The challenge
The finance team had to confirm that quantities matched across supplier invoices, house bills of lading (HBLs) and carrier invoices before reconciling each shipment. Their existing system couldn’t compare data across these documents, so the checks were done by hand. It was slow, and mismatches were easy to miss.
Our approach
We worked with finance and operations to define exactly what “matching” meant, including acceptable tolerances and how each document type is laid out. We were upfront that the existing system couldn’t do this natively, so we designed a solution that sits alongside it rather than waiting for a system change.
The solution
- OCR using the Mistral AI API to extract quantities and key fields from each document
- Matching logic that compares the three documents for every shipment
- Azure SQL Database and Blob Storage to store extracted data and original documents
- A simple web interface showing mismatches for the team to review
The outcome
The team now reviews only genuine exceptions instead of checking every document. Reconciliation is faster, human error has dropped, and recurring supplier issues are easier to spot and raise.