Context
A multinational company operating in 6 LATAM countries managed AP visibility through spreadsheets. Each country had different ERPs, local rules, suppliers, and approval flows.
The problem
Fragmented process
Invoices, purchase orders, and receipts were stored in different systems and formats by country.
The pain of manual matching
Teams manually compared invoices against POs and receipts, creating delays and inconsistent controls.
Consequences
Errors, duplicate payments, slow approvals, and limited regional visibility.
The solution
Phase 1: Data centralization (weeks 1-4)
Integration with existing ERPs
Cedalio connected to the local ERPs and extracted PO, supplier, and receipt data.
Unified invoice capture
Invoices were captured from email, portals, and upload workflows in one platform.
Phase 2: Automated matching (weeks 5-8)
Matching rule configuration
Rules were configured by country, supplier, tolerance, tax treatment, and currency.
Exception workflows
Exceptions were routed to the right local or regional owner with context.
Phase 3: Regional rollout (weeks 9-16)
The process expanded across all countries while local teams kept their operational autonomy.
Results
Automatic match rate: 95%
Error reduction: 70%
Payment cycle: from 14 to 3 days
Annual savings: $420K
Transformed AP team
The AP team moved from manual checking to exception management and supplier control.
Challenges and solutions
Challenge: Different PO formats by country
Cedalio normalized data without forcing local ERP changes.
Challenge: Suppliers that do not reference POs correctly
AI agents inferred likely matches from multiple fields.
Challenge: Resistance to change in local teams
The rollout focused on reducing workload, not replacing local teams.
Challenge: Different tax compliance by country
Validation rules were configured by jurisdiction.
The new process
For the AP team
Analysts focus only on exceptions and supplier follow-up.
For management
Regional leaders get consolidated visibility across countries and currencies.
Lessons learned
1. Standardizing does not mean making everything identical
2. The 95% automated flow frees time for the complex 5%
3. Suppliers benefit too
4. Consolidated data enables strategic decisions
Ready to leave spreadsheets behind?
Book a demo to see Cedalio’s regional AP automation model.