Time & Cost Impact

Swiss SMEs spend up to 3 hours/week manually entering invoice data; AI parsing removes 85% of that workload.[packagex.io]

Prerequisites

What you'll need:

1
ePost Business inbox
Active Swiss ePost account with business subscription
2
Alfred Business plan
Includes API access and invoice parsing features
3
Bexio account with "Documents" API token
Generate from Bexio Settings → API → Create New Token

Step 1: Set up an ePost forwarding rule

First, we need to ensure all invoices arriving at your physical address are digitized and sent to Alfred:

Log into your ePost Business account
Navigate to post.ch/business-login
Go to Settings → Forwarding Rules
Click "Create New Rule"
Configure the rule:
Name: "Invoice to Alfred"
Condition: Subject contains "Rechnung" OR "Facture" OR "Invoice"
Action: Forward to alfred@your-domain.ch
Active: ✓

💡 Pro Tip:

Add sender email addresses of your regular suppliers to ensure 100% capture rate.

Step 2: Create an Alfred routing recipe

Now we'll configure Alfred to recognize invoices and route them to Bexio:

Alfred Dashboard → Automations → New Recipe

{
  "name": "Supplier Invoice to Bexio",
  "trigger": {
    "type": "document_classified",
    "conditions": {
      "classification": "invoice",
      "confidence": ">= 0.90"
    }
  },
  "actions": [
    {
      "type": "extract_invoice_data",
      "parser": "v2"
    },
    {
      "type": "webhook",
      "url": "https://api.bexio.com/2.0/kb_invoice",
      "method": "POST",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_BEXIO_TOKEN"
      },
      "body_mapping": {
        "vendor_name": "$.extracted.vendor",
        "amount": "$.extracted.total_amount",
        "currency": "$.extracted.currency",
        "due_date": "$.extracted.due_date",
        "invoice_number": "$.extracted.invoice_number"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Condition: sender domain matches @supplier.com ➜ Action: POST to Bexio /invoices endpoint.

Step 3: Extract line-item data (Alfred's Invoice Parser v2)

Alfred's Invoice Parser v2 uses advanced AI to extract detailed information from invoices:

Extracted Fields:

✓ Vendor name & address
✓ Invoice number & date
✓ Line items with descriptions
✓ Quantities & unit prices
✓ Tax rates & amounts
✓ Total amount & currency
✓ Payment terms & due date
✓ Bank account details

Parser Features:

✓ Multi-language support (DE/FR/IT/EN)
✓ Table detection & extraction
✓ QR-bill recognition
✓ Handwritten notes detection
✓ Currency conversion
✓ Duplicate detection
✓ Confidence scoring

Example extraction output:

{
  "vendor": {
    "name": "Swisscom AG",
    "address": "Alte Tiefenaustrasse 6, 3048 Worblaufen",
    "vat_number": "CHE-101.654.423 MWST"
  },
  "invoice": {
    "number": "2025-001234",
    "date": "2025-01-05",
    "due_date": "2025-02-05"
  },
  "line_items": [
    {
      "description": "Business Internet L",
      "quantity": 1,
      "unit_price": 89.00,
      "tax_rate": 8.1,
      "total": 96.21
    },
    {
      "description": "Mobile Business Plans (5x)",
      "quantity": 5,
      "unit_price": 45.00,
      "tax_rate": 8.1,
      "total": 243.23
    }
  ],
  "totals": {
    "subtotal": 314.00,
    "tax": 25.44,
    "total": 339.44,
    "currency": "CHF"
  }
}

Step 4: Auto-match to cost centres in Bexio

Alfred can intelligently map extracted data to your Bexio cost centres:

Mapping Rules Configuration:

If invoice contains	Map to Bexio account
"Internet" or "Hosting"	6000 - IT & Telecommunications
"Mobile" or "Phone"	6001 - Mobile Communications
"Office" or "Büro"	6100 - Office Supplies
Default (no match)	6900 - Other Operating Expenses

Advanced matching with AI:

// Alfred learns from your corrections
if (confidence < 0.85) {
  // Flag for review
  invoice.needs_review = true;
  invoice.suggested_account = ml_model.predict(invoice);
  
  // Learn from user feedback
  on_user_correction((correction) => {
    ml_model.update(invoice, correction);
  });
}

Step 5: Reconcile & archive

The final step ensures compliance and easy retrieval:

Automatic tagging:

• UID: Unique document identifier
• FADP hash: Compliance checksum
• Processing date: Timestamp
• Bexio ID: Cross-reference
• Confidence score: AI accuracy

Archive features:

• 10-year retention policy
• Encrypted cloud storage
• Full-text search
• Audit trail
• GDPR-compliant deletion

Complete Workflow Example

Invoice Journey: 8 Steps, 0 Manual Work

Physical invoice arrives at your business address

Swiss Post scans and uploads to ePost

ePost forwards to Alfred based on rules

Alfred classifies as invoice (97% accuracy)

AI extracts all data fields and line items

Alfred posts to Bexio via API

Bexio creates draft booking with correct accounts

Document archived with compliance tags ✅

ROI Calculator

For a typical Swiss SME processing 50 invoices/month:

Metric	Before	After	Savings
Time per invoice	6 minutes	0.5 minutes	-91%
Monthly hours	5 hours	25 minutes	4.5 hours
Error rate	3-5%	<0.5%	-85%
Annual cost	CHF 3,600	CHF 540	CHF 3,060

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Invoice not appearing in Bexio?

Check:

API token has "kb_invoice" write permission
Confidence threshold isn't too high (try 0.80)
Webhook URL matches your Bexio instance

Wrong cost centre mapping?

Solution:

Review mapping rules in Alfred dashboard
Add vendor-specific rules for regular suppliers
Use the "train" button to improve AI matching

Missing line items?

Ensure:

Invoice scan quality is 300 DPI or higher
Tables are clearly visible (not cut off)
Enable "Enhanced OCR" in Alfred settings

Ready to Automate Your Invoices?

Join hundreds of Swiss SMEs saving hours every week

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From Letterbox to Ledger: Building a Paperless Invoice Workflow with ePost, Alfred & Bexio