Accounts Payable OCR for Maritime Operations
Upload vendor invoices. OCR extracts amounts, line items, and vendors. Expenses match to jobs automatically.
The AP Stack on Your Desk
Vendor invoices arrive as PDFs, scans, and email attachments in every format imaginable. Someone on your team opens each one, reads the line items, and types them into a spreadsheet or accounting system. For a busy port agent handling 30 vendors per port call, that is hours of data entry per job.
The errors compound when you try to match those expenses to the right job and purchase order. Wrong job number, wrong currency, wrong vendor record. By the time accrual tracking catches up, the job is closed and the discrepancy is someone else’s problem.
How Does OCR AP Automation Work?
1
Upload or forward the invoice
PDF, scan, or photo. Drop it into Base or forward from email.
2
OCR extracts the data
The invoice-trained engine pulls vendor name, amounts, line items, dates, and currency. Not generic text recognition, but structured extraction that understands what an invoice looks like.
3
Expense created and linked
The extracted data becomes an expense record matched to the right job. From there it flows through allocation, AP invoicing, and straight into Xero or QuickBooks.
Every Invoice, One Pipeline
Once OCR creates the expense, the record follows a single path through your AP workflow. The expense links to the job and purchase order where the cost belongs. Allocation maps the expense to the correct invoice, and accounting sync pushes the data to your ledger without re-entry.
That pipeline handles the full lifecycle: vendor invoice in, expense matched, AP recorded, ledger updated. No export files. No re-typing amounts into a second system.
- Expense linked to job and PO automatically
- AP invoice generated from allocated expenses
- Syncs to Xero or QuickBooks without re-entry
What OCR Handles
Auto-Extract Vendor and Amounts
Reads vendor name, line items, totals, tax, dates, and currency from the invoice layout. Trained on financial documents, not generic text.
Match to Existing Companies
Extracted vendor names match against your company directory automatically. New vendors flagged for review.
Link to Jobs and Purchase Orders
Every expense ties to the job and PO where the cost belongs. The connection stays intact from extraction through payment.
Multi-Currency Detection
Currency identified from the invoice and converted using daily exchange rates across 15 supported currencies.
Batch Processing
Upload a stack of invoices at once. Batch extraction creates expense records in bulk, each linked to the correct job.
Straight to Accounting Sync
Expenses flow through AP and push to QuickBooks or Xero without re-entry.
20,000+
Expenses processed
14,520
At one operator alone
0 days
Median expense-to-PO
#1
Most-installed embedded app
Common Questions
"We tried OCR tools before."
Generic OCR reads text. This engine is built specifically for invoices. It extracts structured line items, amounts, tax rates, and vendor details because it understands the layout of a financial document, not just the characters on a page.
"Integration will be complex."
Expenses flow from OCR extraction through allocation and AP invoicing into Xero or QuickBooks. One pipeline, no re-entry. If your accounting sync is already connected, extracted expenses reach your ledger without a second touch.
SEE OCR AP AUTOMATION IN ACTION
Scan a real invoice in your demo
Bring a real vendor invoice , a fuel bill, a stevedore charge, a port tariff, a bunker slip , and we will run it through OCR live in your demo. Watch amounts, vendors, and line items get extracted automatically, match to the right port-call job, and post to your ledger in seconds. Maritime finance teams using Base’s OCR typically process vendor invoices in ninety seconds instead of twelve minutes.
Book a Free Demo
Stop typing vendor invoices into spreadsheets.
Every invoice uploaded is one fewer data entry task, one fewer transcription error, and one faster close on the job’s financials.