Lean AP / Intelligent Invoice Processing
Using automation to reduce manual work without taking control away from financial users. Accounts Payable teams spend significant time receiving invoices, entering information, validating details, resolving exceptions, and preparing invoices for downstream processing. Lean AP explored how OCR and machine-assisted invoice capture could remove repetitive data entry while keeping financial users in control of decisions that required judgment.
Problem
Financial workflows contain incomplete information, mismatches, exceptions, and accounting decisions that cannot always be resolved confidently by automation.
The design question became:
Where should the system automate, and where should the user review, correct, or intervene?
Mapping the invoice journey
I worked through the AP workflow from invoice intake to processing, identifying where users were manually transferring information and where automation could meaningfully reduce effort.
The experience considered:
Invoice received → Data extracted → User validates → Exceptions resolved → Invoice processed
This shifted the interaction from entering everything manually toward reviewing what the system already understood.
Design approach
The interface was designed around confidence and exception handling.
Key considerations included:
Automatically extracting invoice information through OCR
Clearly distinguishing captured data from information requiring attention
Allowing users to verify and correct extracted values
Providing useful validation rather than forcing users to discover errors later
Keeping the original invoice visible while reviewing extracted information
Designing for exceptions rather than assuming perfect automation
The goal was to make automation visible enough to be trusted, without forcing users to understand the technology behind it.
Outcome
The concept reduced dependence on repetitive invoice entry and established a more scalable direction for AP onboarding.
The larger design lesson was that good automation doesn't remove the user—it changes where their attention is valuable. Instead of spending time entering predictable information, AP users could focus on validation, exceptions, and financial decisions.