Inbox to ‘Approved’: How to Accelerate and Better Control Invoicing

Accounting teams battle a costly bottleneck: invoices waiting for approval can become delayed in email chains and manual handoffs. Unclear routing and manual handoffs can make approval status difficult to track. What if the fix isn’t working harder, but letting modern document management automation handle the heavy lifting?

An invoice process with manual handoffs can feel more like a relay race than a streamlined system. A supplier sends in an invoice, which then sits in an inbox. Someone from accounting has to pick it up, check the details, forward it to the right person (hopefully), follow up, wait for approval, and only then process it for payment. Multiply that by hundreds of invoices per month, and it’s not hard to see how things can slow down or fall through the cracks.

Now more than ever, accounting departments are under pressure to move faster while reducing errors and maintaining documented approval records. The question is: how do you build speed into a process that’s historically been anything but agile?

What’s Really Slowing Things Down?

Let’s break it down.

• Manual routing: Invoices arrive via email, PDFs, even the occasional paper copy. Someone has to figure out where it goes and who needs to approve it.
• Data entry and validation: Double-checking totals, purchase order numbers, supplier details, it’s necessary, but time-consuming.
• Lack of visibility: Once an invoice is sent off for approval, it often disappears into a black box. Who’s seen it? Where is it stuck? No one knows unless they go digging.
• Audit pressure: Every approval (or delay) needs to be documented, especially in industries where compliance isn’t optional.

The end result? Manual handoffs can delay approvals. And that delay isn’t just frustrating, it can damage supplier relationships, incur late fees, or throw off forecasts.

What a Smarter Process Looks Like

In a hypothetical process with configured intake and approval rules:

1. Invoices are sent directly to a dedicated email inbox. Defined intake rules route standard submissions; exceptions still need review.
2. Key information is automatically extracted, invoice number, supplier name, PO reference, amount, due date. Reviewers verify the extracted values against the invoice.
3. The invoice is routed to the designated approver, based on pre-defined business rules.
4. Approvers are notified through the configured workflow and can review and approve through the supported interface.
5. The configured approval steps and decisions are recorded, so accounting can identify status and follow up on exceptions.

Sounds like a wild enterprise fantasy? It’s not.

An Illustrative Workflow

The video illustrates a hypothetical accountant, John, and approver, Sam; it is a process demonstration, not a measured customer result. With the help of a smarter document management platform, John receives invoices automatically, reviews them quickly (thanks to automatic data extraction), and sends them for approval with a single click. Sam reviews the invoice and confirms the required approval. Payment remains a separate step in the connected finance system, subject to its controls and processing schedule.

Making It Happen

Implementation scope depends on the existing finance systems, approval rules and integrations. Test the intake, exception review and payment handoff before rollout.

AODocs supports accounting and procurement document workflows. Our platform streamlines document workflows, automates approval chains, and records configured approval steps. Payment visibility depends on the finance integration; audit preparation also requires appropriate procedures, records and review.

If your team is looking to reduce bottlenecks, cut down on manual tasks, and process invoices faster, with full control and transparency, we’d love to show you how.

Learn more

• About AODocs for Finance and Procurement
• Explore AI-powered process automation