Automate Accounting Without Hiring an Engineer
Outsourcing accounting process automation is more cost-effective for SMBs without an engineering team. A fixed-price build avoids the recurring salary and overhead costs of an internal hire.
The right choice depends on the complexity of your workflow. Automating simple bank reconciliation is different from building a three-way matching system for purchase orders, invoices, and receiving slips. The number of systems involved, from your ERP to your bank feeds, defines the project scope.
We built an invoice processing pipeline for a 15-person logistics firm that handled 500 vendor invoices per month. Each one required 6 minutes of manual data entry into NetSuite. The system went live in 3 weeks, reducing processing time to 8 seconds per invoice and eliminating manual errors.
What Problem Does This Solve?
Most businesses start with the built-in features of their accounting software. QuickBooks Online's rules can categorize bank transactions, but they cannot parse line items from a PDF invoice. If a vendor sends a single invoice for 'Software Subscription' and 'Consulting Hours', the rule-based system cannot split the expense into two different general ledger codes.
Next, teams try off-the-shelf OCR tools. These services extract text but struggle with non-standard invoice layouts, requiring manual template creation for each new vendor. A distribution company working with 200+ suppliers ends up spending more time managing OCR templates than they save on data entry, and accuracy still hovers around 80%.
This forces a choice: hire a full-time developer or continue the manual work. An internal hire who can build production systems costs over $150k in salary plus benefits, a steep price for an SMB. The manual process seems cheaper but introduces a 5-10% error rate from typos, leading to hours of painful month-end reconciliation.
How Does It Work?
We begin by analyzing 50-100 sample invoices from your top 20 vendors to map all layout variations. We connect to your email server via IMAP using Python's `imaplib` to fetch new invoice attachments automatically. All credentials for your ERP and email are stored securely in your own cloud account using AWS Secrets Manager.
When a new invoice PDF is detected, it triggers a function on AWS Lambda. This function uses the Claude API to perform OCR and structured data extraction. It can parse varied layouts without templates, identifying key-value pairs like 'Invoice Number' and 'Due Date', and extracting line items into a structured JSON object. The extraction and structuring process completes in under 8 seconds per page.
The extracted data is validated for integrity using Pydantic models. We then use a FastAPI service to perform business logic checks, like verifying the vendor exists in your ERP and that the invoice total matches the sum of its line items. If validation passes, the service uses your ERP's native API, like the QuickBooks Online API, to create a new bill. The entire flow from email receipt to ERP entry takes under 30 seconds.
If the system's confidence in any extracted field is below a 95% threshold, or if a validation rule fails, it does not write to your ERP. Instead, it sends a notification to a designated Slack channel. The message includes a link to a simple review interface, the original PDF, and the extracted data, allowing a bookkeeper to make a 30-second correction instead of performing the full 6-minute manual entry. We use `structlog` to provide traceable logs for every step of the process.
What Are the Key Benefits?
Live in 3 Weeks, Not 6 Months
A focused build gets your system into production in 15 business days. This is faster than the typical 6-month process of hiring, onboarding, and training an internal developer.
One Fixed Price, Zero Salary Overhead
We deliver the entire system for a single, fixed project fee. You avoid the recurring costs of a full-time employee's salary, benefits, taxes, and equipment.
You Own the Code and Infrastructure
We deliver the complete Python source code to your company's GitHub repository. The system runs on your own AWS account, ensuring you have full ownership and control.
Human-in-the-Loop, Not Black Box
Low-confidence extractions are flagged for human review via Slack alerts. This prevents bad data from ever reaching your ERP, unlike systems that fail silently.
Direct Integration with Your ERP
The pipeline posts data directly to your existing systems like NetSuite, QuickBooks Online, or Xero. Your team's workflow doesn't change; the manual data entry step just disappears.
What Does the Process Look Like?
System Scoping (Week 1)
You provide a set of 50-100 sample invoices and read-only access to your ERP. We deliver a detailed data mapping document that confirms every field to be extracted and its destination.
Core Pipeline Build (Week 2)
We build the email ingestion, data extraction, and validation services. You receive access to a staging environment where you can upload invoices and see the extracted JSON output.
Integration and Deployment (Week 3)
We connect the pipeline to your live ERP system and deploy it to your cloud infrastructure. You receive administrator access and the system begins processing live invoices.
Monitoring and Handoff (Weeks 4-8)
We actively monitor system performance and accuracy for 30 days post-launch. At the end of this period, you receive a complete runbook for monitoring and managing the system.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How is the project price determined?
- Pricing is based on three factors: the number of unique invoice layouts we need to support, the number of systems to integrate (e.g., email, ERP, document storage), and the complexity of your business validation rules. A simple invoice-to-QuickBooks flow is a standard build, while a three-way PO matching system is a more complex engagement. We provide a fixed quote after our discovery call.
- What happens if an invoice is processed incorrectly?
- The system is designed to fail safely. If data extraction confidence is low or totals do not match, it flags the invoice for human review instead of pushing bad data to your ERP. The Slack alert includes the PDF and the extracted data for a quick fix. This prevents silent errors that cause reconciliation problems later.
- How is this different from using an AP automation tool like Bill.com?
- Tools like Bill.com are full platforms that replace parts of your workflow and charge monthly per-user or per-invoice fees. Syntora builds a lightweight pipeline that injects data directly into your existing ERP. You own the code and only pay for cloud usage, which is typically under $50/month. There are no recurring license fees.
- How is our sensitive financial data handled?
- The system is deployed entirely within your own cloud infrastructure (your AWS account). Syntora does not host or retain any of your financial data after the build is complete. All credentials, like API keys for your ERP, are stored in your cloud provider's secrets management service, which you control.
- What does ongoing maintenance involve after the handoff?
- The system runs automatically. The only required maintenance is occasional updates to Python libraries, which can be handled by any developer. We offer an optional flat-rate monthly plan that covers this, along with performance monitoring and support for any changes to your vendor invoice formats.
- What kind of ROI can we expect?
- A client processing 400 invoices per month saves 25-30 hours of manual work. At a bookkeeper's loaded rate of $40/hour, that is a direct savings of $1,000-$1,200 per month. The one-time build cost is typically recovered in under 9 months, after which the savings go directly to your bottom line.
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