This is a real case study from one of our clients.
The accounts receivable team was drowning in clicks.
As a vendor to one of the world's largest retailers, our client — a custom manufacturing company — processed thousands of invoices through a complex payment-on-request system. There was no API, no automation. Just a tedious manual process that took 5 to 7 minutes per transaction.
Do the math on thousands of invoices at six minutes each, and you'll understand the problem. Leadership faced an uncomfortable choice: hire additional staff just to click through payment requests, or find a better way.
They chose the better way.
The problem: death by a thousand clicks
Getting paid by this major retailer required a three-stage process — and every stage was manual:
Step 1: Request authorization
Before submitting any invoice for payment, agents had to log into the retailer's vendor portal and submit a request for authorization. This meant navigating to the right section, entering order details, and waiting for approval.
Step 2: Generate the payment request
Once the authorization number came back, the real work began. Agents had to return to the vendor payment platform and create a payment request — manually typing in all the invoice information including every line item, quantities, prices, and the authorization number they'd just received.
Step 3: Upload supporting documents
But they weren't done yet. Between steps, agents had to download the invoice PDF from the company's main system, then upload it to the retailer's portal as supporting documentation. Only then could they finally submit the payment request.
Then you wait to get paid.
Each complete cycle took 5-7 minutes of focused clicking, typing, downloading, uploading, and verifying. One invoice: manageable. A hundred invoices: an entire workday lost to mechanical data entry.
The AR team wasn't doing accounts receivable — they were doing data entry. And there was no end in sight. As sales grew, invoice volume grew. The process didn't scale.
The hidden cost of manual processes: The AR team couldn't focus on what actually matters — collecting money and building customer relationships — because they were buried in mechanical clicking.
The solution: one-click automation
We built a custom automation bot that integrated directly with the client's CRM.
How it works
What once required 5-7 minutes of clicking, waiting, and data entry now happens with a single button press:
- Employee identifies an invoice ready for payment — this still requires human judgment
- Employee clicks one button — the automation begins
- The bot handles the entire three-step process:
- Step 1: Logs into the retailer's portal and submits the authorization request
- Step 2: Creates the payment request with all line items, details, and authorization number
- Step 3: Downloads the invoice PDF from the main system, uploads it to the portal, and submits
From the user's perspective, the entire process takes about two seconds. They click, the bot confirms completion, and they move to the next invoice.
The technical approach
The automation uses browser automation (similar to how testing frameworks work) to interact with the retailer's portal. Since there was no API available, we had to work with the existing web interface.
Key considerations in the build:
- Security — Credentials are handled securely, never exposed
- Error handling — The bot detects when something goes wrong and alerts the user
- Logging — Every action is tracked for audit purposes
- Integration — Works directly from within the existing CRM workflow
The team didn't need to learn a new system or change their workflow. The button simply appeared where they needed it, doing what they needed it to do.
The results
Since 2022, that bot has processed more than 15,000 invoices.
Time savings
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Time per invoice | 5-7 minutes | ~2 seconds |
| Total invoices processed | — | 15,000+ |
| Hours saved | — | 1,500+ |
At six minutes per invoice and 15,000+ invoices, that's over 1,500 hours of manual work that simply vanished.
Dollar impact
At typical labor costs, 1,500 hours translates to $50,000-$60,000 in direct savings.
But the bigger impact was what the AR team could now do with their time:
- Focus on collections — Actually following up on outstanding payments
- Build relationships — Working with customers on payment terms
- Handle exceptions — Addressing the invoices that actually need human attention
The freed-up capacity led to a $400,000 improvement in collections — money that was always owed but couldn't be pursued when staff were buried in manual processing.
The real ROI of automation isn't just the labor saved — it's what your people can accomplish when they're freed from mechanical work.
Why this worked
We automated the right thing
Not every process should be automated. This one was perfect because:
- High volume — Thousands of invoices meant thousands of hours at stake
- Repetitive — The same steps, every time, with no variation
- No API available — We couldn't just integrate at the data layer
- Error-prone — Manual entry meant occasional mistakes
- Low judgment required — Once the invoice was identified, the steps were mechanical
We fit the workflow
The automation works within the existing CRM. The AR team didn't need to learn a new system, change their process, or adopt new habits. The button appeared where they were already working.
We built in reliability
The bot handles errors gracefully. When something goes wrong (the portal changes, a session times out, data doesn't match), the system alerts the user and logs the issue. No silent failures.
We thought about maintenance
Web portals change. We built the automation to be maintainable, with clear separation between the logic and the portal interaction. When the retailer updates their interface, we can adjust without rebuilding everything.
The broader lesson
This automation was built for a specific problem at a specific company. But the pattern is universal:
Look for high-volume, repetitive, mechanical processes. If humans are doing the same clicks over and over, there's probably a better way.
Don't wait for an API. Many systems don't offer clean integration options. Browser automation can bridge the gap when APIs don't exist.
Measure the real cost. 5-7 minutes per invoice doesn't sound like much. Multiply by thousands, and suddenly you're talking about full-time employees doing nothing but clicking.
Consider what else becomes possible. The $50,000 in labor savings was just the start. The $400,000 improvement in collections — that's what happens when humans can focus on human work.
Is this your situation?
If your team is spending hours on repetitive data entry — logging into portals, clicking through screens, entering the same information in multiple places — there's probably an automation opportunity.
We'd be happy to take a look at your specific processes and identify what might be automatable. Sometimes a relatively small investment in automation pays for itself many times over.
Entvas Editorial Team
Helping businesses make informed decisions
