January 15, 2025 · 9 min read · By Zentriq Team
Accounts payable (AP) is one of the most labor-intensive processes in any finance department. For companies using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, the AP workflow typically involves receiving supplier invoices, manually entering them into the system, matching them against purchase orders and receipts, resolving discrepancies, and processing payments. Each step is time-consuming and error-prone.
In this article, we break down the key AP pain points in Business Central and show how AI automation can eliminate the manual work at every stage — from invoice receipt to payment.
The biggest time sink in AP is typing invoice data into Business Central. For each invoice, the AP clerk needs to identify the vendor, create a Purchase Invoice record, enter every line item (description, quantity, unit price, GL account), add tax information, and enter payment terms and due date. A 10-line invoice takes 5-15 minutes to enter manually.
For a company processing 200 invoices per month, that's 17-50 hours of pure data entry — just for invoice capture. And the error rate for manual entry is typically 1-3%, meaning several invoices per month will have mistakes that cause payment delays, vendor disputes, or audit findings.
Three-way matching is the process of verifying that an invoice matches both the purchase order (what was ordered) and the goods receipt (what was received). In Business Central, this means comparing the invoice line items against the PO lines and posted receipts — checking quantities, prices, and amounts.
When everything matches, it's straightforward. But when there are discrepancies — a partial delivery, a price change, a quantity mismatch — the AP clerk has to investigate. This often involves checking multiple pages in BC, contacting the vendor, consulting the purchasing team, and making judgment calls. Discrepancy resolution can take 15-30 minutes per invoice.
Most companies require approval for invoices above certain thresholds or outside contract terms. In Business Central, setting up approval workflows is possible but often cumbersome. AP clerks frequently resort to email-based approvals, which lack audit trails and create bottlenecks when approvers are slow to respond.
Once invoices are approved and posted, they need to be included in payment runs. AP teams must select which invoices to pay, consider early payment discounts, manage cash flow timing, and generate payment files for the bank. In Business Central, this involves the Payment Journal, vendor ledger entries, and bank export formats — a process that requires careful attention to avoid double payments or missed discounts.
AI invoice processing eliminates manual data entry by reading invoices the way a human would — but in seconds instead of minutes. Here's how it works with Zentriq Document Capture:
The entire process takes under 30 seconds per invoice, compared to 5-15 minutes manually. AI accuracy exceeds 95% for standard invoice formats, and every extraction is shown for human review — nothing is posted without your approval.
Once the invoice data is in BC, the next step is matching it against purchase orders and receipts. Zentriq can assist with this by cross-referencing the invoice line items against open PO lines and posted receipts, highlighting matches and flagging discrepancies for review.
For invoices that match perfectly, the AP clerk simply confirms and posts. For discrepancies, the AI highlights exactly which lines don't match and what the differences are — saving the time spent manually comparing documents.
Business Central's built-in approval workflows can be configured to route invoices to the right approver based on amount, vendor, or department. Combined with AI-extracted data, approvers see complete, accurate invoice records from the start — reducing back-and-forth and speeding up the approval cycle.
For companies using Microsoft Teams, BC approval notifications can be sent directly to Teams channels, making it easy for approvers to review and approve from their phone or desktop.
With invoices captured accurately and posted promptly, payment runs become much more straightforward. AP teams can use BC's Suggest Vendor Payments function with confidence, knowing that the underlying invoice data is accurate and complete. AI assistance can also help identify early payment discount opportunities — “Which invoices due this week have early payment discounts?” — through the Zentriq Agent.
Let's calculate the return for a company processing 200 invoices per month:
Total: ~48 hours saved per month — nearly a third of a full-time employee, just from automating invoice processing. Factor in avoided late payment penalties, captured early payment discounts, and improved vendor relationships, and the total value is even higher.
AP automation is most powerful when it's part of a complete procurement-to-pay workflow. When you combine AI cart capture (for creating purchase orders from supplier websites) with AI document processing (for capturing invoices), the entire chain is automated:
AP automation isn't about removing humans from the loop. It's about removing the manual data entry so your AP team can focus on exceptions, vendor relationships, and cash flow strategy — the work that actually requires human judgment.
Zentriq makes AP automation accessible for Business Central users of any size. There's no complex setup, no per-supplier integration, and no minimum volume. Upload your first invoice today and see AI extraction in action.
Start free with Zentriq or request a demo to see accounts payable automation in your Business Central environment.