Automatic Invoice Checking

Replacing a Manual Invoice Checking Process and Reducing Human Error

Over 300 emails per month are received from partners with invoices in PDF format and invoice attachments as Excel or CSV files. Because there is no automated process to check these invoices, all attachments are manually checked on a random basis. KNIME Analytics Platform is used to replace this existing manual invoice checking process. An automated solution provides a transparent overview of the invoice processing.

Four Steps in KNIME Analytics Platform

A connection to the SQL Server on one side (ground truth) and imported flat files (invoice attachments) on the other side is established. Flat files are checked against the database table. The following steps are taken in order to implement it: 1) transform flat file format in order to extract dates in a proper format, 2) filter the database data by respective month and partner, 3) match the data from both sources in order to find the same data, and 4) calculate any missing data.

Results

Upon project completion, a report is delivered that displays all relevant data (including matching result, month, plus additional information) per partner and provides a clear overview of the invoicing data from the selected partner. Specific benefits include:

• Reduced costs due to automated invoice processing (automated report containing information about all largest partners received within 1-2 hours)

• Improved quality of the invoice checking process

• Early detection of inconsistencies between database and invoices

Why KNIME Software

KNIME Analytics Platform makes it possible to create a workflow, which provides a transparent overview of the invoice processing. It’s possible to complete all the steps in a single environment - including connecting to the Microsoft SQL Server. The ability to create KNIME components in the visual workbench make it easy to duplicate processes over multiple partners/groups.

⇒ This Success Story can be downloaded here as a PDF.