Accounts payable automation case study: Bravedo

Bravedo Group processes approximately 120,000 purchase invoices every year across its 92 companies. About 90% of these invoices are received electronically, 5% as PDF invoices, and the remaining 5% are scanned.

Previously, prior to the implementation of the Snowfox.AI, Bravedo had utilized automation in purchase invoice processing for order and contract invoices. At the time, the level of automation was 20-30%.

The 20-30% automation level did not satisfy Bravedo’s CFO Pasi Vilhunen. He had set an ambitious goal for automating the entire purchase invoice process. It was clear that the goal would not be achieved by traditional methods. Vilhunen began to research options and found out that AI could be applied to automate the purchase invoice process.

The real cost of processing an invoice was shocking

Before implementing new tools, Bravedo wanted to get a better understanding of the state of purchase invoice processing within the Group. So they did a study. The results were so alarming that the need to raise the level of automation became acute.

The study’s results revealed an expensive reality:

Of Bravedo’s more than 240 professionalsMore than 240 professionals handle purchase invoices. They spend an average of 0.5 to 3 hours a week on purchase invoices.
In many cases, the Group's highest paid employees spent the most time with invoices (business managers etc.)
Processing invoices meant an average cost of around 925€ every month per accounting professional.
Multiply the cost with the total number of people who process invoices, you get a staggering cost for processing invoices.

The study also looked at what tasks in purchase invoice processing take the longest time. Those tasks were accounting and manually routing invoices by the accounts payable. Much of the steps were done by hand by copying and saving information from one location to another.

“The results of the survey were, frankly, appalling. It felt a kind of an awakening to what the real costs of purchase invoice processing are,” Vilhunen recalls.

Artificial intelligence saves time and money in account payable and business units

Artificial succeeded in what the traditional methods – mainly manual handling and rules – did not. With the help of Snowfox.AI, Bravedo has achieved extremely good results.

Currently, Snowfox.AI can automatically predict invoice postings with 90% accuracy. Purchase invoices which were previously routed manually are now routed automatically with approximately 80% accuracy.

The investment in AI has paid off. A higher level of automation has enabled the Group to save hundreds of thousands of euros.

“After these experiences, I could no longer go back to time without artificial intelligence. Professionals in both business units and accounts receivable have come several times to praise the lightened administrative workload”, Vilhunen sums up.

Customer Story: Bravedo

Helsinki

Multiple

+ 7500

+ 550 m

Bravedo