Vendor Invoice Processing saves 9,700 hours and $200K annually for a large marketing network

Eliminating manual data entry and approval bottlenecks across multiple accounting systems

9700

Hours saved annually

$200K

Annual cost reduction

95%

Error rate reduction

60%

Faster invoice processing

The Challenge

Our client is a $2.8 billion multi-brand marketing network comprising 70+ subsidiary agencies across North America and Europe. Following a period of aggressive acquisition-led growth over three years, the organisation’s Accounts Payable function processed vendor invoices across all agencies – each working with multiple suppliers submitting invoices in varied formats through a common Freshdesk ticketing workflow, with downstream financial processing in Maconomy ERP.

The Problem

The Accounts Payable function processes vendor invoices across 70+ agencies, with each agency working with multiple suppliers that submit invoices in different formats — PDFs, emails, itemised and non-itemised structures. Invoices are primarily received through Freshdesk tickets and manually entered into MediaOcean Prisma, with downstream processing in Maconomy ERP. A particularly painful dependency existed on the media team: AP staff had to follow up via chat or messaging to obtain Order IDs and Placement IDs before any invoice could be correctly entered. For itemised invoices, one Order ID may map to multiple Placement IDs, which requires complex manual splitting and reconciliation.

Why It Mattered

The CTO had identified AP modernisation as a critical prerequisite for further M&A activity. Without a scalable, automated invoice processing backbone, each new acquisition would compound the operational burden—adding new Freshdesk queues, new supplier lists, new media team relationships, and new manual workflows on top of an already strained system.

We were drowning in invoices. Every acquisition brought a new system, a new approval chain, and more manual work. We needed a solution that could grow with us—not slow us down.
– Chief Technology Officer

The Solution

Our team deployed an end-to-end Intelligent Invoice Automation platform that combines a LangGraph multi-agent framework with UiPath RPA orchestration and Gemini 2.5 Flash as the core AI model — purpose-built for multi-agency financial environments operating across MediaOcean Prisma and Maconomy ERP. The platform was architected as a centralised processing hub that automatically ingests invoices from Freshdesk, extracts structured data using Gemini 2.5 Flash’s native document intelligence capabilities, and uses specialised LangGraph agents to retrieve Order and Placement IDs from media team communications. A phased discovery-first methodology was applied: we mapped 47 distinct invoice variants across all 14 entities, classified them by complexity, and built tiered automation workflows that handle 94% of volume fully autonomously, routing only true exceptions for human review.
Technologies Deployed
AI / AGENTS

LangGraph Multiagent Framework

Orchestrates a fleet of specialised AI agents for invoice extraction, Order/Placement ID retrieval from media team communication, auto-mapping, and exception-based routing across all 14 entities
AI / LLM

LangGraph Multiagent Framework

Orchestrates a fleet of specialised AI agents for invoice extraction, Order/Placement ID retrieval from media team communication, auto-mapping, and exception-based routing across all 14 entities
RPA

UiPath RPA Orchestrator

Attended and unattended robot fleet for cross-system data entry, process routing, and field population in MediaOcean Prisma and Maconomy ERP
INTEGRATION

Freshdesk Integration

Automated invoice ingestion and retrieval from Freshdesk tickets across all entities, replacing manual download workflows entirely
ERP

MediaOcean Prisma

Primary target system for automated invoice data entry, with structured field population, Order/Placement ID mapping, and itemised invoice splitting handled end-to-end
ERP

Maconomy ERP

Downstream financial processing system with seamless integration for AP settlement, reconciliation, and consolidated financial reporting

Key Workflows Automated

Process Flow: Before vs. After Automation

The diagram below illustrates the step-by-step transformation from a fully manual, dependency-heavy AP workflow to an agentic, fully automated pipeline — from Freshdesk ingestion through to Maconomy financial processing.
BEFORE AUTOMATION
BEFORE AUTOMATION
AFTER AUTOMATION

Implementation

14-Week Deployment Across Three Phases

810 hrs/ month

Staff hours reclaimed from manual data entry and rework.

12% → 0.6 %

Error rate reduction across all 14 entities

4.2 days → 18 hrs

Invoice reconciliation time at month-end close

$45K additional

Annual savings from early-payment discount capture.

The Results

Finance controllers across all 14 entities reported measurable improvement in month-end close timelines. Four FTEs previously dedicated exclusively to invoice data entry were reassigned to higher-value activities — vendor relationship management, cash flow forecasting, and financial analysis — improving both employee satisfaction and strategic output.

The platform’s modular architecture means each future acquisition can be onboarded to the automated AP pipeline in under two weeks, with no additional headcount. The organisation has already absorbed three new agency acquisitions since go-live without any increase in AP staffing. 

Key Benefits

Reduced manual effort in invoice processing

Faster processing cycle time end-to-end

Improved accuracy in data extraction and mapping

Eliminated dependency on manual media team communication

Scalable across multiple agencies and suppliers

Why It Mattered

Within 90 days of full go-live, the AP team had reclaimed an estimated 810 staff hours per month that were previously lost to manual data entry and rework. Finance controllers across all 14 entities reported a measurable improvement in month-end close timelines, with invoice-related reconciliation tasks reduced from an average of 4.2 days to under 18 hours. The error rate dropped from approximately 12% to under 0.6%, with all exceptions automatically flagged and routed — eliminating the need for manual invoice audits.

Staff redeployment was a significant secondary benefit. Four FTEs previously dedicated exclusively to invoice data entry were reassigned to higher-value activities, including vendor relationship management, cash flow forecasting, and financial analysis — improving both employee satisfaction and the strategic output of the finance function. 

This isn’t just automation — it’s an entirely different way of running AP. We processed more invoices last quarter than ever before, with fewer people and zero escalations to the CFO. The ROI was visible within the first month.”
– Chief Technology Officer

Key Takeaways

Post-Merger finance environments require automated consolidation

When marketing networks grow through acquisition, each entity brings its own AP workflow, Freshdesk queue, and supplier relationships. Automating financial consolidation at the invoice level — using LangGraph agents to coordinate data across Prisma and Maconomy — eliminates compounding errors and ensures accuracy at enterprise scale.

LLM-native extraction eliminates brittle OCR pipelines

Rules-based RPA and traditional OCR tooling cannot handle the real-world variability of vendor invoices across formats, suppliers, and currencies. Gemini 2.5 Flash's native document intelligence capabilities enabled reliable extraction from structured and unstructured invoices alike — without a separate OCR layer — reducing exception handling by 95%.

Agents eliminate hidden manual dependencies — not just data entry

The most significant bottleneck was not invoice entry itself but the dependency on media team chat for Order and Placement IDs. LangGraph agents addressed this root cause by automatically extracting these identifiers from communications — removing the follow-up cycle that was the primary source of delays and errors.

Automation enables growth without proportional headcount increase

The network successfully onboarded three new agency acquisitions post-deployment without adding a single AP staff member. The automated pipeline absorbed the increased invoice volume seamlessly – demonstrating how intelligent automation future-proofs finance operations against both organic and inorganic growth.

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