Touchless Invoice Processing: How to Achieve 90% Automation
«Touchless» invoice processing means invoices that pass through the entire process — from receipt to booking — without a human needing to touch them. It's the holy grail for AP departments, and leading market players report 89-90% touchless rates. Basware says 89%, Eye-share and Rillion 90%. The question isn't whether it's possible — it's what it takes to get there.
In this article we explain what touchless really means, why 90% is a realistic target, which conditions must be in place, and how Vieri makes it possible for mid-sized organisations — not just enterprise.
Key takeaways
- • «Touchless» = invoice that flows from receipt to payment with no manual intervention
- • Leading players reach 89-90% touchless rate, but the average is 30-40%
- • Four requirements: PEPPOL, PO-based purchasing, 3-way matching, AI exception handling
- • 90% touchless can save 5000+ hours annually for a mid-sized organisation
What does «touchless» really mean?
Touchless invoice processing — also called straight-through processing or «no-touch» — means an invoice that completes the entire journey from supplier to booking without a human doing anything. No manual registration, no coding, no approval — everything happens automatically based on predefined rules.
💡 Definition
Touchless rate: Share of invoices that complete the process fully automatically. Calculated as (touchless invoices / total invoices) × 100.
Four conditions for 90% touchless
1. Electronic invoices via PEPPOL
Paper and PDF invoices are enemy #1. They must be OCR-processed, interpreted and verified — and OCR typically has 5-15% error rate on details. PEPPOL invoices (EHF format) are structured from the start.
2. PO-based purchasing
For an invoice to be matched automatically, a corresponding purchase order (PO) must exist. Leading organisations have 80%+ of purchases on PO, not free-text.
3. 3-way matching
3-way matching compares invoice against order and goods receipt. If all three match on supplier, item, quantity and price — the invoice is approved automatically within defined tolerances.
4. AI-based exception handling
Even with perfect setup some invoices will have discrepancies. AI-driven handling learns from past approvals and can automatically approve small deviations that have historically been accepted.
Why most are stuck at 30-40%
- Too many paper/PDF invoices: Without PEPPOL focus, 40-60% of invoices get stuck in OCR
- Missing PO discipline: Free-text orders and «agreements over the phone» make automatic matching impossible
- Rigid rules: 0% tolerance on price/quantity creates loads of exceptions
- No supplier training: Suppliers using wrong invoice format create problems
What 90% touchless actually saves
💡 Calculation example
An organisation with 20 000 annual invoices, 15 min manual handling per invoice, €65/hour:
- • At 30% touchless: 14 000 invoices need 3 500 hours = €228K
- • At 90% touchless: 2 000 invoices need 500 hours = €33K
- • Savings: ~€195K annually
5-step path to 90%
- Measure baseline (week 1): How many invoices monthly, what share is PEPPOL, PO-based and full-match?
- PEPPOL onboarding (months 1-3): Map top-20 suppliers, set up Vieri Connect, ask suppliers to send via PEPPOL
- PO discipline (months 2-4): Enforce PO for all purchases over €500, build catalogues for common purchases
- Match tolerances (month 4): Configure ±2% price, ±5% quantity, ±3 days delivery
- AI exception handling (month 6+): Activate Vieri AI which learns from manual approvals
Typical result: 30% touchless at start → 60% after 3 months → 85-90% after 12 months.
See how much touchless can save you
Book a 30-minute demo and see how many of your invoices can go touchless with Vieri.
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