Invoice Automation

Purpose

Pepper Construction’s accounting team devoted an excessive amount of time processing invoices from their subsidiary equipment rental company, 365 Equipment and Supply (365). They asked if I could design and build a solution to automate the receipt and processing 365’s rental invoices. This system would save Pepper’s accounting team time and eliminate opportunities for human error.

Method

I first interviewed employees at Pepper and 365 who worked in the accounting department. My interviews helped me identify the new system’s requirements and hurdles I was likely to face during development. To automate the existing invoice process, we designed a system with three main parts:

• Console Application: An ASP.NET Core console application to get 365’s invoices, validate them, and stage them to be processed by the web application.
• Web application: An ASP.NET Core Blazor web application where users can review each invoice quickly, and batch processes them.
• Database: Oracle Database integrated into Pepper’s existing accounting system.

Results

In its first three weeks, the invoice automation system has processed more than 670 invoices with a cumulative dollar value of $270,000. Additionally, the system has cut Pepper’s accounting team’s time processing 365 invoices in half.