Invoice Processing through HCL Automation Orchestration Suite

​In this Blog , we are exploring an Invoice Processing UseCase where we have the below scenario :

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1. We have incoming invoices from many “Suppliers”.
2. Every incoming invoice is scanned and all details extracted from it like Bill to Contact ,  Billing address, Delivery receipt Number , Invoice Date , Invoice Number , All items in the invoice , PO Number , Quantities of each item , Rates , Supplier Name etc .
3. We extract the PO Number from the invoice.
4. The delivery receipt is fetched from the DB of Delivery receipts.
5. The PO Number on the delivery receipt is compared with the PO Number on the invoice .
6. If the PO Number does not match , the PO is returned to the supplier.
7. If the PO number is matching , the Invoice is processed and the invoice details are stored in the Database.

 
For the purpose of the Blog , we are considering an Invoice formatted as follows :

Solution Realization in HCL Automation Orchestration Suite:

1. Scan the invoice 2. Extract PO Number from invoice 3. Extract PO Number from Delivery Receipt 4. Publish PO Number as a variable 5. Compare PO Number in Invoice with PO Number in Delivery Receipt 6a. If Success - Store invoice in DB 6b. If fail - Return Invoice to supplier

​Invoice Scanning : All details such as Amount 1 , Amount2 , BillTo , BillingAddress , Delivery Receipt No , Invoice Date , Invoice Number , Item 1 , Item 2 , PO Number , Qty 1 , Qty 2 , Rate1 , Rate2 , Supplier Name are captured from the invoice and the same is returned as  a JSON Repsonse , the scanning can be done via RESTFUL call to a scanning/OCR Product like Google Document AI ,MyBiros etc.

​Extract PO Number from invoice : Invoice PO Number is extracted from the previous Joblog output and exposed in the Joblog.

​Extract PO Number from Delivery Receipt : The DB containing delivery receipts is queried and all details about the delivery receipt inclusive of PO Number extracted from the DB . 

Expose PO Number as a variable : The PO Number extracted is exposed as a Variable through variable passing features of the product leveraging jobprop utility and referencing stdlist output as
{job:TALLY_PONUMBER_DELIVERYRECIEPT.PONumber} :

​Compare PO Number in delivery receipt with PO Number in Invoice : A Comparison of PO Number in Delivery receipt is done with PO Number in the Invoice.

​Load and Scan invoice into DB : If the PO Number matches , a conditional dependency is satisfied and the invoice is scanned and loaded into the Database.

Conclusion :

1. The entire process of “Invoice Processing” is realized End to End in HCL Automation Orchestration Suite.
2. Save enormous time spent in manual processing of invoices thereby freeing up Business to focus on Value added work.
3. Follow up on problematic invoices automatically with suppliers via Automation.
4. Issues with any of the steps can be alerted via Email , SMS , Ticket or messaging tool alert in real time.

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Sriram V, Technical Architect, HCL Technologies
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I am a Veteran on Workload Automation with about 16 years of experience and have donned many hats such as : SaaS Product Support , Migration Consultant , Country SME ,Subject Matter Expert over the years in IBM and HCL , lately I am focused on the Tech Sales side as a Technical Architect on the Product