Invoices in. Discount captured. DATEV-ready. Fully automated.

Using Microsoft 365 and Power Automate you already have — no new system, no IT project.

In 30 minutes I'll show you what's possible with your existing Microsoft setup.

Sound familiar?

Your invoice approval process is costing you money every month — even if nobody talks about it.

Embarrassing.

2,000 invoices a year. Printed twice. 500 hours of admin work — for a single process.

We lose more discount than the process is worth.

At 2 % discount on €5M purchasing volume, that's €100,000 a year — gone, because approvals take too long.

The paper invoice folder still goes from desk to desk.

Printed, slipped into a plastic sleeve, then handed around the office. Whoever's out today blocks the whole process — and nobody knows where the folder is right now.

Who hasn't approved that invoice yet?

Invoices wander between departments. The early-payment discount expires. In the end, someone just does it themselves — faster than explaining.

I was in the dark again.

No overview which invoices are stuck. No discount captured. The accountant is waiting.

The accountant is asking — again.

Documents missing, allocation unclear, follow-up questions instead of insights. Every week the same loop — and the fees grow with every delay.

What our customers gain on average

~500 h
admin work saved per year
> 98 %
early-payment discount captured
< 2 min
processing time per invoice
0
printouts. 0 manual handoffs.

You now know where time gets lost. Want to see how it could concretely look for you?

The solution

Your existing Microsoft account does this.

Teams. Outlook. SharePoint. Power Automate. The thing that automatically forwards the invoice. The thing that lets Teams and Outlook talk to each other. End to end, fully automated — even when nobody is watching.

No new platform. No new vendor. Power Automate Premium and possibly Dataverse / Power Apps may be needed — but no new system.

What's actually still manual?

9 manual steps before. 2 after.

01
Invoice arrival
Invoice arrival via email
Manually scan inbox, download attachments, name files
Automated
Invoice arrival via post / vendor portal
Open and scan paper invoices — or log into the vendor portal and download the PDF
Physical inbound stays manual — not automatable
Stays
02
Filing in the invoice inbox folder
Name the file, classify it and copy into the right SharePoint inbox folder
Automated
03
Invoice archival — incoming email
Manually move email to archive folder — or file the printed invoice in a binder
Automated
04
Pre-coding & classification
Read vendor, amount and account from PDF — check discount priority — assign cost center and GL account
Automated
05
Approver assignment
Find the right approver, write or talk to them — for multi-step approval: trigger every step manually
Automated
06
Paper folder & desk-to-desk tour
Printer, plastic sleeve, invoice folder — round through the departments
Automated
07
Approval
Signature or tick in the paper folder
Folder sits unattended — discount expires · New: one click in Teams, Outlook or on mobile
1 click
08
Export & handoff to accounting
Manual export, upload to accountant portal or email with attachments to the accountant
Discount is automatically captured within the deadline — no missed payment windows
Automated
2of 9 steps stay manual

Opening physical mail or downloading from a vendor portal is still on you. And the click to approve — you want to keep that, for compliance reasons.

Real customers, real numbers

What customers say — once the process is in place.

We saved 500 hours of admin work per year. But more importantly: we capture early-payment discount 95 % of the time instead of 40 %. That's a six-figure number.
Simon Lautner
CFO, mid-sized energy provider
I used to sit there in the evening not knowing which invoice was stuck where. Now I open Teams and see everything at a glance — including what colleagues are approving right now.
Uwe
Head of operations, manufacturing

30 minutes, your Microsoft, concrete possibilities. After that you decide if it moves forward.

Reference projects

Three implemented invoice approval processes — anonymized.

Real industries, real numbers, real setups.

Engineering office · Renewable energy

400–700 invoices/year straight into DATEV

AI Builder reads vendor, amount and GL account; Power Automate hands the data to DATEV via XML export. 0 printouts, ~3 min per invoice instead of 15 — discount capture rate above 95 %.

Trades · Electrical & plumbing · 30 employees

Paper folder gone — approval inside Teams

Used to lose €8,000/year in missed early-payment discounts. Today: one-click approval in Teams, invoices flow to the accountant via a SharePoint print folder.

Mid-sized services company · Lexoffice

Invoices straight into Lexoffice — no third system

~150 incoming invoices per month flow from Outlook into Lexoffice automatically. The accountant works directly in Lexoffice — no email handoff, no double bookkeeping.

What does your process cost?

Run the numbers — right here.

Number of invoices, processing time, hourly rate. You instantly see what you're tying up — and what's possible.

Adjust hourly rate and invoice count — calculate your savings potential right here.

Process Steps
Process StepCountDuration (min)Cost/MonthSavings %Savings/Month
CURRENT STATEAFTER AUTOMATION
€700€665
€350€350
€350€350
€1,750€1,488
€700€630
€1,050€1,050
€1,050€788
€30€21
TOTAL€5,980€5,341

Result

Cost per invoice today
€17.09
Cost per invoice after automation
€1.83
Savings
89 %

You now know where time gets lost. Want to see how it could concretely look for you?

Requirements check

What your invoice approval process needs to do

These requirements come up in almost every project.

Interface to accounting systems

DATEV, Lexoffice or document transfer to your tax accountant

Discount tracking before approval

not after

Approval directly in Teams, Outlook or via phone / tablet

no new login

Automatic pre-coding

vendor, amount and cost center read automatically

Flexible approval levels

single-stage, multi-stage or rule-based (e.g. from €5,000 → management)

Automatic routing to the right approver

Automatic reminders on pending approvals

GoBD-compliant document archival

Audit log

every approval action recorded

Permission concept with roles and rights

Recognize more than 5 of these?

Then let's talk now.

Your next step

You know where time is leaking.

I'll show you in 30 minutes what's concretely possible — using what you already have. No sales pitch, no pressure. If it fits, we take the next step. If not, you walk away with clarity.