Cognitive AP - Intelligent Invoice AutomationRecord inserted or updated successfully.
AI & Audit Automation

Cognitive AP - Intelligent Invoice Automation

Author: CA.Saloni Kankariya

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Introduction

In today’s fast-paced, data-driven business environment, invoice processing can be a tedious and error-prone task, especially when dealing with scanned or image-based documents. Manual data entry not only wastes time but also increases the risk of inaccuracies and compliance issues. To streamline this process, the Invoice Processor v2 has been developed — a powerful Python-based tool that automates invoice data extraction and validation using Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

Problem Statement

Organizations often struggle with:

  1. Manual entry of invoice details, leading to human error.
  2. Handling diverse invoice formats with varying layouts.
  3. Verifying payment and purchase order (PO) details across vendors.
  4. Matching vendor names to a master database for compliance.
  5. Exporting invoice data into structured formats like Excel.

These challenges result in inefficiencies and compliance risks, especially when invoice volumes are high.

Solution Overview

Invoice Processor offers a smart, offline, and secure solution to automate invoice data extraction and validation. It uses Tesseract OCR to analyze scanned invoices, extract relevant fields, and validate them against expected values — all without internet dependency.

🔑 Key Features

  1. OCR Extraction: Uses pytesseract to extract key data fields from invoice images.
  2. Vendor Matching: Validates vendor names against a master vendor Excel file.
  3. PO Amount Verification: Compares the extracted invoice total to expected PO values.
  4. Multi-format Handling: Recognizes and adapts to different invoice formats and vendors.
  5. Excel Output: Outputs clean, structured data into a formatted Excel sheet with conditional formatting (green/red indicators for validations).
  6. Currency Detection: Auto-detects currency types (₹, $, ¥, €) based on content and context.

How to Use the Tool

  1. Ensure Python 3.x and Tesseract OCR are installed on your system.
  2. Place all invoice images in the designated Sample Invoices folder.
  3. Set the correct path for the vendor master file.
  4. Run the Python script:
  5. The tool will process each invoice, extract and validate data, and save everything in an Excel file (Extracted_Invoice_Data.xlsx).
  6. The Excel output includes highlights for

Conclusion

Invoice Processor v2 provides a secure, automated, and scalable approach to handling invoice data with minimal manual effort. It helps businesses boost productivity, reduce errors, and ensure compliance — all while keeping sensitive documents offline and secure. Perfect for finance teams seeking smart automation without breaking the bank 💸.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhiZMWLIaxo