Solution Atlas
EverydayUser storyConsultative playbook

Our finance team processes thousands of invoices by hand and the volume is growing

Accounts Payable processes more than 10,000 invoices a month with a five-person team. Vendor formats vary, exceptions are common, and the team can't scale with the business. AI document reading combined with workflow automation could handle most of it with a clear payback.

Trigger
Invoice volume rising; the headcount plan is unsustainable.
Good outcome
Routine invoices flow straight through — AI reads them, automation routes them, exceptions go to a person. The team handles double the volume with the same five people, and Finance measures the proportion that flows through every month.
Discovery — signals and questions

Signals validating this story

  • ·AP team processing 5,000+ invoices per month with manual data entry
  • ·Vendor formats vary widely — PDF, scanned image, structured email
  • ·Exception rate rising — POs not matched, vendor master out of date
  • ·AP headcount has grown linearly with volume
  • ·Finance leadership has named AP automation as a target

Discovery questions

  1. 1.How many invoices flow through AP each month, and what is the year-on-year growth?

    WhySizes the ROI. Volume × per-invoice cost is the headline business case.

    Listen for: “10,000+ per month” · “doubling year on year” · “we hire one AP clerk per 2,000 invoices”

  2. 2.What is the touch time per invoice today — capture, code, route, approve, post?

    WhySurfaces the deflection opportunity.

  3. 3.What is your three-way match rate against POs and receipts?

    WhyHigh match rate = high automation potential; low match rate = exception-handling is the bottleneck.

    Listen for: “70% match cleanly, 30% need rework” · “exceptions are killing us” · “we do not match against receipts at all”

  4. 4.How many vendor formats do you handle, and are they stable?

    WhyDrives Document Intelligence model strategy — prebuilt invoice model vs custom models per vendor.

  5. 5.What is the downstream ERP — and what is the integration surface for posting?

    WhyERP integration is often the long pole. Dynamics 365 F&O is cleanest; SAP and Oracle need middleware.

  6. 6.Where do exceptions currently land — back to the vendor, to procurement, or to a clerk?

    WhyDefines the exception workflow that Power Automate must orchestrate.

Baseline architecture → Target architecture
Baseline architecture

AP team manually opens each invoice, types data into the ERP, codes the GL account, matches against PO and receipt, and routes for approval. Vendor format variation forces clerk-by-clerk handling. Exceptions consume disproportionate effort. Volume growing faster than the team can scale. No structured exception workflow — issues land in shared mailboxes and stall.

Typical concerns

  • ·AP headcount grows linearly with invoice volume
  • ·Per-invoice cost is high and rising
  • ·Exception backlog visible to vendors and finance leadership
  • ·Manual coding produces GL miscoding errors
  • ·No structured handoff between AP, procurement, and the business

Capability gaps

  • ·Document Intelligence extraction from varied vendor formats
  • ·Vendor master integration for header matching
  • ·PO and receipt matching automation
  • ·Exception routing with structured workflow
  • ·ERP posting integration
Target architecture

Azure AI Document Intelligence extracts header and line-level data from invoices regardless of vendor format using the prebuilt invoice model plus custom models for the top non-standard vendors. Dataverse holds the canonical invoice entity with vendor master integration. Power Automate orchestrates: capture → extract → match → route → approve → post. Exceptions flow to a structured queue with named owners. ERP posting via the relevant connector. AP team shifts from data entry to exception management.

Key capabilities

  • Document Intelligence extraction (prebuilt + custom)
  • Dataverse canonical invoice entity
  • PO and receipt matching
  • Power Automate exception workflow
  • ERP posting integration
Architecture decisions

  1. 1.Extraction model — prebuilt invoice only vs prebuilt + custom per vendor vs full custom

    Prebuilt invoice model only

    Fits whenVendor formats reasonably standard; 80% accuracy acceptable for the trial.

    Trade-offsLong-tail vendors will need exception handling.

    Prebuilt + custom for top 10 vendors

    Fits whenVendor concentration high — top 10 vendors = 60–80% of volume.

    Trade-offsModel training and maintenance for custom models.

    Full custom — neural model per vendor

    Fits whenVendor formats very specific (utility bills, freight invoices, etc.).

    Trade-offsHighest accuracy; highest build cost.

    Default recommendationPrebuilt + custom for the top 10 vendors. Long-tail handled by prebuilt with exception routing.

  2. 2.Orchestration platform — Power Automate Premium vs Logic Apps vs hybrid

    Power Automate Premium

    Fits whenBusiness-process-led with low-code maker; AP team or finance ops owns the flow.

    Trade-offsPer-flow licensing; complexity ceiling.

    Azure Logic Apps

    Fits whenIT-led with code-first patterns; complex ERP integration.

    Trade-offsLess accessible to the business; ALM heavier.

    Hybrid — Power Automate for business flow, Logic Apps for integration

    Fits whenMost customers. Business owns the workflow; IT owns the integration spine.

    Trade-offsTwo-platform operational model.

    Default recommendationPower Automate Premium for the trial. Add Logic Apps in phase two if ERP integration grows complex.

  3. 3.ERP posting model — direct API vs middleware (e.g., ServiceBus + IPaaS) vs batch file

    Direct API to ERP

    Fits whenModern ERP (D365 F&O, NetSuite) with stable APIs.

    Trade-offsCoupling; ERP rate limits.

    Middleware (Service Bus + integration platform)

    Fits whenMultiple ERPs or complex transformations; integration platform already in place.

    Trade-offsLatency; more components to operate.

    Batch file (CSV/IDoc) into ERP

    Fits whenLegacy ERP (older SAP, Oracle); batch posting is the established pattern.

    Trade-offsLatency from real-time to batch; reconciliation needed.

    Default recommendationDirect API for modern ERP. Middleware when there are multiple downstream systems. Batch only as a fallback for legacy environments.

Low-risk trial — proof of value

90-day AP automation trial for the top 10 vendors

~12 weeks

Document Intelligence prebuilt invoice model live with custom extension for the top 10 vendors (typically 50–70% of invoice volume). Dataverse invoice entity with vendor master sync. Power Automate flow: email capture → extraction → vendor match → PO match → exception route → approval → ERP posting. AP team shifts to exception management for the trial vendor set. Touch time, deflection rate, and exception turnaround measured continuously.

Success criteria

  • Top 10 vendors processed end-to-end through the flow
  • Straight-through processing rate >60% for the trial vendor set
  • Touch time per invoice reduced 70%+ vs baseline
  • Exception turnaround within agreed SLA

InvestmentPower Automate Premium per user + Dataverse capacity + Document Intelligence consumption. Estimated ~€4–9k/month for the trial scope. Existing manual AP workflow continues for non-trial vendors.

Proof metrics

  • ·Straight-through processing rate >60% for trial vendors
  • ·Touch time per invoice reduced 70%+ vs baseline
  • ·AP team reallocated effort from data entry to exception management
  • ·Per-invoice cost reduced to a level that breaks the headcount-volume link

Recommended cards

The SKUs and capabilities most likely to be part of the solution, with the editorial rationale for each in the context of this story. Add the ones that fit your situation.

Why for this story

The orchestration spine. The business-owned flow that handles capture, match, route, approve, and post — with the premium connectors needed for the ERP integration.

Why for this story

The canonical invoice entity lives in Dataverse with vendor master sync. The data layer that makes matching and exception routing defensible — and that any downstream ERP integration can lean on.

Why for this story

Document Intelligence (now part of Foundry) is the extraction engine. The prebuilt invoice model gets the trial moving; custom models for the top vendors lift accuracy where it matters.

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