A recent IOFM surveys suggests that 63% of financial professionals still cite paper-based processes and manual data entry as the top challenges to efficient operations. As the digital oilfield slowly evolves toward a completely digital invoicing ecosystem, operators continue to be flooded with physical invoices. And the fact is, the digital oilfield may never go completely paperless.

The invoice paper trail doesn’t stop at the AP inbox. The tasks of coding may be the responsibility of the AP department or individual project owners. Given the multidisciplinary nature of E&P companies, the result is often a massive inter-office paper shuffle as invoices are forwarded between project owners and the AP department. Digital invoices from vendors or those that happen to be scanned on arrival are usually exceptions to the norm and undergo similar inter-office coding shuffle.

The scope of digital transformation should focus on turning paper into digital assets as soon as invoices arrive in the organization. This means that the expense pipeline of paper-based invoices should end at a scanner and a standardized digitization process. Origo plays an especially important role during digitization through a dedicated scanning service that utilizes QR codes and high-speed scanners to rapidly capture invoice images and automatically add to corresponding vendor folders. Origo’s coding tools then enable the appropriate staff to view the scanned invoice alongside data entry screens for rapid keying-in of account, invoice metadata, and line items. Once coded, invoice data is automatically synced with an operator’s accounting general ledger using Origo data integrations and linked to the appropriate vendor accounts.