Solution
Finance
Operations
Procurement
Wholesalers
Retailers
Caterers
Purchasing Organisations
Problem
Invoice reconciliation is one of the most time-consuming and error-prone processes in procurement, particularly in the food industry where orders are frequent, fragmented, and subject to variable pricing and logistics.
High Volume of Errors: One in every three invoices contains errors, typically due to mismatches in quantities, prices, or additional charges like shipping and storage (Ardent Partners, 2023). This leads to large-scale rework, rejected invoices, and increased processing costs.
Excessive Manual Workload: Procurement teams spend 5 to 10 minutes manually validating each invoice. For organisations processing 3,000 invoices per month, this equals 125 to 250 hours of labor monthly, roughly 1 to 2 full-time employees dedicated solely to reconciliation.
Delayed Payments and Cash Flow Impact: Invoices with discrepancies cause payment delays averaging 10 to 15 days, according to PayStream Advisors. These delays weaken supplier trust, strain cash flow, and create ongoing financial friction between trading partners.
Inefficient Finance Operations: Over 49% of finance teams identify invoice matching and approvals as the most inefficient part of accounts payable (Levvel Research, 2023). These inefficiencies cascade into delayed cost recognition and accrual errors, complicating financial reporting and month-end close.
Damaged Supplier Relationships: Repeated disputes over mismatched invoices reduce supplier satisfaction and increase the administrative burden on both sides. This creates long-term risk in sourcing relationships and can negatively affect supply continuity.
The root cause is the lack of real-time alignment between the original purchase order, the goods received, and the supplier’s invoice. Without automated access to structured order and delivery data, procurement and finance teams are left to manually compare PDFs, spreadsheets and ERP exports, a slow, error-prone and costly process.
Solution
Cerve enables automated invoice reconciliation by programmatically comparing supplier invoices to original purchase orders and actual goods received, using real-time, structured data.
Automatically matche invoice lines with orders and flags differences in price, quantity, or VAT.
Reconcile invoices against actual delivered quantities, even when orders are only partly fulfilled.
Approve small price differences but flags larger or out-of-date charges for review.
Generate an estimated invoice at order time to help finance post accurate accruals immediately.
Create ready-to-send dispute notes showing the exact mismatched lines and suggested short-pay amount.
Track error rates, late charges and disputed invoices to measure and improve supplier reliability.
Solution Impact
By removing manual touch-points and enriching data automatically, companies can ensure product accuracy, compliance and faster go-to-market, without relying on outdated tools or risky manual processes.
85%
Reduction in manual reconciliation
45%
Fewer payment delays
95%
Increase in error finding
