Four useful starting points
Collect electronic invoices from email into an organized folder and index. Route payment and advance requests to an approver with attachments. Match incoming bank transactions to orders and prepare due-date reminders. Produce a weekly cash-flow view from reconciled records.
Rules for structured invoices, AI for images
Read structured XML invoice fields directly with rules; AI is unnecessary for those fields. Scans and handwritten documents may need AI extraction and must be checked against the image. Validate required fields, tax codes, amounts and duplicate invoice identifiers before importing any records.
Reconciliation and approval
Match order code, actual received amount, receiving account and transaction uniqueness. Do not infer payment from a screenshot alone. Unmatched or duplicate transfers go to the accountant. The workflow can prepare a payment list or export file; it does not decide transfers, tax declarations or accounting treatment.
Existing software and data access
Keep the accounting system. Prepare reviewed data for its API or supported Excel import; if it has neither, agree an export-based preparation step. Grant minimum access, protect financial documents and log each run. External AI receives only the necessary image data under the agreed provider terms.
Illustration, rollout and limitations
Illustrative example: incoming invoices are indexed, likely duplicates flagged and bank matches prepared for review. This assumes readable documents and an accessible invoice or order register, not a customer result. Start with one invoice source or reconciliation task, test exceptions with the accountant, then deliver rules, accounts and operating instructions. AI may misread blurred images; accounting expertise remains essential.