Intelligent Document ProcessingKeller & Kalmbach Automates Receipt of Inbound Invoices with Retarus Intelligent Document Processing

High Manual Effort for Invoice Verification

Keller & Kalmbach is a specialist provider of fasteners and fastening technology. With customers in over 50 countries and around 1,000 employees around the globe, the company generates sales revenue of over €425 million annually. Each year, Keller & Kalmbach receives roughly 170,000 invoices, only part of which are linked to an order. The invoices which are not related to an order – approximately 400 a week – are processed manually by the company’s staff.

These invoices are issued in a range of different currencies and languages. They are also received in various formats, either by way of email (as a PDF attachment) or the postal service. Only 15% arrive at Keller & Kalmbach in a structured EDI format. The OCR (Optical Character Recognition) solution previously used for processing paper-based invoices generated a huge amount of internal effort. In addition, the provider was unable to carry out the extensive software adaptation necessary to meet the required degree of automation.

Efficient, Automated Invoice Processing

Consequently, Keller & Kalmbach were searching for a solution that could automate the processing and verification of its inbound invoices. The master data, receipt of goods, and orders also needed to automatically be checked against each other to ensure that the order details matched up with the respective invoice. The solution also had to ensure compliance with §14 of the German Value Added Tax Act (USTG) by checking that it contained all the required details, such as name, address and tax number. Subsequently, once the invoice details had been recognized and verified, they needed to be imported into Keller & Kalmbach’s ERP system, after which the data was to be archived along with the original invoice image (PDF or scan) and the corresponding metadata. This also applied to invoices received by post and scanned on site.

Master Data Synchronization and Rounding Script

With Retarus Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), Keller & Kalmbach found the perfect solution to meet its requirements. Within four months, the service was implemented and tested, after which it was introduced into the productive environment. Special requirements, for instance reconciling the master data on a daily basis, were implemented without any difficulty. In line with Keller & Kalmbach’s wishes, the data is exported in EDIFACT format. This allows the company to conveniently use the existing interface, through which suppliers connected by way of EDI have already been submitting their invoices.

Retarus also offers a solution for cases where an invoice is received before the goods have been delivered. These invoices are “parked” within the process until the goods actually arrive, after which it is possible to check the invoice automatically against the details of the delivered goods in the ERP. Moreover, Retarus programmed a script to round off invoice values containing more than two decimal places and implemented customer-specific requirements, such as extracting the country of origin and making it possible to enter cost center information at item level.

Significantly Higher Identification Rate

In Retarus, Keller & Kalmbach have found a dependable service provider for the automation and verification of its inbound invoices. The new SaaS solution makes a crucial contribution to the automation of accounting processes which previously had largely been reliant on manual efforts. As Retarus IDP boasts significantly higher recognition rates than the previous solution, invoices hardly need to be post-processed by employees.

Due to its flexible APIs, the solution could be integrated effortlessly without requiring any changes to the EDI system. While the service was being introduced, Retarus remained in close, regular contact with the team at Keller & Kalmbach to coordinate the process. Since then, Retarus IDP has been running smoothly without any disruption or outages.

Digitized, Automated Invoice Receipt

Retarus’ IDP solution is successfully employed in Keller & Kalmbach‘s accounts payable department to automate, digitalize and streamline the receipt of inbound invoices.