Automated Vendor Invoice Processing Workflow

Finance teams routinely lose hours each week manually reading invoice PDFs and typing totals into spreadsheets or ERPs.

This workflow automates that process completely:

Reads the attached PDF
Extracts text via OCR
Uses AI to pull key fields
Saves the invoice in a structured database
Alerts the finance team instantly

Once set up, your AP pipeline becomes fully hands-free.

Previous State

Vendor emails → PDF attached → manual reading → data entry → Slack ping someone → update tracker → repeat.

Issues:

Time-consuming
Error-prone
No audit trail
Slow approvals

Target State

A deterministic, transparent, automated pipeline:

Invoices arrive
OCR reads PDF
AI extracts Invoice No, Vendor, Amount, Due Date
Data enters DB with "Pending Approval"
Finance gets a notification instantly

Consistent, fast, and reliable.

Workflow Breakdown

1. Email Trigger

Purpose: Start whenever a vendor sends an invoice email.

Captures:

Sender
Subject
Body
PDF attachment

This becomes the entry point for invoice processing.

2. Text Extraction (OCR)

Purpose: Convert the PDF invoice into raw readable text.

Inputs: PDF file from the email trigger

Outputs: Raw text block containing invoice details

This prepares the data for AI interpretation.

3. Text Generation (AI Parsing)

Purpose: Convert messy extracted text into clean, structured JSON.

Extracted fields:

invoiceNumber
vendorName
totalAmount
dueDate

The AI handles inconsistencies across vendor templates and formats.

4. Add New Data (Database Entry)

Purpose: Store structured invoice data in the database.

Sample row added:

invoiceNumber	vendorName	totalAmount	dueDate	status
INV-20391	Acme Corp	1,250.00	2025-11-14	Pending Approval

This becomes your single source of truth for all invoices.

5. Send Discord/Slack Message

Purpose: Notify the finance team instantly.

Message Format:

🧾 New Invoice Received

Vendor: {{vendorName}}
Amount: ${{totalAmount}}
Status: Pending Approval

Ensures finance never misses an incoming invoice.

6. Return State

Final output indicating successful processing.

{
  "status": "success",
  "message": "Invoice processed and stored successfully"
}

Outcomes

Hours saved weekly on manual AP work
Clean, structured invoice records
Instant notifications for approval
Better compliance and audit trail
Zero manual data entry

Recommended Extensions

Auto-approve invoices below a certain amount
Add a "Duplicate Invoice" check
Sync with Tally / Zoho Books / QuickBooks
Add a reminder workflow ("Invoice due in 3 days")

Next Steps

Use this pattern to automate any document processing pipeline:

Purchase order processing
Receipt extraction and categorization
Contract parsing and storage
Expense report automation

Build it once → eliminate manual data entry forever.

👉 Install this template in WorqHat and streamline your accounts payable operations.

Launch "Automated Vendor Invoice Processing Workflow" as a workflow