Challenge 

​

A rapidly scaling global eCommerce retailer specialising in home goods faced mounting pressure across its long, fragmented supply chains. As the business expanded into multiple markets, the Accounts Payable team grappled with increasingly complex, multi-line supplier invoices—spanning logistics, warehousing, sourcing, and freight costs across diverse international vendors. 
 
The tangled supply chain meant invoice formats varied widely by geography and channel, increasing mismatches, delays, and manual intervention. Approval bottlenecks further hampered payments—especially when invoices required multi-tiered sign-off for compliance across departments and regions. This hindered financial reporting, slowed supplier payments, and stretched month‑end close cycles. 

​

Solution Provided 

​

Kanbina implemented its AI‑powered AP automation platform to scale the retailer’s finance operations efficiently while reinforcing control across global supply chains. The solution included: 

- Automated extraction and matching of invoice data against POs, receipts, and logistics-related entries across multiple inventory and fulfilment systems. 

- AI‑driven processing of non-standard invoice formats from international suppliers—eliminating reliance on rigid templates. 
- Seamless API integration with the retailer’s ERP and procurement platforms for real‑time synchronization. 
- Kanbina Approvals service, bringing governance and disciplined routing into the invoice flow—automatically applying authority schedules based on cost centre, region, amount thresholds, or multi-level sign-off needs. 
- Real‑time dashboards and exception workflows to quickly flag mismatches, monitor approval bottlenecks, and expedite the resolution process. 

​​

Impact 

​

The combined effect of AI automation and controlled approvals delivered both immediate gains and strategic benefits: 

- ~88% automation of invoice processing, even across complex supply chains. 
- Invoice cycle times trimmed by over 60%, accelerating supplier payments and improving vendor relationships. 
- Approval delays minimized, thanks to structured authority routing, escalations, and clear visibility into pending sign-offs. 
- Streamlined month‑end close, with fewer exceptions and more predictable workflows. 
- Improved finance productivity, enabling the existing team to support business growth across new regions and fulfilment channels. 
- Reduction in errors and manual interventions, as AI adapted to supplier-specific patterns. 
- Stronger compliance and traceability, with audit-ready logs of approvals, routing decisions, and invoice histories. 
- Better spend visibility, enabling finance leads to track spend by category, vendor, or region with precision. 

​

Technologies Used 

​

- AI‑powered Accounts Payable Automation 
- Kanbina Approvals service for governed workflows and multi-level authority routing 
- Secure ERP & Procurement Platform Integration via Kanbina’s APIs 

​