AI-powered OCR Automation for ERP: Benefits, Key Workflows and Case Study

AI-driven OCR automation offers a smarter, faster way to handle documents, helping businesses eliminate manual data entry, streamline document workflows, ensure data accuracy, and improve productivity.

For Australian companies, especially in manufacturing, finance, or healthcare, ERP OCR integration provides an innovative way to extract and process data from various document formats and directly flow it into their enterprise systems. This not only reduces manual errors but also boosts operational efficiency.

In this blog post, we’ll delve into its key benefits, what sets our AI OCR solution apart, key workflows, and how one of the largest B2B loyalty and incentive agencies in ANZ transformed its operations using our AI-driven OCR solution.

What Is AI-Powered OCR Automation?

AI-powered OCR involves using AI technologies to automatically extract and convert data from scanned images or PDF documents into editable and searchable formats with high accuracy.

Unlike traditional OCR, which only extracts text, AI-enabled OCR can understand the structure and context, allowing it to accurately identify key fields, even from complex document layouts or low-quality scans. It continuously learns and improves based on human corrections and feedback. This makes AI OCR automation a perfect match for automating data entry workflows, especially when integrated with ERP systems like Odoo and more.

Why Are Businesses Adopting AI-driven OCR Automation?

AI OCR solutions are rapidly revolutionising how businesses automate data entry and document processing. The illustration below shows the main reasons for adopting OCR automation:

• Eliminates manual data entry: Manual processing is time-consuming, error-prone, and expensive. OCR can automatically extract data from documents such as invoices, receipts, and more, cutting down processing time.
• Boosts operational efficiency: Automating routine document workflows enables employees to focus on higher-value tasks. 
• Scales with business growth: Scaling businesses receive more documents than ever, making manual handling unsustainable. AI-driven OCR systems can handle large volumes of data, making them ideal for scaling operations.
• Enhances compliance and traceability: AI OCR helps maintain digital audit trails, ensuring regulatory compliance.
• Integrates with enterprise systems: Modern OCR solutions integrate with existing systems, such as ERP, accounting and more, enabling end-to-end automation and improved data flow across business units.

With its clear advantages, AI OCR is being adopted across various industries. Let's explore how OCR is revolutionising operations in some sectors in the next section.

How is AI OCR used for specific industries?

With undeniable benefits, AI OCR technology extends across a spectrum of industries, such as finance, retail, education, healthcare, and manufacturing. Here are some of the use cases in the industries where OCR finds significant applications:

These are just a few examples of industries where OCR technology has made a substantial impact. If you’re interested in adopting OCR technology for your business, but don’t see your industry listed above, please drop us a line. We’re happy to have further discussions.

To meet customers’ needs, our experts have developed a smart AI-driven OCR solution for any business. Now, let’s dive into the below to understand what makes our OCR automation solution uniquely effective, especially for businesses looking to integrate OCR seamlessly into ERP platforms like Odoo.

What Makes Our AI OCR Outperform Odoo’s OCR

Odoo’s built-in OCR is a great starting point for automating vendor bill processing. It handles basic invoice data extraction, integrates natively with Odoo Accounting, and reduces the need for manual data entry. For businesses processing a moderate volume of vendor bills, it gets the job done efficiently.

But as your operation scales, so do your document complexities - and that’s where our AI-driven OCR solution outperforms.

Unlike standard OCR, which only extracts text, our AI OCR understands context, adapts to different document formats, and continuously learns from corrections. Whether you’re dealing with invoices, purchase orders, supplier quotes, or scanned forms, our system extracts data with unmatched precision and routes it directly into your Odoo workflows.

Our AI OCR automation solution is built for businesses managing diverse document formats, large data volumes, and complex workflows. It’s fast to implement, simple to use, and easy to integrate with your ERP systems. The illustration below displays what sets it apart:

• No-code, email-based integration: Getting started is easy. Simply provide us with your company details, and our experts will handle the rest - from system setup to workflow configuration. No coding or technical expertise required.
• Email-to-OCR automation flow: Our solution captures files directly from incoming emails and classifies them automatically before OCR processing begins. 
• Smarter, custom logic to validate bills: Our system applies custom business logic to check if all necessary information is present to create a bill. If something is missing or seems off, it flags the record for manual review instead of pushing through incomplete or error-prone data.
• AI-powered accuracy: Unlike basic OCR tools that only extract text, our solution uses AI to understand the context, extract, and interpret data from PDF documents, images, or scans. With AI at its core, it offers faster processing times and is more adaptable to various scenarios, whether it’s a supplier invoice, purchase order, or scanned delivery note. It continuously improves and adapts to different document types, even handling blurry scans.
• Seamless integration with ERP systems: While Odoo’s OCR is limited to vendor bills within the Accounting module, our AI OCR integrates across your entire ERP environment. This means purchase orders, quotes, contracts, and other critical documents can be captured and routed intelligently into your workflows.

These features provide businesses with a smart, scalable, and highly reliable OCR automation system that is easy to implement and manage. Now let’s dive deeper into the key workflows - using Odoo OCR integration as an example.

