GaP Solutions, the Australian retail technology provider behind EM Cloud™, replaced manual supplier invoice processing with AI-powered automation. Processing time per invoice fell from around 40 minutes to about 2 minutes — a 95% reduction — across 10,000–15,000 invoices a month from more than 3,000 suppliers.
That same engine now powers EM Invoicing, giving grocery, fuel, liquor and fresh food retailers faster invoice matching, variance review and margin control inside EM Cloud™.
WHAT AUTOMATION DELIVERED
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95%
Faster processing — 40 minutes down to ~2 per invoice
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99.5%
AI extraction accuracy across 3,000+ layouts
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99.8%
Fewer manual templates — 6,000 replaced by 12 workflows
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150k+
Invoices processed, 24/7, without adding staff
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GaP Solutions is an Australian retail technology provider powering 4,000+ POS systems across 1,000 stores. Its EM Cloud™ platform supports real-time inventory, pricing and retail operations for grocery, fuel convenience, liquor, bakery, butcher, seafood and multi-store retailers. Those stores collectively receive 10,000–15,000 supplier invoices every month from more than 3,000 vendors — and every one of them needs to be captured, checked and matched before it can update stock, costs and pricing.
Supplier invoices sit at the centre of retail operations. They affect stock accuracy, supplier management, cost visibility, pricing decisions and margin control. Yet processing them manually was slow, inconsistent and increasingly difficult to scale:
GaP's experience mirrors the wider industry. A 2025 accounts payable automation report found 63% of respondents spend more than 10 hours per week on invoice processing, and 66% still manually enter invoice data into their ERP — with manual data entry and data errors named as the top process challenges. At the same time, Australian retailers continue to manage cost pressure across wages, energy, logistics, rents and insurance, which makes hours lost to invoice admin harder to justify every year.
GaP Solutions deployed an AI-powered document automation engine that handles supplier invoices end to end. Instead of downloading, reviewing, mapping and keying invoice data by hand, the system now works continuously in the background:
"With existing systems, the data extraction jobs are done manually, which could take days to enter all the invoices — or it's done through another system that normally takes up to 24 hours to return an invoice in a structured format. With the new AI engine, most of it takes three minutes."
John Goodacre, Director, GaP Solutions
Automation transformed speed, accuracy and scalability across GaP's invoice operations:
| Metric | Before automation | After automation |
|---|---|---|
| Time per invoice | ~40 minutes | ~2 minutes (95% faster) |
| Invoice workflows | 6,000 manual, error-prone templates | 12 intelligent workflows (99.8% fewer) |
| Data entry | Manual keying into retail systems | 99.5% AI extraction accuracy |
| Supplier layouts handled | Reviewed by hand, one at a time | 3,000+ layouts read automatically |
| Monthly volume | 10,000–15,000 invoices, hard to keep pace | 150,000+ invoices processed, 24/7 |
"We can put a document in, it identifies what it is, assigns workflows to process it in a timely manner, and we get back the structured data. That's the most powerful option — and one of the largest cost benefits. Once it's set up, it just works all the time."
John Goodacre, Director, GaP Solutions
This automation capability is what powers EM Invoicing, the supplier invoice module inside EM Cloud™. Your team sends supplier invoices by email to a designated address or submits them through a dedicated scanner — original invoices sent by email give the best results. Once EM Cloud™ imports the invoice, the system highlights what needs attention so your team reviews exceptions instead of keying data:
From 40 minutes to 2.
Review by exception, not by hand.
What is supplier invoice automation?
Supplier invoice automation uses software — increasingly AI — to capture invoices from email or a scanner, extract the data, match it against received quantities and costing, flag variances, and pass clean data to accounting and POS systems. It replaces manual data entry and line-by-line checking with review-by-exception.
How much time does invoice automation save retailers?
In GaP Solutions' case, processing time fell from around 40 minutes per invoice to about 2 minutes — a 95% reduction. Industry research from 2025 found 63% of accounts payable teams spend more than 10 hours a week on invoice processing, so the savings compound quickly at retail volumes.
How do supplier invoices get into EM Invoicing?
Your team emails invoices to a designated address or submits them through a dedicated scanner. Original supplier invoices sent by email typically give the best extraction results. EM Cloud™ imports the invoice automatically and presents it for review.
How accurate is AI invoice data extraction?
The AI engine behind EM Invoicing runs at 99.5% extraction accuracy across more than 3,000 different supplier invoice layouts, with automatic total checks, line-item validation and discrepancy detection on every invoice.
Does EM Invoicing integrate with Xero and MYOB?
Yes. Once your team has reviewed and processed an invoice in EM Cloud™, EM Invoicing supports export to Xero, MYOB and other accounting platforms, so the invoice moves smoothly from store review to accounting.
Which retailers is EM Invoicing built for?
EM Invoicing is designed for grocery, fuel convenience, liquor, bakery, butcher, seafood and fresh food retailers, as well as multi-store operators who need a consistent supplier invoice process across locations.