OCR
OCR for accounts payable: the end of data entry
OCR for accounts payable (optical character recognition) removes the typing: every invoice line is read, the general ledger and cost accounting coding is proposed, variances are named before the approval to pay. The plan covers extraction; checking your negotiated terms is the next step.
The problem
The backlog is not a volume problem, it is a data entry problem
An invoice arrives. Someone opens it, retypes the number, the date, the supplier, the net amount, the tax, then looks for the purchase order, then picks an account, then names an approver. The task takes a few minutes and is repeated identically hundreds of times a month. The accounts payable backlog has no other origin than that repetition.
Looking for an automated reading tool is the right instinct, and the right starting point: reading a purchasing document, then checking what it contains sets out the expected fields document by document. But clean data dropped into your ERP (enterprise resource planning system) still does not say whether the invoice is payable.
An invoice that has been read but not matched is still an invoice to investigate. What removes data entry from the role is what comes next: three-way matching, the coding, the routing to the right approver.
The three tasks that consume the role
- Three-way matching
- Purchase order, delivery note, invoice: all three documents are read line by line, not merely at total level. Quantities received, partial deliveries, announced backorders and units of measure to convert are set against each other item by item. Whatever fails to match is raised with its reason, instead of sitting on hold with no explanation.
- Coding, proposed
- The general ledger and cost accounting coding is proposed from the nature of the service and from the codings applied on previous occasions, including when the cost dimension exists in your data only as free text. Clearing and the payment schedule then start from values already read, with their due date and payment terms.
- Approval to pay, prepared
- The approval route is set by your thresholds and your delegations of authority, not by local habit. Variances are named before the file reaches the approver: fewer chases to approvers, fewer email round trips, and a backlog that stops rebuilding itself at every close.
None of this is a decision: it is a file. The accountant receives a proposed coding, a completed match and named variances, each linked to the document that justifies it. It investigates, you decide.
Capture
Gather and consolidate all your procurement data.
Collection by dedicated mailbox, upload, SFTP, scan, API or ERP export. Reads every format (native PDF, scan, photo, spreadsheet, structured feed), then extracts line by line: supplier, references, quantities, unit prices, discounts, taxes, terms.
The end of re-entry. A procurement history you can finally query.
What Capture detects
- Long documents and multi-page tables
- Unknown layouts
- Several languages and currencies
- Poor scans and handwriting
What the plan covers, and what comes after
The plan covers extraction. Checking your negotiated terms is the next step and is sized with you.
- Extraction: headers, lines, taxes and totals, each linked to the place in the document where it was read.
- The check: every invoiced price set against the contract, the rate schedule (the priced bill of quantities) and the price list in force.
- Matching: the purchase order and the receipt placed back in front of the invoice, line by line, with your tolerances.
Nothing is lost. Everything can be checked, everything can be proven.
- The contract clause and the invoice line, highlighted side by side.
- Every extracted value stays linked to the exact place in the document where it was read.
- The same case produces the same decision, today as in six months: the rules are applied deterministically.
- No discrepancy is set aside in silence. Anything that matches no rule is raised, with its reason.
- The agent records what it did, in the order it did it: who, what, how much, when.
Frequently asked questions
Is extraction enough to remove data entry from accounts payable?
No. Reading the fields is not enough: the invoice has to be matched against the purchase order and the receipt, the coding has to be proposed and the approver named. Extraction is the first step; what comes after is what removes the typing.
What happens to an invoice received without a purchase order?
It does not sit on hold with no reason. The likely requester, the coding and the approver expected at the amount observed are proposed, each linked to what justifies it. You approve or you correct.
Does Zylio replace my ERP?
No. Your ERP runs the process and remains the source of truth. Zylio handles the exception, on top of it, and feeds the results back. No additional development inside your system.
How do I check a Zylio conclusion?
Every discrepancy opens onto its evidence: the contract clause and the invoice line, highlighted side by side, with the calculation shown.
Measurable impact in every environment
More than 5 million procurement documents analysed
Between 1 and 7% of margin recovered
on the scope analysed
From 15 to 45% of time given back to teams, per FTE
depending on the scope and on data maturity
Zylio fits into your existing ecosystem.
The ERP runs the process. Zylio handles the exception and recovers the value that escapes it: invoices without a purchase order, line-by-line price discrepancies, duplicates and overbilling, off-contract spend.
Your data under high security.
Zylio meets the most demanding standards, and nothing is committed without your approval.
- Certifications
- Hosting
- Encryption
- Access
Read next
- OCR for finance and procurementThe pillar: what extraction reads, and what has to be checked next.
- The fields expected on a supplier invoiceItem by item: what is extracted, and what is set against the agreed terms.
- Reading a supplier statementOpen invoices, credit notes, payments on account: what is missing from clearing.
- Down to the invoice lineA correct total can hide ten wrong lines: why the line is what counts.
- Long documentsThe lines do not vanish on page thirty: the continuity of the table is followed and the sum of the lines compared with the stated total.
See what this looks like on your own data
Twenty minutes, on a spend category of your choosing. We show you what the agents detect, with the evidence behind it.
- No commitment, on your own data
- Result in 3 weeks
- 20 minutes, no sales pitch
- Your data stays hosted in France
- No change of tool or process