Booking invoices automatically: how it works in a small business

The process in five steps

• Capture: invoices arrive by email in a dedicated inbox or are scanned
• Recognise: the software reads supplier, invoice number, date, amounts, VAT and payment details
• Check: duplicates, supplier data, VAT rates and amounts are verified automatically
• Approve: invoices above a set amount go to the responsible person for approval
• Book and pay: the invoice is recorded in accounting and prepared for the payment run

Machine-readable payment codes help

Many invoices now carry a QR code with the bank account, amount and reference in machine-readable form, such as the Swiss QR-bill. These details no longer need to be recognised, they can be read exactly. For the rest of the invoice, such as line items or the VAT breakdown, text recognition with AI reliably understands different layouts.

Where AI helps and where a person decides

AI is good at pulling information out of unstructured documents and suggesting the right expense account, learned from your previous bookings. Decisions that matter should stay with a person, though: approving larger amounts, new suppliers or invoices where something does not add up.

The "human in the loop" principle works well: automation prepares everything, a person reviews exceptions and approves with one click.

What to clarify first

• Which accounting software do you use, and does it have an interface?
• Who approves which amounts?
• How are documents archived? Business records usually have to be kept for many years, ten in Switzerland
• Where may the data be processed: in Switzerland, in the EU or on your own server?

Start small

You do not have to change everything at once. A good start is a single supplier with many invoices, or all invoices below a certain amount. Once that runs reliably, the next ones follow.