When teams time their invoices honestly, they usually find that the work takes minutes and the elapsed time takes days, and almost all of the gap is an invoice sitting somewhere it cannot progress. Invoice routing software addresses exactly that gap. It is a modest-sounding capability with a disproportionate effect, because it attacks waiting rather than effort.
Route by what determines the decision
Cost centre, value and category are usually enough. Routing by supplier is tempting and ages badly, because supplier relationships move between departments. Whatever the rule, it should resolve to one named person, with a group only as a fallback and always with an assigned owner rather than shared responsibility.
Handle the exceptions to the rule
There will be invoices the rules cannot place: a new cost centre, an unusual category, a supplier nobody recognises. These need a default owner rather than a limbo queue. An invoice that routes nowhere is the one that surfaces six weeks later when the supplier telephones, and the fix is a named default rather than better rules.
Reminders that escalate
A reminder that repeats to the same silent inbox produces more silence. Escalation to a defined alternative after a defined period is what makes elapsed time predictable, and predictability is what lets you promise suppliers a payment date and keep it.
Questions people ask about invoice routing software
Should routing be automatic or manual?
Automatic for the common cases and manual as an override. Fully manual routing is a person doing a lookup; fully automatic with no override is a system nobody can unstick.
How do we route invoices with no purchase order?
Usually to whoever the spend belongs to, which the invoice itself may not say. This is a good reason to insist on order references in the first place.
Does routing help with exceptions?
Yes, if exceptions route by their reason: price differences to purchasing, quantity differences to whoever received the delivery. Routing an exception to a general queue wastes the information.