Automation
Invoice OCR: reading supplier invoices without anybody typing them in
Invoice OCR reads a supplier invoice, pulls out the supplier, date, number, net, VAT and total, matches it to a purchase order or a supplier record, and pushes it into your accounting package. Modern tools get the header fields right most of the time and line-item detail less reliably, so a person still approves.
Off-the-shelf capture typically costs a few pence to around 30p per document, or a monthly plan. Below roughly 50 to 100 invoices a month it rarely pays for itself. Connecting a tool to your systems starts at £1,950.
What it genuinely does well, and what it does not
Header fields are the solved part. Supplier, invoice number, date, net, VAT, gross: a decent tool reads these accurately enough that a human is checking rather than typing. That alone removes most of the keystrokes.
Line items are the unsolved part. Multi-page invoices, unusual layouts, descriptions split across rows, discounts applied at the bottom: accuracy drops, and it drops without telling you. Anyone quoting a single accuracy percentage for "invoice OCR" is quoting the easy half.
So the honest design is: machine reads, human approves, and the approval screen is built so approving is three seconds and correcting is ten. A capture project that removes typing but adds a slow review screen has moved the work rather than removed it.
The arithmetic, done properly
This is one of the few automations where you can work out the answer on paper before spending anything.
Take the number of purchase invoices you process a month. Multiply by the minutes each one takes to enter and file today, honestly, including the ones that go wrong. That is your monthly cost in hours. Compare it to the tool cost plus, say, a third of the current time for the approving that still has to happen.
At 30 invoices a month the sum almost never works. At 300 it works comfortably. Somewhere between 50 and 100 is the usual crossing point, and it moves depending on how much of your current time is spent on chasing missing paperwork rather than typing, because capture does not fix that at all.
What it costs
| Route | Typical cost | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Capture built into your accounting package | Often included or a small add-on | Try this first. For many businesses it is the whole answer. |
| A dedicated capture product | Roughly a few pence to 30p per document, or a monthly plan | Higher volume, multiple entities, approval routing, supplier statements. |
| Connecting capture to your other systems | From £1,950 | Matching against jobs, projects or purchase orders that live outside the accounting package. |
| A bespoke capture and approval flow | From £4,500 | Unusual documents, real approval hierarchies, or industry-specific matching rules. |
Check your accounting package before buying anything. A lot of businesses pay for a capture product that duplicates something already included in the subscription they hold.
Where AI has actually changed this
Older OCR needed templates: teach it where the total sits on that supplier's invoice, and hope the supplier never redesigns it. Current models read documents they have not seen before, which is a genuine change and it is why this is worth revisiting if you looked at it a few years ago and gave up.
What has not changed is that a confident wrong answer is worse than an obvious blank. The value is in the approval step being fast and the exceptions being visible, not in the model being clever. Any build we do here runs on your own account, against your documents, configured so your content is not retained for training. That is set out on the capabilities page.
Who this is not for
Low volume, and you should not be reading this. Businesses whose real problem is missing paperwork rather than typing it: capture reads what arrives, it does not chase what has not. And anybody hoping to remove the approval step entirely, which is not a thing you should want on money leaving the business.
If you are not sure which of those you are, the free systems audit counts the hours before recommending anything.
Questions I get asked about this
What is invoice OCR?
Software that reads a supplier invoice and extracts the fields: supplier, invoice number, date, net, VAT and total. It then matches the invoice to a supplier or purchase order and pushes it into your accounting package, with a person approving rather than typing.
How accurate is invoice data capture?
Header fields are read accurately enough that a person is checking rather than typing. Line-item detail is markedly less reliable, especially on multi-page or unusual layouts, and it degrades without warning. Design for machine reads, human approves.
How many invoices do you need before it is worth it?
Usually somewhere between 50 and 100 purchase invoices a month. At 30 the sum rarely works; at 300 it works comfortably. Work it out on paper first: invoices per month, multiplied by honest minutes each, against the tool cost plus the approval time that remains.
How much does invoice capture cost in the UK?
Dedicated capture products typically run from a few pence to around 30p per document, or a monthly plan. Check your accounting package first, because capture is often included. Connecting capture to systems outside accounting starts at £1,950.