Key Workflows of Our OCR Automation Solutions - Take Odoo As An Example

Our AI-powered OCR solution can significantly enhance document processing within ERP systems like Odoo. Let’s explore two practical workflows that demonstrate how OCR can improve productivity and simplify document handling.

Automated invoice processing

Let’s say you’re a business owner handling numerous invoices from your suppliers in PDF files. Typically, an accountant manually enters invoice data into Odoo, checks it against purchase orders (POs), and creates vendor bills. With our OCR integration, this process becomes automated.

Let’s explore how it works:

• Step 1: Centralise Documents – PDF invoices are centralised into Odoo’s Document workspace, where they are sent to OCR for processing.
• Step 2: AI OCR Extraction – AI OCR extracts relevant information from invoices, such as vendor name, invoice number, dates, amounts, and line items. If needed, additional product information (e.g., description, ID) can be mapped to Odoo fields.
• Step 3: Data Review & Bill Creation – The OCR data is cross-checked with POs in Odoo. If the data matches (allowing for minor discrepancies), the invoice is validated and a bill is created. This enables faster and more accurate invoice processing in Odoo.

By automating the invoicing process, you can ensure quicker payments, better vendor relationships, and more efficient financial management.

Automated purchase order processing

As a procurement manager, you often receive many quotations from suppliers. Typically, you'd need to manually input this data into the system to create purchase quotations. Our OCR solution transforms how you handle supplier quotes and orders within Odoo. Please take a look at the following steps:

• Step 1: Centralise Documents – Supplier quotations are centralised to Odoo’s Document workspace for OCR extraction.
• Step 2: AI OCR Extraction – AI OCR extracts important details from the quotes, such as supplier info, item specifics (Product, Description, Quantity, UoM, Unit price, etc.), and payment details.
• Step 3: Review & Generate Purchase Order – After data review, you can generate a purchase order directly in Odoo. This process accelerates and improves purchase order handling.

These are just a couple of instances where OCR integrates seamlessly with Odoo to optimise document workflows. If you’re curious to see how these work in action or have unique requirements for your business, please get in touch with our team for more details.

A Real Case Study: Havi’s AI OCR Faster Invoicing Process for An Australian Business

Our client is one of the largest independent B2B loyalty and incentive program agencies operating across New Zealand and Australia, with separate legal entities and a customer base spanning New Zealand, Australia, the UK, and Europe.

Recognising the need for operational efficiency, they partnered with Havi to adopt the Odoo ERP platform. This strategic move enabled them to connect and centralise core business functions - sales management, procurement, and accounting - within a single, fully integrated system. It laid a strong foundation for automation and gave the business better visibility and control across departments.

Despite the improvements from Odoo ERP adoption, the client continued to face critical invoicing challenges:

• High volume of invoices: They have worked with multiple vendors to fulfil diverse customer requirements, resulting in a high volume of incoming invoices. These invoices were processed manually, leading to inefficiencies, errors, and payment delays.
• Manual data entry: The process of manually entering data from invoices into their Odoo system led to delays in reconciliation, which affected their vendor relationships and financial tracking.
• Operational bottlenecks: The inefficient invoicing process slowed down overall operations and negatively impacted cash flow management.

To address these challenges, Havi have developed an AI-driven OCR automation solution that is seamlessly integrated with their Odoo system. The process was streamlined as follows:

• Centralised PDF invoices: All PDF invoices are centralised in Odoo Documents.
• Data processing & validation: Our AI OCR solution automatically extracted and validated data from the invoices, checking the totals against existing purchase orders in Odoo.
• Automatic bill creation: Once the data matched, the system automatically created the corresponding bills in Odoo, streamlining the entire process.

By adopting our AI-powered OCR solution, the client was able to optimise their invoicing process, reduce operational bottlenecks, and improve overall financial efficiency. With Odoo serving as a centralised platform, they can now automate core business processes - from order fulfilment to procurement - and access real-time financial insights with ease.

Got questions or ideas you’d like to explore? Our team is here and happy to chat!

Get Started To Adopt Our AI OCR In Your Business System

Our AI OCR solution allows you to automate workflows, enhance accuracy, and unlock a new level of productivity. If you’re interested in adopting it for your business, here’s how Havi can assist your business in adopting OCR:

• Smooth Implementation: With a deep understanding of OCR and AI technologies, our experts collaborate with you to analyse your current system and business processes. We then design a precise OCR integration plan, ensuring that OCR fits seamlessly into your workflow and addresses your unique needs, whether it's invoicing, purchase orders, customer management, or payments.g, purchase orders, customers, or payment. 
• Training and Support: To ensure your team is equipped to make the most of OCR-powered processes, we provide comprehensive training and user guides. Havi also offers ongoing support to help resolve any issues or questions that may arise during the implementation or use of the system.
• Workflow Enhancement: Havi’s expertise spans beyond just technology integration. We can help you optimise your workflows, ensuring that OCR-driven processes align with your business goals, increasing efficiency, and reducing operational bottlenecks.

By integrating OCR into your system, you can save time on document processing, reduce manual efforts, and boost productivity. Our end-to-end approach ensures a smooth adoption that delivers tangible benefits to your business. Have questions or ideas in mind? Let’s talk - we’d love to help!