Managing finances is no small feat. Especially when your team is stuck processing stacks of invoices manually. Lost invoices, late payments, duplicate entries, and compliance headaches are more than just a nuisance, they’re a liability. Fortunately, there’s a better way it’s none other than automation.
With tools like Cargo Docket AI, businesses can transform how they manage accounts payable automation. Give an end to endless paperwork and a new beginning to real-time visibility, faster approvals, and reduced human error.
Let’s explore what accounts payable means, and the 7 key ways you can automate this critical process for a more resilient, scalable, and cost-efficient business.
What Is Accounts Payable?
Accounts Payable (AP) refers to the money your company owes to suppliers and service providers. It includes three key categories:
- Vendor/Supplier Payments – Payments for goods and services, including freight, raw materials, and IT services.
- Business Travel Expenses – Airline bookings, hotels, and other travel reimbursements.
- Internal Payments – Day-to-day office expenses like supplies and subscriptions.
The AP team’s job is to track these debts, ensure on-time payments, and avoid late fees. And with rising invoice volumes, especially in supply chain and logistics businesses, automation is the only path forward.
What is the Accounts Payable Process?
After knowing what automation is, let’s break down a standard AP workflow:
- Purchase Order (PO) is created.
- The accounting team receives the recorded PO.
- Receiving receipt confirms goods were delivered.
- The vendor invoice has been received.
- Three-way match is performed (PO, invoice, receipt).
- The invoice is approved by designated stakeholders.
- The invoice is entered into the ledger.
- Payment is issued.
This entire flow is vulnerable to obstacles and errors when done manually. Let’s now discuss how you can alter that.
7 Ways to Automate the Accounts Payable Process
1. E-Invoicing With OCR & AI
Instead of waiting for paper invoices, vendors can email digital invoices directly. Tools like Cargo Docket AI use advanced OCR and AI to:
- Scan email attachments
- Read PDFs, Excel sheets, or scanned images
- Extract line items, PO numbers, tax codes, and due dates
No more missing documents or misfiled records. And with AI learning patterns from past invoices, accuracy only improves over time.
Businesses can reduce invoice processing costs by up to 78% through e-invoicing automation.
2. Simplified Invoice Approval
Manual approval chains are a nightmare. Approvals get stuck in inboxes, and no one knows where or why.
With Cargo Docket AI, you get:
- Real-time status dashboards
- Automatic routing to approvers
- Notifications for pending actions
- Approver notes, rejections, and edit history for audit trails
- This ensures accountability and speeds up decision-making.
3. No More Manual Data Entry
Your finance team wasn’t hired to type numbers. Manual entry not only wastes time, it’s risky.
With Cargo Docket AI:
- Data from invoices is read and entered automatically
- Integration with CargoWise or your ERP ensures data flows directly to where it’s needed
- No human re-keying means fewer errors and faster processing
The system learns over time to recognize vendors, layouts, and codes, adapting to new formats with ease.
4. Automated Policy Compliance
Worried about unauthorized expenses or out-of-policy approvals? Cargo Docket AI applies your internal policies automatically.
You can:
- Pre-define business rules
- Auto-flag non-compliant transactions
- Set alerts for duplicate invoices or unusual amounts
- Add multi-level approval triggers for high-value payments
- That’s control, compliance, and peace of mind, without extra work.
5. Smart Coding & Classification
General ledger (GL) coding is tedious and prone to human error, especially in logistics where vendor-specific codes and multi-branch accounting are the norm.
Cargo Docket AI:
- Automatically applies the appropriate GL codes according to line items, vendor, region, and currency.
- Suggests codes based on past transactions
- Allows quick review and override by AP managers
This speeds up reconciliation and ensures cleaner books at month-end.
6. AI-Powered 3-Way Matching
Traditional three-way matching is time-consuming. AI takes over:
- Compares PO, receipt, and invoice instantly
- Flags mismatches for review
- Verifies quantities, rates, and delivery timelines
- Reduces the need for back-and-forth with suppliers
And because it’s automated, it can process hundreds of transactions at once, without missing a beat.
See how AI vs. OCR vs. Manual compares in processing speed and cost savings
7. Exception Management & Collaboration
Mistakes will happen, missing PO numbers, unclear line items, or duplicate invoices. But the way you handle exceptions can make or break your process.
Cargo Docket AI provides:
- A centralized dashboard to manage flagged issues
- Access based on roles so that teams only see what they require
- In-line comments for collaborative resolution
- Real-time document versioning and updates
Your team can resolve issues faster, and nothing slips through the cracks.
Why Should You Care About AP Automation?
Because inefficiency is expensive.
Reports indicate that manually processing an invoice often costs between $19 and $25. But with automation? Just $4–$6.
- But it’s not just about cost.
- You get visibility into every dollar leaving your business.
- Your team spends less time on admin and more on strategy.
- Vendors get paid faster, improving relationships and negotiating power.
And if you’re in a fast-paced industry like logistics or freight forwarding, automation means fewer delays, better accuracy, and real-time access to financial insights.
Conclusion
Manual accounts payable processes belong to the past. With Cargo Docket AI, your business gets:
- Smarter invoice capture
- Faster approval cycles
- Error-free data entry
- Real-time compliance and exception alerts
- Seamless ERP integration with systems like CargoWise
It works well. It can be scaled. It also gives your financial people more time to focus on the things that really matter.
Ready to take control of your AP process? Let Cargo Docket AI handle the paperwork, so your team can focus on the bigger picture. See how our AP automation works by scheduling a free demo right now.
