Retail Use Case: Logistics

 Use Case: Logistics and Invoice Processing

Function: Finance

Industry: Retail

Challenge:

The client was receiving paper invoices from suppliers which the logistics team then checked against the PO number, invoice number, ensured it matched the quantity received, checked the unit price and total amount. Once everything was established as correct, the finance team then uploads the document in the ERP system.

The finance team then did a further round of checks with three-way matching, checking the vendor invoice to ensure that the payment is complete and accurate before the invoice is uploaded.

The client receives close to 100k invoices per year. Processing these invoices was time consuming and there were some challenges:

  1. Duplicate entries
  2. Slow approval processing
  3. Inability to manage and store information
  4. Vulnerability to fraud
  5. Labor intensive

Solution:

We implemented RPA bots to streamline the invoicing process. By automating the tasks, which consumed valuable time and resources we delivered faster and more reliable processing with reduced long-term costs. The bots respond to XXXX which leads to the following process:

  • The vendor sends the invoice to a designated mail ID, the OCR tool downloads the mail and using intelligent OCR and natural language processing capabilities, extracts the information that is on the invoice.
  • The RPA bots constantly monitor a dedicated folder where Excel invoices are saved by the OCR tool, once robots detect the presence of an invoice in the folder, they extract information from the document.
  • After robots extract the required information from each invoice, they login to the ERP system and process each invoice, transferring over the relevant invoice information to the ERP.
  • After registering each invoice, the bots then update an Excel sheet and send posting emails to the human employee responsible for the end of processing.
  • In case of any exceptions, data does not match, PO does not exist, the bots will send an email to the logistics team for the discrepancy to be dealt with.

Soft Benefits

  • Instant information: When invoices are automated, anybody can access the invoice at anytime from anywhere
  • Faster transaction speed eliminating bottlenecks during the busy season or times when there was a reduction in manpower available
  • Reduced human errors, especially in the verification process
  • Easier auditing, paper invoices are very difficult to audit. The RPA platform has an inbuilt audit trail
  • Reduced costs: When payments are made on time, penalties are avoided.

Realized Hard Benefits

  1. Volume of Transactions – 100K+ ????
  2. Number of hours saved – 20k per year
  3. Value Saved – 1.25k SAR per year