to Google Workspace (Shared Drive, structured by month)

  • an intake record is created in Airtable, capturing: employee email, timestamp, link to the original invoice file

  1. AI-powered invoice parsing
    Each invoice is sent to an AI extraction step using OpenAI: vendor name, invoice number, dates, totals, tax, currency, PO / reference.

The AI outputs strict JSON, mapped directly into structured Airtable fields.

  1. Smart review logic

  • ~25% of invoices (exceeding amount threshold) are flagged for manual review

  • remaining invoices are auto-approved and uploaded to the finance system

  • random spot checks ensure quality control

Results

Before automation

  • ~15 min per invoice

  • ~11–12 hours/month of finance time

After automation

  • ~25% reviewed manually:
    ~11–12 invoices × 5 min ≈ 55–60 min

  • Random inspections:
    ~2 invoices × 5 min ≈ 10 min

  • Total monthly effort: ~1–1.2 hours

Impact

  • ~85–90% reduction in manual processing time

  • Finance shifted from data entry to exception handling

  • Consistent, structured invoice data

  • Full audit trail (employee > invoice > source file)

  • Faster invoice turnaround and fewer errors

Tools Used

  • Zapier

  • Google Workspace

  • Airtable

  • OpenAI