Imagine this: a bustling hotel… the Front-of-House team is performing exceptionally, and guests are already planning their return visit. But, behind the scenes, the finance team is drowning in a sea of paperwork. This is the reality for many hotels.
Manual data entry, tedious invoice processing, and countless hours spent navigating approval workflows are the norm. But in parallel to this reality, a quiet revolution is underway, driven by the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
AI-powered Accounts Payable (AP) solutions are now sophisticated enough that they can receive PDF invoices (and credit notes), extract the data with incredible accuracy, and then process the invoices using your coding rules, tolerance thresholds and approval workflows. All of this in the time it takes a human operator to make a cup of tea – a habit in which an AI solution does not partake.
The result for hotels is a dramatic increase in Accounts Payable efficiency (up to 80%), a significant reduction in human error, and the freedom for finance teams to focus on strategic initiatives.
PurchasePlus is the leading provider of AI-based AP automation solutions like this. Our new-and-improved Paperless Invoicing product is powered by our proprietary AI technology and has been designed for the unique needs of the hospitality industry.
To illustrate, suppliers can email invoices and credit notes to a dedicated inbox, or users can drag and drop the PDFs into the upload area.
Our AI does the rest – extracting data, coding, processing and reconciling the invoice (or credit note). Humans only get involved if the invoice is flagged for review, according to your rules and thresholds. You can view the PDF alongside the processing decisions that the AI has made at any time should you wish.
Once the invoice has been reconciled, it (and all of the other reconciled invoices) can be exported to your accounts payable system, for effective payment management. The AI never complains, never stops, and is extremely cost-effective.
Large operators, like our valued partner Accor, have experienced a transformative shift in their AP department by using our Paperless Invoicing product.
“With over 75,000 invoices being received each month, our hotels are reporting a range of operational benefits,” reports Accor Finance.
“PurchasePlus has improved processes, provided fast access document storage solutions, reduced paper consumption of over 2.5m pages last year alone, and improved internal controls.”
Hospitality brands that are interested in using AI for this purpose should also note that its value exponentially increases when it is integrated with a purchasing platform (for example, PurchasePlus’s core procurement platform). This enables the AI to go one step further and match, compare and reconcile the invoices against Purchase Order and Receiving Note data, so you can be assured that what you are being invoiced for is exactly what you ordered and what you actually received.
Ultimately, by employing AI to improve these back office processes, hospitality operators can invest more resources into what really matters: delivering better hospitality.
PurchasePlus (formerly Marketboomer) is the Australian-based, best-in-class Procure to Pay platform, chosen by leading hotels in the region. We have just completed a complete platform rebuild. Check it out!