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
Sequence matters more than pace: PEPPOL share first, then PO discipline, then tolerances. How fast the curve rises depends on how many of your suppliers already send structured documents.
Sources
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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