What is touchless invoice processing?
By Tim White · Glossary · Last updated
Touchless invoice processing, also called straight-through processing, means an invoice goes from arrival to recorded without a person handling it, because the system was confident at every step. It only works if the data can be trusted without checking it.
What it requires
The fields have to be read correctly, the totals have to add up, and the invoice can't be a duplicate. If any of those is shaky, touchless just means recording wrong numbers faster.
What should stop an invoice
An invoice prints a total of 12,480.00 but its lines add to 12,840.00, a transposed figure. A touchless system shouldn't pick one and move on. It should hold the invoice and show both numbers so a person can decide. A scan where the total is read two different ways, or an invoice number already on file, should stop it too.
These holds are the system working correctly. That's why a 100 percent touchless rate is the wrong goal. The right goal is that every invoice that passes untouched deserved to.
How InvoiceJet approaches it
A field is high confidence only when two models agree and the math checks pass. When every field is high confidence and no duplicate is flagged, the invoice is marked verified with no clicks. Anything else goes to the review queue with the source text attached.
Common questions
What share of invoices go touchless?
It depends on your vendors and how documents arrive. Clean PDFs from billing software usually pass. Phone photos and messy scans more often need a look. We don't publish a rate.
Does touchless mean no oversight?
No. Uncertain invoices still go to a person. Touchless just means people stop re-checking the ones that are clearly fine.
Sources
Keep reading
Try it on your own invoices
10 invoices a month free, no card. Every field comes back with a confidence level and the text it was read from.