Case Study

Improving Invoice Processing Efficiency with AMS & DocuWare

Mole Avon Country Stores, a well-established retail business, were managing a high volume of invoices and credit notes through a largely manual process. Each day, their finance team handled approximately 120 invoices, requiring documents to be printed, processed, and manually entered into their finance system.

To improve efficiency, accuracy, and document accessibility, Mole Avon partnered with AMS to implement a streamlined digital solution using DocuWare.

Transformation at a glance

Area	Before Implementation	After Implementation
Invoice handling	Invoices and credit notes were received by email, printed, and processed manually	Documents are captured digitally and stored within DocuWare for a more streamlined process
Data entry	Key invoice details had to be entered manually into the finance system, taking up valuable time	Intelligent indexing and export functionality reduce manual input into Multisys
Accuracy	Manual handling increased the risk of errors and duplicate processing	Automated checks help validate supplier details and identify duplicate invoices before they progress
Document retrieval	Finding invoices, credit notes, or matching records was slow and difficult	Documents can be searched for quickly, and related records can be viewed more easily
Visibility	It was harder to track where a document was in the process	Workflow statuses provide clearer visibility of progress from submission through to export
Missing or unmatched documents	Comparing documents and identifying missing records was more challenging	A centralised digital archive makes it easier to retrieve, compare, and cross-check related documents
Finance team workload	Processing high daily volumes placed pressure on the finance team	Automation helps reduce repetitive admin and supports a more efficient workflow

The Challenge

Before implementing DocuWare, Mole Avon relied heavily on manual processes to manage their financial documents.

Invoices and credit notes were received via email, printed and then manually processed and entered into their finance system. This created several challenges:

Time-consuming processes – handling large volumes of documents each day placed significant pressure on the finance team
Risk of human error – manual data entry increased the likelihood of mistakes
Difficulty locating documents – retrieving specific invoices or matching related documents (such as credit notes) was inefficient
Limited visibility – tracking the status of documents throughout processing was not straightforward
Missing or unmatched documents – identifying gaps or discrepancies between related records was difficult

As the volume of documents grew, these challenges became increasingly difficult to manage efficiently.

The Solution

To address these challenges, AMS implemented a DocuWare solution designed to streamline the capture, processing and retrieval of invoices and credit notes.

Documents are now captured directly from email and stored securely within DocuWare, removing much of the manual handling involved in the previous process. The Intelligent indexing AI learns the content of the document, and extracts key information as index data, reducing manual data entry when storing documents.

Once stored, documents move through an automated workflow that helps to:

Validate supplier information
Identify potential duplicate invoices
Route documents for approval where required
Prepare indexed data for export into the finance system

Key Benefits

Overall, the solution has enabled Mole Avon to streamline their financial processes while improving reliability and control.

By reducing the need to print, handle and manually key invoice information into the finance system, the finance team can process documents more quickly and spend less time on repetitive administrative tasks.