In most SAP VIM projects, conversations almost always revolve around the same topics: OCR accuracy, workflow design, or approval chains. However, a technical decision that is actually the true driving force of the project is often overlooked: automatically determining whether an invoice should follow a PO (Purchase Order) or Non-PO workflow. At first glance, this might seem like a basic classification, but its operational and financial impact is enormous.
At the end of the day, the true objective of implementing SAP VIM is not merely to “capture” invoices in a system; it is to eliminate manual work. Every time an invoice is misclassified, it triggers a domino effect that hinders the efficiency of the Accounts Payable (AP) department: unnecessary validations, alerts in the wrong workflows, payment delays, and, of course, the AP team wasting valuable time correcting the error by hand.
When the system is unable to determine the correct workflow on its own, automation dies, and we revert to relying on the human factor. That is where the return on investment vanishes.
The most mature companies no longer rely solely on OCR
Many organisations remain anchored to overly simplistic logic: if the system detects a purchase order number, it goes through the PO workflow; if it doesn’t, it goes down the Non-PO route.
The problem is that day-to-day accounting is much more chaotic. In the real world, suppliers forget to include the PO number on the PDF, the OCR doesn’t always read it correctly, or the rules change completely depending on the country, company code, or type of supplier.
For this reason, the most advanced and mature implementations go a step further and incorporate logic based on the supplier’s historical behaviour. The key question the system asks is no longer, “does this invoice have a written PO?”, but rather: “does this supplier typically work with purchase orders within our organisation?”
Fewer exceptions = greater Straight Through Processing (STP)
When SAP VIM is able to cross-reference OCR data with billing history, business rules, and the supplier’s usual patterns, decision-making becomes incredibly precise.
The direct result? Fewer exceptions in the inbox, fewer manual interventions by the team, a drastic increase in touchless invoices, and, above all, a genuine ability to scale the model internationally. This is what we call real and effective Straight Through Processing.
Automation is more than just having VIM installed
There is a myth that automating Accounts Payable simply consists of digitalising invoices, applying an OCR, and activating a few workflows. However, the reality is quite different.
The true digital maturity of a finance department is not measured by the tools it has purchased, but by the percentage of invoices that complete the entire process without any human having to touch them. And the success of this metric depends directly on how we design and implement these “invisible” decisions within the system.
