It is possible for accounts payable to achieve anywhere from 40-85% straight-through invoice processing rates by following these three best practices:
Ask your vendors to send electronic invoices (PDF, XLS, DOC, XML, EDI), which are easier to process with AP automation solutions and reduce the number of paper invoices.
Eliminate manual data entry tasks with a digital invoice capture solution. Modern, cloud-based invoice capture solutions, such as Serrala SmartEye, are cost-effective, convenient, and have a higher capture accuracy rate than legacy scanning or OCR solutions.
Focus on your top 20 vendors first and work with them to increase the straight-through processing rates. Check that the vendor master data is accurate and then implement simple changes that will improve your matching rates: ask vendors to provide a delivery note, ensure invoices cite the corresponding purchase order, or review purchase orders and make changes that will make them easier to match to the incoming invoices. By regularly measuring your striaght-through invoice processing rates, you can identify problem areas and find solutions that will increase the number of invoices that can processed automatically, without being touched.