Invoice automation for smart businesses

Electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) is the capture and processing of an invoice document between a supplier and the customer. An e-invoice is the automatic generation of a digital version of every invoice, irrespective of how the invoice was initially received (paper or emailed PDF etc.) including capturing and storing the PDF image that needs to be retained for a minimum of seven years to comply with all HMRC e-invoice regulations. Historically, accounts payable invoice processing has been a paper-based methodology that is manually intensive and prone to human error. This results in increased costs and labour-intensive processing lifecycles. iCompleat e-invoicing changes that. The objective of Compleat e-Invoicing as a Service is to remove paper from the purchase invoice capture and approval processes on receipt, removing the manual data entry and filing from the process completely. The e-invoice automatically generates the relevant iCompleat approval transaction containing all the relevant invoice data (with the associated invoice PDF), undertakes a fully automated reconciliation with the relevant purchase order, followed by the appropriate approval process. It is also automatically posted to your accounting or ERP application on final approval.

The objective of iCompleat e-invoicing is to remove the need for paper from the purchase invoice capture, approval, manual posting and subsequent filing processes.

1. An e-invoice is the automatic generation of a digital version of every invoice, irrespective of how the invoice was initially received (paper or emailed PDF etc.), retaining the information for a minimum of seven years in compliance with all HMRC e-invoice regulations.
2. The e-invoice automatically generates the relevant iCompleat approval transaction containing all the relevant invoice data (with the associated invoice PDF attached), undertaking a fully automated reconciliation with the relevant purchase order, followed by the appropriate approval process, and is automatically posted to your accounting or ERP application on final approval.
3. The importance of e-invoicing cannot be understated. Every invoice is automatically captured on receipt and the exact status of each transaction is instantly available to everyone that needs to know. An e-invoice can never get lost, shortening the approval process to a matter of hours or even minutes and all invoice queries are managed through to a successful conclusion. It is simply a far better way of working, saving everyone involved a huge amount of time and ensuring suppliers can be paid on time.

A detailed study of the accounts payable process shows that around 70% of the time to process each transaction is taken up with the management of the piece of paper. For most organisations, that represents a cost of between £1.40 and £2.80 per transaction undertaking manual tasks that not only add zero value to the business, but also hides the invoice from the business.Why are PDFs important in this process?A PDF generated by an accounting or ERP system contains all the electronic data required to “render” the readable copy of the invoice. It is just a matter of reading this data and reformatting it to create the structure e-invoice XML transaction with the invoice PDF attached.

The Compleat e-Invoicing as a Service delivers 100% e-invoices with minimal time or resources of our customer’s staff. The only actions required by our customers are to: ask your suppliers to send their invoices via email as a PDF to the email address we provide or forward supplier emailed PDF invoices sent direct to you to the email address we provide. Scan the paper invoices on arrival and email the resulting PDF to the email address we provide.