AI-Powered Document Processing
Invoices, delivery notes, contracts: what someone retypes today gets read by a model – structured, checked against your master data and written straight into the target system. Your team only sees the cases where the extraction was uncertain.
A validated data path
Document processing is often sold as magic: PDF in, data out. In practice it is a chain of three components – text recognition, layout analysis and a language model that maps recognised text to the right fields. That part works reliably today.
What decides between success and frustration is what happens afterwards. An extracted amount is worthless as long as nobody checks whether the supplier exists in your master data, whether net plus tax actually equals the gross amount, and whether there is a purchase order for the invoice at all. That validation is exactly the part most off-the-shelf tools leave open – and the part we build.
So we never deliver just an extraction. We deliver the complete path: from the intake channel through the validation rules and the approval step to a clean handover into your target system.
Which documents are worth it
We always start with exactly one document type – the one with the highest volume. Others follow once the first runs stably.
Incoming invoices
The most common starting point – and the one with the clearest business case, because it is retyped daily.
Delivery notes & order confirmations
Most valuable in reconciliation: was what was ordered actually delivered – and is that what is being invoiced?
Contracts
Less typing, more deadline control: the data lands in a calendar instead of a folder.
Forms & applications
Paper and PDF forms that are transferred into a mask today – leave requests, claims, intake forms.
Job applications & certificates
Structured storage instead of a pile of PDFs – a natural precursor to applicant tracking.
Shipping & customs documents
Waybills, packing lists, certificates of origin – often with highly individual layouts per forwarder.
What actually lands in your system
Schematic example for an incoming invoice: on the left the document as it arrives, on the right the fields your target system receives.
- SupplierMuster Stahl GmbH
- VAT IDDE812345678
- Invoice numberRE-2026-04871
- Invoice date12/07/2026
- Line itemsreview2 items
- Net€4,820.00
- VAT 19 %€915.80
- Gross amount€5,735.80
- Payment due26/07/2026
- Order referenceBST-2026-1140
Hover a field: the highlight shows where on the document the value came from. That traceability is what separates a validated extraction from a guessed value.
Two line items fell below the confidence threshold and were routed to review – the document was not posted automatically.
How processing runs
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Intake
The document arrives where it already arrives today: a shared mailbox, a scan folder, a SharePoint library or an upload form. Nobody has to change habits.
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Classification
First we determine what it is. An invoice is treated differently from a delivery note – and unknown types land in the review queue instead of the target system.
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Extraction
The relevant fields are read out. Every field gets a confidence score: how certain is this mapping? That score is the basis for everything that follows.
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Validation & approval
Now it is calculated and reconciled: does the supplier exist? Does net plus tax equal gross? Is there a matching purchase order? Whatever fails becomes an approval task.
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Handover
Only at the end is anything written: a posting record to your accounting system, a record into the ERP, the file archived in an audit-proof way – with a log of who approved what and when.
What changes day to day
Today
- Invoices are opened one by one from the shared mailbox and retyped
- Transposed digits only surface during account reconciliation
- Early payment discounts expire because invoices sit in approval for days
- For any query, someone hunts for the original in the mail history
- Month-end close depends on the one person who knows the pile
With a processing pipeline
- Documents are classified, extracted and pre-coded automatically
- Arithmetic errors and duplicates surface before posting, not after
- Approvals run as tasks with deadlines – discount windows stay visible
- Original, extracted values and approval log sit together
- The process keeps running while the colleague is on holiday
Where the limits are – honestly
We do not sell full automation. We would rather clarify these four points before the quote than after go-live:
- Handwriting stays unreliable. Printed documents are read very accurately; handwritten notes and signature fields are not. Where handwriting is decisive, a human stays in the process.
- Poor originals stay poor data. A skewed phone photo of a creased copy is hard even for a good model. Often the most effective step is improving the intake side – for example a supplier who sends PDFs instead of paper from now on.
- Unusual layouts need examples. For a supplier with an odd invoice structure and three documents a year, tuning rarely pays off. Those cases deliberately stay on manual entry.
- 100 % automation is not a realistic goal – nor a sensible one. Realistic is: the bulk runs through, a remainder becomes a review task. For payment-relevant documents, approval stays with a human on principle.
Works with your existing systems
Scope and price
The entry price covers a complete processing pipeline for one document type. What pushes the price up, we tell you beforehand – not in the final invoice.
- Analysis call using real sample documents from your day-to-day
- One document type, one intake channel, one target system
- Classification and extraction including confidence thresholds
- Validation rules against your master and order data
- Approval workflow for every borderline case
- Audit-proof archiving with a full log
- Documentation, handover session and 30 days of support
What increases the price
- Additional document types beyond the first
- Several target systems instead of one
- High document volume with throughput and resilience requirements
- Operation inside your own infrastructure instead of the cloud
- Special cases such as foreign languages, multi-currency or deviating tax logic
Larger scenarios with several document types and target systems typically land in the range of our Workflow Enterprise package from €5,900. We quote the binding fixed price after the analysis call.
All prices excl. VAT · operation and further development optionally via a support package
What you get
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Production processing pipeline
Set up from intake channel to target system and tested with real documents
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Rule set and thresholds
Documented: which checks run and at which confidence a human takes over
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Approval interface for your team
Borderline cases appear as a task with the original document next to it – no hunting in the mailbox
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Documentation & handover
Technical documentation, process description and a 60-minute training for the department
Frequently asked questions about document processing
These solutions fit alongside
Automated invoice creation & delivery
The other direction: generate and send outgoing invoices from an order or your CRM.
Contract management & reminders
Deadlines, renewals and notice dates in view – a natural follow-on from contract extraction.
Automated dunning
Follow up on open receivables automatically instead of working through lists by hand.
SharePoint Copilot Apps
Make the extracted data queryable by chat – right inside Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Bring five real documents
In the free intro call we look at your actual documents – not sample files. Afterwards you know what share realistically runs through automatically and whether the project pays off for you.
Book a free intro callWhere AI document processing creates value in everyday work
Invoices, contracts and forms are classified, relevant fields are extracted and passed to business systems with traceable validation.
Three concrete operating scenarios to compare with your own process.Capture invoice data
Supplier, number, dates and totals are extracted into structured fields and validated before handoff.
Pre-sort contracts
Contract type, parties, term and deadlines are identified and prepared for business review.
Process forms
Form entries move into CRM, ERP or case records without being typed again.
A strong fit when …
Recurring requests can be answered from approved knowledge while uncertain cases are handed to people with clear context.
- You handle recurring documents using repeatable rules.
- The intake, target system and accountable business role can be named clearly.
- Exceptions are allowed to remain visible and move to people deliberately.
Deliberate automation boundary
Unreadable documents, conflicting values and business decisions go to an owner with the relevant passages highlighted.
Explore the technical approach and platformsEstimate time savings with your own volume
The calculator uses 8 minutes today and 2 minutes after automation as fixed example assumptions. It does not replace process analysis.
Illustrative estimate based on the visible assumptions — not a guarantee.