Invoice Data Extraction Software for Accounts Payable

Invoice Data Extraction Software Technologies Explained

There are two ways to capture invoice data. If the invoice is in paper format and has been scanned, OCR is the technology that will read the scanned image and extract invoice data. If the invoice is emailed and in PDF format, cloud capture technology extracts the data from the data layer that is embedded in the PDF.

OCR Technology

OCR software has a 95% accuracy rate. That’s because it will not always accurately interpret the scanned image (which is what OCR does), and invoices have to be validated as being accurate. In spite of this OCR is one of the most commonly used forms of invoice extraction technologies.

PDF Cloud Capture

PDF cloud capture has a 100% accuracy rate. That’s because the software extracts data from the embedded data layer inside every PDF directly, so the error rate is minimal as there is no “interpreting” the invoice data like OCR does.

Which will suit your organization best?

Both of these methods have merit. Your suppliers may still send you paper invoices and you have to process them, which means scanning them in and having OCR read the data. Other suppliers send their invoices by email, which means the invoice has been created and sent as a PDF.

PDF invoices can be read instantly with cloud capture, and the data is forwarded to your ERP within minutes of receipt. So it makes sense to have a system that uses both of these processes, and divide incoming vendor invoices accordingly.

EchoVera’s Intelligent OCR

Intelligent OCR uses both of these processes and optimizes data extraction for any invoice format. As well, Intelligent OCR:

• Automatically learns supplier invoices based on their respective layouts, intuitively mapping field data.
• Allows the user to search typical values in any document, and tagging it using a built-in database.
• 95% accuracy rates for paper invoices
• 100% accuracy rates for electronic file formats that received in email, such as PDF, XML, CSV, HTML, Word, Excel and more.

Once the data is captured by Intelligent OCR the option is to have it sent directly to the ERP or through an accounts payable SaaS like EchoVera AP Automation.

For more information about OCR invoice scanning visit Intelligent OCR, here.