The challenge
Chandos Construction is a national technical builder with over 700 staff in Alberta, B.C., and Ontario. The Accounts Payable Team manually processed approximately 2,500 invoices per month and data entry took up nearly 70% of their time. This process was an inefficient use of skilled accountants’ time and energy. The monotony of manual data entry also increases the likelihood of human error.
Procurement of necessary materials and support services is a critical and ongoing part of any major construction project, and rapid procurement requires quick and efficient invoice processing.
The solution
Chandos Construction needed an automated invoice entry solution that could reduce the cost of processing invoices, integrate with their existing financial system with minimal risk, and rapidly adapt to new requirements as needed, including scalability as their company continues to grow.
Contexture AP Automation adapted seamlessly to Chandos Construction’s accounts payable process, providing an automated solution that is reliable, easy to use, and guaranteed to deliver 99.5% accuracy on extracted invoice data.
Chandos Construction’s new AP process begins with the AP Team scanning or uploading invoices through a secure, AI-powered cloud application.
On a scheduled basis, Contexture uses OCR and AI technologies to automatically process invoices, extract invoice data (including vendor names, invoice dates, taxes, PO numbers, and other data), and deliver invoice validation against criteria defined by Chandos. Contexture automatically reviews all invoices and data for accuracy and quality assurance.
The majority of invoices pass all validation steps and are queued for transfer to Chandos’s payment system for processing.
Invoices that do not meet validation criteria (e.g., duplicate invoices, invoices from unverified vendors, invoices missing required data, etc.) get flagged as exceptions by AP Portal to be investigated by Chandos’s AP Team. Scanned images of the invoices are easily viewed alongside the extracted data in Contexture’s cloud application, making it quick and simple to compare information.
The outcome
Contexture AP Automation has helped Chandos Construction process invoices much faster and deliver significant cost and time savings. By eliminating manual data entry from the accounts payable process, AP automation enables Chandos’s accounting team to focus their time on high-value projects and tasks.
The increased speed and accuracy of the Chandos automated AP process mean vendors are paid more quickly. And invoice data flows seamlessly into the company’s ERP system.
Learn how a regional grocer with 16 stores uses Contexture to automate the processing of 60,000 paper-based invoices per year and streamline their AP workflow.
Pangman Development, a real estate development company, implemented Contexture AP Automation to transform its accounts payable import, review, and approval processes.
