AI Document Automation — OCR, Extraction, Routing
AI document automation replaces manual data entry of invoices, contracts and forms with a pipeline that reads PDFs, scans and images using GPT-4 Vision, Claude and Azure AI Document Intelligence, extracts the structured fields and pushes them straight into your accounting software or ERP. A bookkeeper who manually processes 80-120 invoices a day validates 600-800 a day on the same pipeline — because every record arrives already populated with vendor, VAT, date, line items and account. Transcription errors drop below 1% and inbound e-invoices route themselves to the right ledger.
What the pipeline actually replaces
This is not yet another "smart OCR" at 70% accuracy. We build a multi-layer process where OCR is only step one and a large language model verifies, normalises and routes every document the way an experienced accountant would — in four seconds per document instead of four minutes.
- ✓OCR invoices into accounting — read paper and PDF invoices with Azure AI Document Intelligence or Mistral OCR, extract vendor, VAT ID, net amount, tax, currency, issue and due dates, and create a ready record in your accounting software or ERP.
- ✓Extract data from contracts and PDFs — Claude reads a 60-page commercial contract and returns JSON with parties, term, price, penalties, termination and auto-renewal clauses — ready for import into a CRM or legal tracker.
- ✓Classify incoming documents — every email, fax or scan-to-mail attachment is auto-categorised (invoice, delivery note, quote, complaint, bank statement) and dispatched to the right folder or module.
- ✓Routing for approval — invoices above €500 go to the finance lead, below €500 straight to the bookkeeper. Contracts hit legal review, quotes hit sales — with Slack/Teams notifications and one-click approve.
- ✓E-invoice intake — accept inbound electronic invoices through official channels, validate the XML structure, map suppliers by tax ID and post automatically against the chart of accounts.
- ✓Human-in-the-loop on low confidence — when the model is below threshold (blurry date, unclear ID), the document lifts into an admin panel for a 5-second human correction instead of being retyped from scratch.
- ✓Audit trail and compliance — every model decision is logged — original file, OCR output, LLM extraction, mapped accounting entry — for a clean trail in any tax audit or ISO review.
Who it is for
A firm with 8 accountants and 140 clients processes around 9,000 documents a month. An AI pipeline between Drive/email and the accounting software drops entry time from 6 minutes to 40 seconds per document, freeing 2 FTE for advisory work instead of typing.
A company with 600-1,200 incoming invoices a month from 80+ suppliers — AI recognises each template, maps line items to warehouse SKUs and catches duplicate payments before they go out. Saves €15,000-€40,000 a year on errors alone.
Extract key clauses from a 200-page contract, notarial deed or court ruling. AI returns a structured summary in 90 seconds — parties, sums, terms, risks — that a lawyer reviews instead of reading cover-to-cover. Doubles the legal team's capacity.
How we build it
We are not reselling a "smart OCR" SaaS. We build a custom business process automation pipeline against your templates, your accounting stack and your rules. This is custom software, not a per-seat subscription — once it ships, you own it.
1. Audit the document flow
We map every channel — email, e-invoice portal, Drive, SharePoint, physical mail — count document types, monthly volume and the hours your team loses today. The output is a realistic FTE-saved estimate and a payback window, usually 4-8 months at 600+ documents a month.
2. Choose the OCR and LLM stack
For clean print — Mistral OCR (cheap, fast, 96%+ accuracy). For complex handwriting and signatures — Azure AI Document Intelligence. Structured extraction and decisioning run on GPT-4 Vision or the Claude API depending on document type. We balance quality and cost — typically €0.02-€0.08 per processed document.
3. Mapping to your accounting
We build API integrations into your ERP, accounting software or finance stack — a new record is created with vendor (looked up by tax ID against the official registry), line items, analytics and ledger accounts that follow your chart of accounts.
4. Workflow and approvals
We define rules — who approves what, at what threshold, in what SLA. Slack/Teams/email notifications with "approve" / "return" / "escalate" buttons. Everything is logged with timestamp and user for downstream audit.
5. Monitoring and learning
Admin panel with per-document-type accuracy, average processing time, cost in EUR and number of human-in-the-loop cases. Every manual correction flows back into the few-shot prompt so the model adapts to your templates without retraining from zero.
Why Saitami
Prices are fixed in EUR — no per-seat or per-document SaaS fees. Looking for broader scope? Read about the AI agent for business processes and how to automate repetitive office tasks.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does it handle poor scans or phone photos?
Yes. Mistral OCR and Azure AI Document Intelligence cope with skewed photos, shadows and resolutions down to 1080p. When extraction confidence falls below 92%, the document lifts into the admin panel for a 5-second human check instead of being booked into accounting incorrectly. That human-in-the-loop guard is why pipeline accuracy stays above 99%.
Which accounting and ERP systems can it connect to?
We have ready connectors to Microinvest, Bulmar, SAP Business One, Microsoft Dynamics, QuickBooks, Xero and most regional accounting suites — via REST API or direct DB with the bookkeeper's sign-off. For custom ERPs we build the integration to spec. We always test on a sandbox database before touching production.
How does it handle electronic invoices?
We accept inbound e-invoices through the official tax-authority channel in XML, validate them against the schema, extract every mandatory field (supplier ID, VAT, date, amounts) and create a record in the accounting software without any OCR involved. This is more reliable than paper and uses zero LLM tokens, so the running cost drops sharply for companies with a high share of e-invoices.
How much does it cost?
From €4,200 for a standard pipeline — OCR, LLM extraction, one source (email or Drive), one accounting target and admin panel. Complex flows with multiple document types, approval routing, e-invoice intake and a custom ERP — from €7,500. Recurring cost is only API tokens and hosting — typically €60-€280 a month for 1,000-5,000 documents.
How long does it take to deploy?
Audit and MVP with the first document type (usually inbound invoices) — 3 weeks. Full coverage across 4-6 document types, approvals and accounting integration — 6-9 weeks. First savings show up in month one; full payback for companies at 600+ documents per month lands between months four and eight.
Ready to process 600 invoices a day without manual entry?
Send 10 sample documents (invoices, contracts, forms) and the name of your accounting stack. Within 5 working days we return a demo extraction on your real data and a precise estimate of hours saved per month.
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