Verified-invoice operating model

Multi-entity finance organization reduces AP cycle time ~80% and eliminates payment exceptions by deploying a verified-invoice operating model

Executive summary

A diversified financial services company operating across five legal entities and managing 400+ vendors sought to modernize its AP operations. Fragmented approvals, inconsistent workflows, and ERP-driven exceptions resulted in 5–7 day invoice cycles, periodic payment-run failures, and a growing volume of one-off vendor payments.

By implementing a financial-intelligence layer in front of the ERP, the organization achieved predictable, accurate AP operations, cut cycle times to ~36 hours, and eliminated payment exceptions entirely. The new model establishes a scalable foundation for tighter financial controls and accelerated close processes.

The challenge

Decentralized workflows led to slow processing times and recurring payment exceptions

The finance team faced several structural constraints:

• Five entities, each with separate bank accounts and approval paths.
• Vendor onboarding and invoice approvals occurring inconsistently within the ERP.
• Invoices entering payment runs before approvals completed, causing run failures.
• 5–7 day invoice processing times from inbox to ERP.
• Frequent rush / one-off payments required to resolve timing gaps.
• Limited ability to monitor liabilities or forecast cash at an entity level.

These issues created a reactive operating model, significant manual oversight, and inconsistent vendor experiences.

The approach

Deploying a financial-intelligence layer to verify invoices before ERP ingestion

The company implemented an Autonomous Finance platform that:

1. Centralizes invoice intake across all entities.
2. Runs automated invoice verification and enforces approval workflows upstream of the ERP.
3. Syncs only clean, approved invoices into Oracle.
4. Provides entity-level visibility into outstanding obligations.
5. Standardizes weekly payment cycles with verified inputs.

This created a "clean-data-in, predictable-process-out" model, replacing fragmented, timing-sensitive workflows.

The impact

AP became predictable, accurate, and exception-free — with materially faster cycle times

• ~80%
  AP cycle time reduced
  Processing time dropped from 5–7 days to ~36 hours, improving visibility and operational agility.
• 100%
  Elimination of rush / one-off vendor payments
  Improved approval timing and upstream verification removed the root cause of exceptions.
• 0
  ERP payment-run failures tied to invoice status
  Only fully approved invoices reach the ERP, creating predictable weekly payment cycles.

Increased control across five entities

Finance teams gained real-time visibility into vendor liabilities, approval status, and upcoming payment volume.

Reduced operational noise and manual rework

Slack channels, vendor escalations, and last-minute troubleshooting dropped to near zero.

What the customer says

"Invoice processing that once took nearly a week now happens in about a day. We haven't had a single rush payment since going live, and our payment runs are finally predictable. The system acts like a financial-intelligence layer in front of our ERP — verifying every dollar before it moves."

— Finance Leader, Multi-Entity Financial Services Company (Anonymized)

Transformation summary

Before

• Fragmented approval workflows
• Inconsistent timing and manual entry
• Risk of payment-run failures
• High volume of exception payments
• Limited entity-level visibility
• 5–7 day invoice cycles

After

• erified-invoice model established
• Clean, approved data flows into ERP
• Predictable weekly payment batches
• Zero exception payments
• Unified, real-time visibility
• ~36-hour processing cycle

Solution components

• Invoice Verification
• Workflow & approval automation
• Vendor Master Sync
• ERP-Ready Payables Integration
• Multi-Entity Visibility
• Payment Run Assurance

Create predictable, accurate AP operations with OpenEnvoy's Autonomous Finance platform

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