Shopping for an invoice scanning solution before counting how invoices arrive is the most common sequencing error in this area. The channel mix decides almost everything: whether you need paper handling at all, whether portals need a manual routine, and whether the real problem is that a third of your invoices go to individuals and never reach any system.
Count a month by channel
Post, shared mailbox, supplier portals, photographs from sites, and invoices sent to individuals. This takes an afternoon and it reorders most shopping lists. Organisations that assume they have a paper problem frequently discover they have an email routing problem, which is free to fix and does not need a scanning product at all.
Scope from the mix
Heavy paper means hardware or a bureau and a consistent scanning standard. Mostly emailed PDFs means the priority is a single address and good extraction, with no scanning hardware needed. Portal-heavy means somebody owns a scheduled fetch. Each is a different purchase, and the differences are larger than any difference between vendors.
Then set the standard and the exception path
Whatever the mix, decide the scanning standard, who scans, when, and what happens to anything that cannot be read. An unattended folder of failed documents is where a scanning solution quietly stops working, and a named owner with a weekly look prevents it at no cost.
Questions people ask about invoice scanning solution
Do we need a bureau?
Only at meaningful paper volume, or where space and staffing are constrained. Most organisations moving to email do not.
What if suppliers refuse to email?
Some will, particularly smaller ones, and paper handling remains necessary for them. Scope for the residue rather than assuming it disappears.
How long does consolidating channels take?
Usually a quarter or two, since it depends on suppliers and colleagues changing habits. Start it early and in parallel with everything else.