Stop Hiring for Repetitive Accounting Tasks
Automating accounting is more cost-effective for repetitive tasks like invoice processing and expense categorization. A custom AI system has a one-time build cost but eliminates recurring salary expenses.
We built a document processing pipeline for a 15-person construction firm handling 600 subcontractor invoices per month. The 3-week build replaced 20 hours of weekly manual data entry, reducing their average invoice processing time from 5 minutes to 8 seconds.
The breakeven point depends on task volume and complexity. If an employee spends over 15 hours a week on manual data entry from predictable documents, automation provides a clear return. For tasks requiring subjective judgment, like vendor negotiations, a human is still necessary.
What Problem Does This Solve?
Most businesses start by creating rules in QuickBooks Online. These rules can categorize transactions from linked bank accounts but fail with PDF invoices. They require exact string matches for vendor names and cannot extract line-item details, forcing manual entry for the bulk of accounts payable work.
Next, teams try dedicated OCR or AP automation software. This approach often fails because generic tools cannot handle vendor-specific invoice layouts. A system trained on standard formats will mis-extract data from a subcontractor's unique PDF template 30% of the time. This forces a manual review process that defeats the purpose of automation, as someone still has to check every single entry for errors.
The fundamental issue is that off-the-shelf tools cannot integrate company-specific business logic. They cannot match an invoice to a purchase order in a separate project management system, route an invoice for approval based on an internal project code, or apply custom validation rules before creating a bill in QuickBooks. The workflow remains fragmented, with manual work bridging the gaps between rigid software.
How Does It Work?
We begin by connecting to the source of your documents, typically by monitoring a dedicated email inbox like invoices@yourcompany.com using AWS Simple Email Service. We collect a sample of at least 200 historical invoices and receipts to capture the variety of layouts and vendors you work with. This creates our baseline for testing.
When a new document arrives, an AWS Lambda function is triggered. It sends the document to the Claude 3 Opus API with a specific prompt engineered to return a structured JSON object containing the vendor name, invoice number, date, line items, and total amount. This entire extraction process takes under 8 seconds. The structured data and the original PDF are stored in a Supabase database for audit trails.
A custom FastAPI application contains your specific business logic. This service takes the extracted JSON, validates the data (e.g., checks if the line-item totals sum to the grand total), matches the vendor to your QuickBooks vendor list, and cross-references the invoice against purchase orders from your ERP via its API. Any invoice failing validation is flagged in a simple review queue. Approved transactions are pushed to QuickBooks Online as draft bills using the QBO API.
We implement structured logging using `structlog` for every step of the process. If the Claude API fails to parse a document or the QuickBooks API connection times out, a detailed alert containing the invoice ID and error message is sent to a designated Slack channel. The entire system runs for under $50 per month in AWS costs for a volume of 2,000 documents, achieving over 99% extraction accuracy.
What Are the Key Benefits?
Process an Invoice in 8 Seconds, Not 5 Minutes
Your accounts payable workflow runs in near real-time. Bills appear in QuickBooks for approval moments after the invoice arrives in your inbox.
One-Time Build Cost, Not a Recurring Salary
You pay for the system build, not a headcount. A single scoped project replaces the need for a $60,000/year hire focused on data entry.
You Get the Full Source Code in GitHub
We deliver the complete Python codebase to your company's GitHub repository. You are not locked into a proprietary platform and can have any developer extend it.
Get Failure Alerts, Not Silent Errors
Integrated monitoring sends a Slack notification if an invoice cannot be parsed or an API connection fails. You know immediately when a manual review is needed.
Connects Email, ERP, and QuickBooks Directly
The system acts as the glue between your existing tools. It pulls from your inbox, checks your ERP, and pushes to QuickBooks without manual copy-pasting.
What Does the Process Look Like?
Workflow Audit (Week 1)
You grant read-only access to your inbox and QuickBooks account. We deliver a detailed process map and a validation report on 50 historical invoices.
Core System Build (Weeks 2-3)
We build the Claude-based parsing engine and your custom business logic. You receive access to a staging environment to test the first 100 automated entries.
Integration & Deployment (Week 4)
We connect the system to your live email and QuickBooks accounts. You receive admin credentials for the review queue and monitoring dashboard.
Monitoring & Handoff (Weeks 5-8)
We monitor performance for 30 days, tuning for edge-case vendors. You receive the full GitHub repository, system documentation, and a runbook for maintenance.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What factors determine the cost of a custom accounting automation?
- The primary factors are the number of document types (invoices, receipts, POs), the number of systems to integrate (QuickBooks, a CRM, an ERP), and the complexity of your business rules (multi-level approvals, currency conversion). A project to process one document type into one system is straightforward. A project connecting three systems with complex validation rules requires a larger scope.
- What happens if the AI misreads an invoice?
- The system uses a confidence score from the Claude API for each extracted field. If the score for a critical field like 'total_amount' falls below a 95% threshold, the invoice is automatically flagged for human review in a simple web interface. It will not be pushed to QuickBooks until a person manually approves the extracted data, preventing errors in your accounting records.
- How is this different from using a tool like Bill.com?
- Bill.com is a full AP platform with its own payment system and monthly per-user fees. Syntora builds a lightweight data processing pipeline that feeds your existing QuickBooks setup. It is for companies that are happy with QuickBooks for accounting but need to eliminate the manual data entry bottleneck. Our approach avoids monthly SaaS fees and vendor lock-in.
- Can this system handle handwritten receipts or notes?
- For typed, digitally-generated PDFs, we achieve over 99% accuracy. For scanned documents with handwritten notes or poor image quality, accuracy is lower. While Claude's OCR is powerful, we typically scope projects to focus on digital documents to guarantee reliable performance. We can assess your document mix during the initial audit.
- Who owns the cloud accounts and pays for API usage?
- You do. The entire system is deployed in your own AWS account using your own API keys for Claude and QuickBooks. You have the direct billing relationship with the providers. This gives you full transparency and control over operating costs, which are usually under $50/month for typical SMB volumes. We guide you through the setup process.
- What is the maintenance requirement after the system is live?
- The system is designed to run with minimal intervention. Maintenance is typically required only when a vendor drastically changes their invoice format or you change your internal accounting process. The provided runbook covers how to handle these scenarios. For teams wanting zero maintenance, we offer an optional flat monthly support plan that covers all monitoring and updates.
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