In the manufacturing industry, particularly for a rapidly growing automotive manufacturer based in the US, managing invoice validation is critical for operational efficiency and financial accuracy. Faced with an increasing volume and complexity of invoices due to their business expansion, the manufacturer partnered with Gradient to leverage their data platform, to automate their invoice validation process.
For the up and coming automotive manufacturer, business has been growing at an increasing pace year after year. With the rise in sales, the volume and complexity of invoices have also grown, prompting the team to reassess the following challenges.
Manual Data Entry: The manual process of invoice validation was highly susceptible to human errors, including typographical mistakes and incorrect data entry. This process was time-consuming and labor-intensive, requiring significant effort to input and verify data from numerous invoices across different teams and organizations.
Volume and Complexity of Data: The team dealt with a large number of invoices from various suppliers, making manual processing difficult. The invoices, often complex and in PDF format, contained multiple line items, varied formats, and specific terms and conditions that required careful scrutiny.
Matching: Manually matching invoices to purchase orders (POs) and goods receipt notes (GRNs) was tedious and error-prone. Discrepancies between invoice amounts, PO amounts, or received quantities often required manual intervention and additional resourcing to resolve.
The AI-Driven Solution
To address these challenges, the automotive manufacturer leveraged Gradient’s data platform, to help transform some of the most critical data used for the accounts payable process.
AI-Powered Data Extraction
Using Gradient’s data platform, the team was able to intelligently extract the necessary information from unstructured data (e.g. PDFs, paperwork, etc.), especially key information located in tabular data. This enabled the team to automate invoice data extraction from PDFs and their SAP ERP systems, streamlining the process.
Duplicate Invoice Detection
The solution also identifies and eliminates duplicate invoice processing and payments. The team will also receive alerts help them identify the root cause and prevent double payments.
Payment Term Matching
The solution analyzes payment terms from invoices, purchase orders, and vendor records to detect unfavorable discrepancies, ultimately driving free cash flow improvements. This is made possible by the output of structured data that’s been transformed within the platform.
The Impact
The deployment of Gradient Agent Foundry had a profound impact on the automotive manufacturer's operations, delivering measurable benefits:
Increased Accuracy: Gradient’s AI-powered solution reduced data entry errors by up to 95% compared to manual processing, resulting in more accurate financial records.
Time Saved: The solution saved 85% of the time previously spent on invoice validation, compared to manual data entry.
Cost Reduction: By implementing this solution, the team was able to reduce operational costs related to invoice processing by up to 60%, reducing manual labor and errors that lead to costly corrections.
