What is touchless invoice processing?

• Touchless invoice processing means an invoice moves from receipt to payment with no manual data entry, matching, or routing.
• Industry-wide, only 32.6% of invoices are processed touchless today, according to Ardent Partners.
• The process runs through five stages: capture, extraction and validation, matching, coding and approval, and posting.
• Exceptions, disputes, and mismatched data are the main reasons invoices fall out of the touchless path.
• Doxis automates the full invoice lifecycle in SAP, cutting invoice processing costs by up to 60-80%.

Touchless invoice processing is the automated handling of an invoice from the moment it arrives to the moment it's paid, with no manual keying, matching, or routing required. Software captures the invoice, extracts and validates the data, matches it against a purchase order, applies approval rules, and posts it for payment. A person only steps in when something needs a decision a machine can't make.

A touchless invoice moves through five stages before it reaches payment, all handled by invoice processing software rather than a person. Each stage removes a task your team used to do by hand.

1. Capture

The invoice arrives, whatever format it's in: a PDF attached to an email, an EDI feed from a large supplier, a QR code on a paper document, or a structured e-invoice. Capture software pulls it into a central inbox automatically, so nobody has to open an inbox, print a document, or scan a paper copy to get it into the system.

2. Extract and validate

The software reads the invoice and pulls out the fields that matter: vendor, amount, line items, tax details, invoice number. It checks that data against what's expected, flagging anything that looks off, like a VAT number that doesn't match the vendor record or a total that doesn't add up.

3. Match

The invoice gets checked against the purchase order and, where relevant, the goods receipt. Two-way matching confirms the invoice lines up with the order. Three-way matching adds the delivery record, confirming what was ordered actually arrived before a dollar gets approved.

4. Code and approve

Once the invoice passes matching, it gets coded to the right general ledger account and routed through an invoice approval workflow based on rules you've already set, by amount, cost center, or vendor. Non-SAP users, like a department manager who just needs to sign off, can approve through a simple web interface without ever touching the ERP directly.

5. Post and pay

The approved invoice posts to your ERP system, ready for scheduled payment. From here it's part of your standard payment run, with the audit trail already built and archived alongside the source document.

Touchless processing pays off in ways that go beyond saved hours.

Lower processing costs

Automating capture, matching, and approval can cut invoice processing costs by 60-80% compared to manual handling

Faster payment cycles

Invoices that used to sit in an inbox for days move through in hours, giving your finance team better visibility into upcoming liabilities and more room to capture early payment discounts

Fewer errors, less fraud exposure

Automatically cross-checking invoices against delivery notes and contracts catches duplicate submissions and mismatches before they turn into a bad payment

Real-time visibility

A central invoice monitor shows exactly where every invoice sits, so nobody has to email around asking "where's this invoice at?"

Scalability without headcount growth

As invoice volume grows, your AP team doesn't have to grow with it. The invoices that follow the standard path just keep flowing

If touchless processing is this valuable, why does the industry average still sit at 32.6%? A handful of recurring issues keep pulling invoices out of the automated path.

• Invoice exceptions: A missing purchase order, a price that doesn't match what was agreed, a duplicate submission from a supplier who sent the same invoice twice. Each of these forces a person to step in and resolve it manually before the invoice can move
• Inconsistent supplier data: When a vendor's name, tax ID, or bank details don't match what's on file, validation fails and the invoice gets kicked to a review queue
• Disconnected systems: If your invoice capture software isn't properly integrated with your ERP and your procurement document management, someone ends up re-keying data between the two, which defeats the purpose of automating in the first place
• Approval bottlenecks: An invoice can be perfectly matched and coded, then sit for a week because the approver is out of office and there's no backup routing rule in place

None of these issues are inevitable. They're solvable with the right combination of clean supplier onboarding, tight ERP integration, and workflow rules that account for real-world exceptions like vacations and role changes.

Not every AP automation tool gets you to true touchless processing. When you evaluate options, look past the feature list and check these five things specifically.

Doxis Invoice Automation for SAP automates the full invoice lifecycle inside SAP: every input channel lands in one central monitor, data extraction and validation happen automatically, and workflow-based approvals reach non-SAP users through a simple web interface. Intelligent assistants run VAT checks and compliance validation as invoices move through the system, and everything integrates with SAP in real time, so an approved invoice posts without a batch delay. The result is up to 60-80% lower invoice processing costs and full transparency into every invoice's status.

Invoice automation is one part of a bigger picture. Doxis brings invoice processing together with the rest of your purchase-to-pay automation cycle, from purchase orders through goods receipt to archiving, on a single Intelligent Content Automation platform. That same platform also powers contract management and compliant, audit-proof archiving, so you're not stitching together point solutions as your automation needs grow.

• Up to 60-80% lower invoice processing costs through automation
• Up to 70% time savings across the invoice processing cycle
• Instant fraud detection through automatic cross-checking against delivery notes and contracts
• Real-time spend analytics for finance and procurement teams
• A single platform covering invoice processing, contract management, and archiving, so you don't outgrow your first automation project
• Workflow-based approvals that reach approvers outside SAP without extra logins or training

Doxis is recognized as a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Document Management 2026, and a Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study found a Doxis customer achieved 336% ROI over three years. Request a free demo to see what touchless invoice processing looks like for your AP team.

Frequently asked questions for touchless invoice processing