If someone at your company types in supplier invoices, you're paying for them twice. Once for the time it takes. Again for the mistakes.
And the second bill comes late. Your accountant finds it two months later, closing the quarter.
This is fixable. Not with someone who types faster. With nobody typing.
Do the math
Take the supplier invoices that came in last month. Count them.
Now time one. Open it, find the supplier, the tax ID, the date, the net amount, the VAT and the total, and type it into your software. Stop the clock.
Multiply: (invoices per month) × (minutes per invoice) = minutes a month spent typing. Divide by 60 and you have the hours.
And that number is low. It doesn't count the invoices that get corrected later.
Those hours don't show because they're spread out. A while on Monday, a while on Thursday. Nobody adds them up.
The person typing them isn't slow. They're doing by hand a job that no longer needs hands.
The usual mistakes
Data entry wears attention down. And the errors repeat:
- The wrong VAT rate. The line was at 10% and went in at 21%.
- The same invoice twice. It came by email and then again through the supplier's portal.
- A new supplier set up in a hurry. With the wrong tax ID or under the wrong account.
- The date mixed up. The invoice date confused with the due date.
None of these is serious the day it happens. It's serious the day it's found: when a journal entry has to be redone, a credit note requested, or a tax return explained.
Cheap mistake. Found late. Expensive.
Two ways to enter an invoice
There are two ways an invoice ends up in your accounting software.
Type it. A person opens it, reads it, types it, checks it if there's time and moves on to the next. All the work is theirs. And all the error, too.
Review it. AI reads it, the system checks it and posts it. The person only looks at the ones that have a reason to be looked at.
The first is finger work. The second is judgment. And it's shorter.
The method, in 5 steps
Step 0: the inbox. Invoices have to land somewhere. The one you already use, in Gmail or Outlook, works.
Step 1: it picks the invoice up, wherever it arrives. By email, from the supplier's portal or as a phone photo. It all goes to one place.
Step 2: it pulls out the data. Supplier, tax ID, date, net amount, VAT and total. Line by line, if needed.
Step 3: it checks for anything odd. VAT that doesn't add up, duplicate invoices, new suppliers, amounts out of the ordinary.
Step 4: it posts it. To Holded, A3, Sage or Odoo, with its ledger account and the original invoice attached. You don't switch software.
Step 5: it sets the doubtful ones aside. Whatever isn't clear doesn't get posted. It waits in a list. Approving it takes two clicks.
That's it. The person who used to type now reviews.
What makes an invoice doubtful
An invoice goes to the list when there's a specific reason for someone to look at it. The usual ones:
- The VAT doesn't add up. The net amount times the rate doesn't match the tax.
- It looks like a duplicate. Same supplier, same amount, and a number or date almost identical to one already on file.
- The supplier is new. Setting one up is a decision: which account, which payment terms. A person makes it.
- The read isn't reliable. A blurry photo, a crooked scan, a field that doesn't read cleanly.
- The amount is out of the ordinary. A power bill three times last month's might be right. But it's worth a look.
Pro tip: nobody can guess what "normal" means in your business. Tell us in the audit. Which suppliers are regulars, which amounts are the usual ones, what a person has to see no matter what.
Why you shouldn't post everything automatically
Hot take: you don't want 100% of your invoices posted without anyone looking.
Here's why.
AI makes mistakes. Different ones from a tired person at noon, but mistakes. And mostly with the unusual stuff: the new supplier, the format it's never seen, the corrective invoice.
A system that posts everything without asking turns those mistakes into journal entries. And you're back to finding them late.
And some decisions aren't about reading. They're about judgment. Which account a new expense goes to. Whether to pay an invoice you weren't expecting. That's for someone who knows the business.
So the rule is simple. The clear ones go through. The doubtful ones wait for a person.
The time you save comes from not typing what already checks out. Not from skipping the review.
What doesn't change
- Your accounting software. You stay on yours.
- Your inbox. Invoices keep arriving where they arrive.
- Your accountant. They keep doing their job and get the data already posted, with fewer mistakes.
What it costs
It usually pays off from about a hundred invoices a month. If you have fewer, we'll tell you on the call.
- Call: free, 30 minutes, this week. If you don't need us, we'll tell you.
- Audit: €450, fixed price, two weeks. We map your process step by step and put a price on each automation. The report is yours.
- Implementation: €2,900 per process, two to four weeks. Before we touch anything, we agree in writing on a number that has to move. If it doesn't move, we keep working without billing you again.
- Support: €390 a month, no commitment.
You keep paying for your accounting software directly, as you do now. We never bill open-ended hours.
What to do this week
Count last month's invoices and time one. If there are more than a hundred, see how Invoices and quotes works and get in touch. On the first call, we'll tell you whether it makes sense for you.
PS - The same service handles quotes. AI matches each request against your price list, even if it lives in an Excel file, and leaves you a draft. Nothing goes out until you approve it.