Accounts payable · Production

Purple Strengthens Controls and Speeds Invoice Processing with Stampli

The problem

Purple's AP team manually processed invoices through an unstructured Outlook inbox, requiring nearly two full days per week to draft pay runs. Approver routing depended on tribal knowledge held by a single clerk, and only 25% of invoices were properly documented in Oracle NetSuite.

First attempt

Purple first attempted to implement Concur Invoice, but the team resisted due to a required professional services engagement. Months passed without reducing the backlog, and Concur's functionality did not work well with their system, particularly for PO-based invoices.

Workflow diagram · grounded in source

Invoice arrives in AP inbox

trigger

“Our AP inbox was like a giant black hole. 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”

Billy learns approver patterns

feedback_loop

“Billy really stood out to us, too. The ability to have that learning feature has been invaluable and was something that we didn't find with Concur Invoice”

Route invoices to approvers

routing

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

Approver review and sign-off

human_review

“Purple now has 90+ people using Stampli, most of whom are approvers”

Invoices fully documented

integration

“With Stampli 100% of our invoices are properly documented. With automation, approvals based on amounts or purchase type are all embedded into the application.”

Audit 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

After deploying Stampli, Purple regained approximately 3 FTE days per week, reduced invoice processing time from eight days to three days (63% faster approvals), cut the invoice backlog by at least 50%, eliminated duplicate invoice payments, and raised proper invoice documentation from 25% to 100%.

Reported metrics

FTE days regained per week~3 FTE Days Per Week

Invoice approval speed improvement63%

Invoice processing timeeight days to three days

Invoices properly documented (after)100%

Show all 8 reported metrics

FTE days regained per week~3 FTE Days Per Week

invoice approval speed improvement63%

invoice processing timeeight days to three days

invoices properly documented (after)100%

invoices properly documented (before)25%

duplicate invoice paymentseliminated paying duplicate invoices

OPEX reductionreduction in OPEX

active Stampli users90+

Reported stack

StampliBillyartificial intelligenceoptical character recognitionOracle NetSuite

Source

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

Read source ↗

Frequently asked questions

What did this team achieve with this AI workflow?

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

What tools did this team use?

Stampli, Billy, artificial intelligence, optical character recognition, Oracle NetSuite.

What results were reported?

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

What failed first in this deployment?

Purple first attempted to implement Concur Invoice, but the team resisted due to a required professional services engagement.

How is this accounts payable AI workflow structured?

Invoice arrives in AP inbox → AI and OCR apply GL codes → Billy learns approver patterns → Route invoices to approvers → Approver review and sign-off → Invoices fully documented → Audit self-service access.