Short answer: Most accounts payable problems are not caused by a lack of effort. They come from invoices moving through disconnected systems, unclear approval routes and repeated manual checks. AP automation brings capture, matching, controls, approvals and ERP handover into one workflow.
If your finance team spends the last week of every month chasing approvals and fixing data, you are not alone. Below are the eight problems AP teams mention most often, and how Docnova AP Automation handles each one.
1. “Our invoices sit in approvers’ inboxes for days”
This is the most common AP bottleneck. Approvers receive invoices one by one, open each, and often don’t know why it was sent to them.
How to fix it: Let approvers act on many invoices at once. In Docnova, approvers can approve or reject multiple invoices in a single action. Each row also shows which approval rule sent the invoice to them, so nobody has to ask “why is this on my desk?”
2. “We don’t know who is holding which invoice”
When a supplier asks about payment, AP often has to email three people to find out where the invoice is.
How to fix it: Use a single view of everything waiting for approval. Docnova’s pending approvals report shows managers which invoice is waiting with whom, on one screen. If someone is on holiday or overloaded, the manager can reassign the task to another authorised approver in a few clicks.
3. “The invoice has no PO number, so we can’t match it”
An invoice without a purchase order reference is a classic reason for manual work. Someone has to search open purchase orders by supplier, amount and date, then match by hand.
How to fix it: Let AI do the search. When an invoice arrives without a PO number, Docnova’s AI checks the supplier’s open purchase orders and suggests the most likely match. Your team confirms the suggestion instead of starting from scratch. The AI suggests; people decide. Invoices that genuinely have no underlying PO still need the appropriate non-PO approval process.
4. “How do we catch fraudulent or suspicious invoices?”
Invoice fraud rarely looks like fraud. A changed bank account, an unusual amount or a supplier that suddenly invoices more often can all be warning signs. Generic checks miss what matters to your business.
How to fix it: Add your own rules to the fraud check. In Docnova, you can write company-specific risk questions, for example “Is this supplier invoicing outside its usual cost centre?” The AI assesses every invoice against these questions and flags suspicious ones for review before approval.
5. “The person who uploaded the invoice also approved it”
This is a gap auditors look for. If the same person can enter and approve an invoice, your internal controls are weak, even if nobody has done anything wrong.
How to fix it: Enforce segregation of duties in the system, not in a policy document. In Docnova, the person who uploads an invoice cannot approve it, and the screen clearly shows why. This makes internal control visible and easy to demonstrate during an audit.
6. “We have the same supplier three times in our system”
Duplicate supplier records create a risk of duplicate payments, split spend reports and wrong bank details.
How to fix it: Detect duplicates before they cause problems. Docnova identifies different records of the same supplier and presents them to the finance team as merge suggestions. Before merging, your team can verify IBANs manually, so bank details are checked as part of the review.
7. “Our OCR keeps reading the same fields wrong”
OCR works well until it doesn’t. If your team corrects the same field on every invoice from a supplier, you are paying twice for data entry.
How to fix it: Measure OCR accuracy and learn from corrections. Docnova’s OCR accuracy report shows which fields are corrected and how often. For fields that are corrected frequently, the system creates rules automatically, and your team can also write its own rules. Read our guide to fixing recurring invoice OCR errors for practical steps.
8. “Approved invoices still have to be typed into the ERP”
Automation that stops at approval only moves the manual work to a different place.
How to fix it: Export approved invoices in a format your ERP understands. Docnova lets you download approved invoices as EDIFACT or SAP IDoc files, so they can be imported into SAP or other ERP systems without re-keying, using the appropriate mappings and import configuration.
Why e-invoicing makes AP automation easier
Across Europe, e-invoicing is becoming mandatory. Belgium requires structured e-invoices for in-scope domestic B2B transactions from 1 January 2026. France’s reform requires in-scope businesses to receive e-invoices from 1 September 2026; large and intermediate-sized companies must also issue them from that date, with SMEs and micro-enterprises following on 1 September 2027. Germany requires the ability to receive in-scope e-invoices from 1 January 2025, with issuance obligations phasing in during 2027 and 2028, subject to statutory exceptions and transitional rules.
For AP teams, this is good news. A structured e-invoice arrives as data, not as a picture of a document. There is nothing to scan, fewer fields to correct and less room for typing errors. Through Melasoft’s certified Peppol Access Point, invoices received via Peppol enter Docnova’s AP flow: checked, matched, approved and exported to your ERP. PDF and paper invoices will continue to arrive during the transition, which is why OCR and AI matching remain part of the process.
Quick self-check: how healthy is your AP process?
Answer yes or no. Every “no” points to a process worth reviewing.
- Can you see, on one screen, who is holding each invoice awaiting approval?
- Can approvers handle several invoices in one action?
- Are invoices without a PO reference matched in minutes, not days?
- Does every invoice go through a fraud check before approval?
- Is it impossible for someone to approve an invoice they uploaded?
- Do you know how often your OCR gets each field wrong?
- Is each supplier recorded only once, with verified bank details?
- Do approved invoices reach your ERP without being typed again?
If you answered “no” to three or more, AP automation may be worth assessing. The potential return depends on your invoice volume, current processing effort and integration requirements.
See it with your own invoices
Every AP team has its own bottlenecks. The quickest way to find yours is to see your invoice flow in a working system. Talk to a Docnova expert and we will walk you through the features above using scenarios from your own process.
For SAP-based finance teams, explore SAP e-invoicing integration to connect invoice compliance with your ERP processes.
Mandate references: Belgian e-invoicing guidance, French tax administration timetable and German Ministry of Finance e-invoicing FAQ.