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OCR

Supplier invoice scanning: the check before the payment

Scanning supplier invoices is only worth it if it brings the check forward: lines read, documents matched and variances named before payment, not after. The close then rests on invoices already investigated, and every conclusion stays linked to its evidence.

The problem

Scanning does not shorten a close

A scanned invoice is still a scanned invoice. If the check arrives after payment, the monthly close still turns on accruals and goods received not invoiced (GRNI) rebuilt by hand, entity by entity, and variances are settled through credit notes, when they are settled at all.

Automated reading is the foundation, and it should be chosen with open eyes: OCR for finance and procurement, the overview (OCR being optical character recognition) shows where reading stops and where checking begins. Clean data poured into the ERP, the enterprise resource planning system, does not move the reporting date.

Finance leadership does not only ask for clean data: it asks for an audit trail. Who read what, on which document, under which rule, and who approved. Segregation of duties assumes that investigation and decision stay distinct and traced: that is exactly the split of an agent that investigates and does not decide.

What an earlier check changes in the accounts

The monthly close
Accruals and GRNI rest on invoices already read and matched to their purchase order, rather than on an estimate rebuilt at every month end. Variances are known before the reporting date instead of being discovered during it, and cut-off stops being a negotiation with the calendar.
Payment terms
An invoice blocked with no stated reason damages days payable outstanding (DPO) as much as an invoice paid too early. When the variance is named on receipt, the early settlement discount becomes a treasury decision again, and lateness stops being a penalty you simply absorb.
Internal control
The rules are written down, applied in the same way to every document and recorded with their outcome. Internal control stops resting on a sample taken after the fact, and the external auditor reads exactly what your teams read.

None of these conclusions is an opinion: each one opens onto the document that justifies it, down to the line and the clause. 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 sits in the plan, and what is sized

The plan covers extraction. Checking your negotiated terms is the next step and is sized with you.

  • Extraction: incoming documents read and structured, whatever the intake channel.
  • The check: price, quantity and terms variances named before the invoice is released for payment.
  • The output: an exportable audit trail, readable by leadership and by operational teams alike.
See the volume grid and what it includes

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 scanning enough to make a payment safe?

No. Scanning makes the invoice machine-readable; it does not say whether the price applied complies with the contract, nor whether the quantity invoiced was actually received. Safety comes from matching and from checking the terms, upstream of the approval to pay.

How is the audit trail built?

The agent records what it did, in the order it did it: who, what, how much, when. Every extracted value stays linked to the exact place in the document where it was read.

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.

Is my data used to train models?

No, never. It is not shared between clients and stays hosted in France.

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.

  • SAP
  • Sage
  • Oracle
  • NetSuite
  • Microsoft Dynamics 365
  • Pennylane
All integrations

Your data under high security.

Zylio meets the most demanding standards, and nothing is committed without your approval.

Certifications
SOC 2 Type II · ISO 27001
Hosting
Hosted in France
Encryption
End-to-end AES-256 encryption
Access
Enterprise SSO · multi-factor authentication · Zero Trust approach
Security and compliance

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