Departments · Accounting AI in Accounting: Automate Invoices, Receipts and Payment Reminders

Automating accounting: seven tasks at a glance

These are typical workflows, not client projects. In each one the AI prepares and suggests, and a bookkeeper checks and decides. For more depth see automating incoming invoices and document capture and account coding with AI, and for the legal duty see e-invoicing.

1. Capture and check supplier invoices

Invoices arrive by email, as PDFs, as e-invoices, by post or from supplier portals, each built differently.

• Input: the accounting mailbox, scans and e-invoices in structured format.
• AI prepares: reads supplier, invoice number, date, line items, amounts, tax rates and payment terms, spots duplicate invoices and a changed IBAN compared with the supplier record, and creates a posting suggestion. For e-invoices it reads the data straight from the file rather than from an image.
• Accounting checks: every flagged difference and every uncertain value.
• Output: an invoice draft in your accounting software or invoice workflow, the original document unchanged in the archive.

2. Match documents to orders and delivery notes

Matching order, delivery note and invoice takes time as soon as quantities, prices or part deliveries differ.

• Input: the invoice, the order from the ERP and the delivery note or goods-receipt posting.
• AI prepares: compares item, quantity and price, recognises part deliveries and lists every difference with the lines it comes from.
• Accounting checks: the differences. Procurement settles price questions with the supplier, and accounting approves only afterwards.
• Output: the recommendation "matches" or a list of differences that goes to procurement or the warehouse.

3. Suggest account coding

Account, cost centre and tax code often follow a pattern that only exists in the head of the experienced colleague.

• Input: the invoice as read, your chart of accounts and the supplier's earlier postings.
• AI prepares: suggests account, cost centre and tax code, gives the reason ("as with earlier invoices from this supplier") and flags what is new.
• Accounting checks: confirms or changes. Every change is remembered.
• Output: a coded posting for approval.

4. Match payments to open items

Payment references on a bank statement are rarely clean: a fragment of an invoice number, a collective payment, a deducted discount.

• Input: the bank statement as a file or export and the list of open items.
• AI prepares: matches payments to invoices, recognises collective and part payments as well as discounts and flags what it cannot match with confidence.
• Accounting checks: the uncertain matches.
• Output: a matching suggestion and the current list of open items.

5. Prepare payment reminders

Reminders tend to be put off because every case has to be looked at first.

• Input: the list of overdue items and the customer history with earlier payment behaviour, open complaints and agreements.
• AI prepares: drafts a payment reminder at the level and in the tone you set, and holds a case back when a complaint or an instalment agreement exists.
• Accounting checks: every draft. No reminder goes out without approval.
• Output: reminder drafts ready to send and a note in the customer account.

6. Travel costs and expenses

Receipts arrive as photos, in emails and in folders, often weeks later.

• Input: receipt photos, mileage figures and the credit card statement.
• AI prepares: reads the receipts, assigns categories, checks against your expenses policy and reports missing receipts.
• Accounting checks: exceptions and deviations from the policy. A person decides whether an exception applies.
• Output: a checked expense claim ready for posting.

7. Prepare the month-end close

Before the close something is usually still missing: a receipt, a payment, an accrual.

• Input: the month's postings, open items and the previous month's accruals.
• AI prepares: creates a list of missing receipts, unposted payments and unusual changes against the previous month and suggests accruals with reasons.
• Accounting checks: every posting. The AI does not post by itself.
• Output: a close checklist and a draft commentary for management.

Programs and interfaces: connected to what you already use

The programs you use determine how the data travels. The table lists the usual cases. Which interface your program actually offers, we clarify before the quote from the manufacturer's documentation.

The names are for orientation and do not mean a partnership. Where a program offers no interface, we work with export and import, a watched folder or email.

Connect, do not replace

You do not need a new accounting program, and we do not sell one. The AI sits in front of your software: it prepares documents and makes suggestions, and the software keeps posting as before.

• Your program stays in charge. Posting happens only there. The AI never writes past the ledger.
• Your tax adviser works as before. Handover, document numbers and routines change only if you want them to.
• One workflow at a time. We start with one step, for example supplier invoices, and run it alongside the existing work before it replaces anything.
• The way back stays open. Original documents and postings live in your systems. Without the AI your accounting carries on as before.

Approvals and proper bookkeeping

Accounting has to be traceable, including for a tax audit. So before the start we agree who decides what.

• Who codes: The AI suggests, a person confirms. For safe standard cases your team can decide after a trial phase that suggestions are checked by sample. Until then the AI works in draft mode.
• Who approves payments: according to your amount limits and the four-eyes principle. The AI never approves a payment itself and never triggers a transfer.
• Changes to IBAN and supplier records: always with a second person and a call-back through a known contact route. Fake invoices with changed bank details are a common fraud.
• Duplicate invoices: recognised by supplier, number, amount and date, and flagged, not deleted.
• Log: every suggestion is recorded with source, time and decision, including the person who confirmed or changed it.
• Original document and process documentation: The document stays unchanged. For your process documentation we describe at which steps the AI takes part.

The table lists the main sources for orientation. Which rules apply to your business depends on legal form, country and sector.

The GDPR also applies to data of suppliers, customers and employees: a data processing agreement with every provider (art. 28) and processing in the EU. Whether an AI step has to be described in your process documentation, and how, you settle with your tax adviser. This overview is general information, not legal or tax advice.

Data: master records, chart of accounts and corrections

The quality of the suggestions depends on the data the AI works with.

• Your master data is the basis: supplier records, chart of accounts, cost centres and tax codes. If they are incomplete or duplicated, the suggestions get poor too. So we look at them first.
• Corrections as a source to learn from: every correction by your team is remembered and feeds into the next suggestions as an example or a rule you can inspect.
• Trial run alongside the work: the workflow runs in parallel first, and we compare the suggestions with what your team actually posted.
• Data protection: invoices from sole traders and employee data are personal data. We process them on servers in the EU, show the AI only what it needs for the step, and agree retention and deletion with you. More under AI and data protection.

Your own apps and programs for accounting

Some things are missing not in the accounting software but in front of it. We build them as separate programs when standard products do not fit:

• Receipt app for field staff and building sites: take a photo, amount and supplier are read, and the receipt lands in the right folder instead of the glove box.
• Approval app for management: invoices for payment with differences and order reference at a glance, confirmed or returned on the phone.
• Expenses and cash book app: record expenses, photograph receipts, keep the cash book, checked against your policy.

These programs complement your accounting software, they do not replace it. More under app development and software development.

Where to start

These three questions help with the assessment:

1. How many supplier invoices does your accounting handle a month, and how do they arrive (email, post, portal, e-invoice)?
2. Which program do you post in, and does a tax adviser take over your data?
3. Which step costs your team the most time: capturing, coding, matching or chasing?

If you send us the answers, we tell you which workflow is worth doing first and what has to stay with your team. We begin with a trial run alongside the existing work.