April 1, 2022
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4 minutes
As a large business that makes a lot of transactions each week, your staff likely spend hours of their time manually processing invoices. Entering the relevant data line by line is not only time-consuming but also tedious, leading to mistakes and errors in your data. Even a tiny problem in your data can lead to tremendous difficulties for your accounting team. It’s time to do business better by using a PDF invoice data extraction tool.
What Is Automated Invoice Processing?
Automated invoice processing is the process of taking information from your invoices and turning it into useful, structured data.
This data is automatically entered into categories such as invoice no., PO number, line items, order date, invoice data, and more.
What Are The Benefits of Automated Invoice Processing?
- Reduce manual data entry
- Streamline procurement
- Simplify workflow
- Easily process paper invoices
- Sync with your accounting system
- Save money on labour
- Accurate invoice processing
What To Look For In An Invoice Data Extraction Tool
Now that you’ve shown your enterprise resource planning (ERP) team the benefits of using an automated invoice processing tool, it’s time to choose one that’s right for your business. Here’s what to look for:
Can Handle Various File Types
Invoices come in all types of files – you may be sent paper files, scanned invoices, digital PDF documents, Google sheets, Word docs, and more. You need a system that can successfully extract data from a range of file types.
Reads Unstructured Documents
Not all invoices follow the same structure. They may be similar, but different companies will follow different invoice templates. Look for an automated extraction tool that can take unstructured documents and turn them into structured data, no matter the invoice format used.
Offers A Data Extraction API
If you can find a product that meets your needs and also offers a data extraction API, that will be ideal for a company of your size. An API allows you to integrate your text extraction tool with your accounting system for a seamless workflow.
Try For Free
You can’t commit your budget to software that you’ve never used before. When researching options for extracting data, check to see if the company offers a free online version or free trial. This will allow you to test out the product before making a commitment.
OCR Technology
Optical character recognition, or OCR, technology allows the software to read and recognise text even in scanned PDFs and documents. Check to see if your preferred option offers invoice OCR, as this will be capable of correctly scanning the text, so you end up with more accurate data.
Simple Price List
Some software companies make their pricing so confusing that you have no idea what you’ll end up paying. However, you can find software that is priced by the number of invoices you process each month. This makes the cost both easy to understand and predict so that you can accurately factor it into your budget.
Start Using An Invoice Data Extraction Tool Today
If you’re ready to stop manually entering invoice data into an excel spreadsheet, you need to invest in invoice data extraction technology. Start looking at your options and make sure that you read the product reviews to see what other users think of each tool. This will give you a good idea of whether the software will be able to serve your needs or not.
One option that meets all of the criteria is the Invoice Extractor by Affinda. Users love that there is a free online version that you can test before committing to the API. Contact us today to find out more about how we can tailor their product to the needs of your enterprise.
