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Document review: definition & important aspects for buyers
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Document review in a nutshell:
Document checking is a systematic process for checking and validating business-relevant documents for completeness, accuracy and conformity. In purchasing, it ensures the legal and commercial correctness of orders, supplier contracts and invoices, thereby minimizing financial and legal risks.
Example: A buyer checks an incoming invoice for EUR 25,000 within 24 hours to ensure that it matches the order, validates the delivery bills, checks the payment terms (30-day payment term) and compares the prices with the agreement before approving the payment.
Contents
What is the document check?
Document review in purchasing refers to the careful checking and validation of all relevant documents in the procurement process. This includes quotations, contracts, delivery bills, invoices and quality certificates. The aim is to ensure the accuracy, completeness and compliance of these documents in order to minimize risk management and guarantee a smooth process.
Core elements of the document review
Significance for purchasing
A thorough document review is essential to reduce risks and optimize processes in purchasing. It ensures that all procurement activities are legally compliant and protects the company from financial losses and reputational damage. It also promotes transparent relationships with suppliers through clear and correct documentation.
Document verification: from manual checks to automated validation
Document review is a central process in procurement controlling that ensures the systematic review of documents for completeness, accuracy and compliance. In practice, it is essential for detecting errors at an early stage, minimizing risk management and ensuring that procurement processes run smoothly. However, in view of increasing document volumes and increasingly complex regulatory requirements, the traditional manual approach is reaching its limits. The transformation to automated solutions is therefore becoming increasingly important.
Old: Manual document check
Traditional approach: In traditional document checking, incoming documents such as quotations, contracts, orders and incoming invoices are checked manually by employees. This involves manually comparing information such as prices, quantities and delivery dates with the corresponding data in internal systems or physical files. Tools such as Excel spreadsheets or printed checklists support the process. This method is time-consuming and prone to human error. In addition, staff overload can lead to delays and the traceability of the checks is often limited. This approach reaches its limits, especially with high document volumes and complex compliance requirements.
New: Automated document verification
Automated Document Verification: Modern systems rely on automated document verification using technologies such as Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Incoming documents are digitally captured and relevant information is automatically extracted and validated. The data is compared in real time with existing orders and contracts in the ERP system. AI algorithms detect discrepancies and automatically point out potential errors or compliance violations. This leads to considerable time savings, a reduction in error rates and improved process quality. Employees can concentrate on more complex tasks and the transparency and traceability of checks are increased.
Practical example: Automated invoice verification at Muster GmbH
Muster GmbH, a leading company in the electronics industry, implemented an automated solution for invoice verification. By integrating an AI-supported system, the processing time per invoice was reduced from an average of 15 minutes to 2 minutes. The error rate fell by 80% and compliance with payment deadlines improved significantly. Within the first year, this led to cost savings of over 100,000 euros and at the same time strengthened relationships with suppliers through faster and more reliable payment processing.
Conclusion on the document review
Document checking in purchasing is an indispensable tool for risk minimization and quality assurance. Systematically checking contracts, delivery bills and other relevant documents not only reduces legal and financial risks, but also sustainably improves process quality. The trend towards digitalization and AI-supported checking opens up new possibilities for more efficient and precise checking processes, while qualified employees and standardized processes continue to form the foundation of successful document checking.
