Accounts payable · Production

Purple reduces invoice processing time by 63% and regains ~3 FTE days per week with Stampli

The problem

Purple's AP process relied on a single email inbox and manual Outlook searches, requiring nearly two full days per week for pay run preparation. Approver assignment depended on tribal knowledge, and only 25% of invoices were properly documented in Oracle NetSuite.

First attempt

Purple first attempted to implement Concur Invoice but the team was reluctant and months passed without reducing the backlog. The functionality did not work well with their system, particularly for PO-based invoices, which represent 65% of their volume.

Workflow diagram · grounded in source

Invoice submitted to AP inbox

trigger

“We would request that our vendors send invoices to a Purple accounts payable email inbox that was managed by an AP clerk and an AP supervisor.”

AI and OCR apply GL codes

ai_action

“leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and optical character recognition to apply GL codes”

Route invoices to approvers

routing

“It's helping us route invoices to the right approvers much faster.”

Automated approval workflow

validation

“approvals based on amounts or purchase type are all embedded into the application”

ERP documentation

integration

“With Stampli 100% of our invoices are properly documented”

Auditor self-service access

output

“the audit process has become self-service, as we can simply send an invoice URL to the auditors and they can quickly find what they need”

Reported outcome

With Stampli, Purple regained approximately 3 FTE days per week, cut invoice processing time from eight days to three days (63% faster approvals), reduced invoice backlog by at least 50%, eliminated duplicate invoice payments, brought 100% of invoices into proper documentation (up from 25%), and made audits self-service.

Reported metrics

FTE days regained per week~3 FTE Days Per Week Regained

Invoice approval speed improvement63%

Invoice processing timefrom eight days to three days

Invoices properly documented100%

Show all 8 reported metrics

FTE days regained per week~3 FTE Days Per Week Regained

invoice approval speed improvement63%

invoice processing timefrom eight days to three days

invoices properly documented100%

invoices previously documented (baseline)25%

duplicate invoice payments eliminatedeliminated paying duplicate invoices

Stampli users at Purple90+

PO invoice volume share65%

Reported stack

StampliBillyOracle NetSuiteoptical character recognition

Source

https://www.stampli.com/case-studies/purple

Read source ↗

Frequently asked questions

What did this team achieve with this AI workflow?

With Stampli, Purple regained approximately 3 FTE days per week, cut invoice processing time from eight days to three days (63% faster approvals), reduced invoice backlog by at least 50%, eliminated duplicate invoice…

What tools did this team use?

Stampli, Billy, Oracle NetSuite, optical character recognition.

What results were reported?

FTE days regained per week: ~3 FTE Days Per Week Regained; Invoice approval speed improvement: 63%; Invoice processing time: from eight days to three days; Invoices properly documented: 100% (source-reported, not independently verified).

What failed first in this deployment?

Purple first attempted to implement Concur Invoice but the team was reluctant and months passed without reducing the backlog.

How is this accounts payable AI workflow structured?

Invoice submitted to AP inbox → AI and OCR apply GL codes → Route invoices to approvers → Automated approval workflow → ERP documentation → Auditor self-service access.