The journey of a single invoice: When an invoice takes care of itself

Working with invoices has become significantly faster. No more hours spent every week searching for documents or manually assigning them to the right people. The entire approval process runs smoothly, with every invoice automatically following the correct workflow.

Lucie Gorigová, Make more

One Company, Countless Workflows

Make more operates across a wide range of businesses. Under one roof, we run educational programs, festivals, live events, creative workshops, and retail – each with its own products, services, projects, and unique business model.

As the business grew, so did the administrative workload. Every month, we processed hundreds of incoming invoices while managing dozens of projects across multiple companies, budgets, and cost centers. Keeping everything under control required a high level of accuracy.

For a long time, these processes relied on manual work, emails, spreadsheets, and the knowledge of individual team members. We decided it was time to digitize the entire workflow with the same level of care and precision that we bring to every project we deliver.

Invoices Everywhere, Visibility Nowhere

Invoices moved through the company in a series of disconnected steps. They arrived by email, were forwarded to the next person, copied into spreadsheets, payments were entered manually, and bank reconciliation happened separately – often days later. Every step was isolated. Every action was manual.

The consequences were predictable: duplicate or missed payments, hours lost to manual data entry and searching for documents, and, most importantly, a lack of real-time visibility. Even a simple question like “How much of this project’s budget have we already spent?” required building a spreadsheet from scratch – and by the time it was finished, the data was already out of date.

The goal was to create one seamless invoice journey – from upload to accounting – running automatically in the background, without adding work for users, while providing an always up-to-date overview.

There was one more goal, perhaps the most important one: we wanted submitting invoices to be so simple and intuitive that people would actually enjoy using it – and stop putting invoices aside for “later.” Because the best process is the one people don’t try to work around.

One Source of Truth, Not a Black Box

We evaluated several off-the-shelf accounting and ERP systems. They all shared the same limitation: your business has to adapt to the software. But we already had our own processes, projects, and way of working – and we weren’t willing to redesign them around someone else’s logic.

That’s why we chose Tabidoo. Instead of being a closed system, it became our single source of truth – a reliable central data layer that we could build on through its open API.

Three factors made the difference:

• Unified data – invoices, projects, budgets, and banking data all live in a single source of truth.
• Custom frontend – we built our own user interface on top of Tabidoo, tailored to the way our team actually works.
• Automation – the open API allowed us to connect AI, banking, Slack, cloud storage, and other tools into one seamless workflow.

We didn’t change our business to fit the system. We built a system that fits the business. That’s the real difference.

One Invoice, Two Perspectives

The same invoice, seen from two different perspectives.

For the person submitting it, it’s just a few clicks and they’re done. Behind the scenes, it’s a fully connected record that automatically finds its place in the workflow – categorized, approved, paid, and reconciled with the bank.

A simple experience for users. A fully automated process for the business.

How the Team Works (The Front Stage)

No manual data entry. No forwarding emails.

Employees simply take a photo of a receipt or upload a PDF. AI extracts the key information, while the supplier is automatically matched using the Czech ARES business registry. The only manual step left is selecting the correct project and budget – and even that is limited to the projects they’re authorized to access. Just a few clicks, and the rest happens automatically.

Users can also instantly see whether their invoices have already been paid, eliminating the need to chase colleagues for updates.

Access rights are managed directly in the custom frontend. Employees only see their own invoices, while department managers have visibility into all invoices submitted by their teams. Simple, intuitive, and effective.

What the Solution Does for Employees

• Upload invoices from a mobile phone or computer – either by taking a photo or dragging in a PDF.
• AI automatically extracts key information, including amounts, supplier details, and dates.
• Supplier information is retrieved from the Czech ARES registry using only the company ID.
• Assign invoices to the correct project and budget in just a few clicks – the only required manual step.
• See the current invoice status at any time, including whether it has already been paid.
• Built-in roles and permissions ensure employees only access their own invoices, while managers can oversee their entire department.
• Submit everything with a single click.

How We Work Behind the Scenes (Back Office)

By the time an invoice reaches the back office, it’s already complete – structured, readable, and linked to the right project and budget. We simply review and approve it, initiate the payment with a single click, and the payment is automatically reconciled with the bank through the ČSOB Business Connector. The invoice is then made available to the accounting team in the document repository, while Slack keeps everyone informed at every step.

Because we’re dealing with company finances, one safeguard remains non-negotiable: the final approval always belongs to a person. No payment is ever sent automatically without human confirmation.

What Happens Behind the Scenes

• Automatic linking to the correct project and budget.
• Approval workflow with a four-eyes review process.
• Support for advance invoices, credit notes, and corrective documents, all correctly linked and reconciled.
• Send payment instructions to the bank with a single click, choosing between Pay Today, On Due Date, or Pay Immediately.
• Automatic payment reconciliation through the ČSOB Business Connector.
• Overdue payment reminders to keep due dates under control.
• Export for accounting and a searchable document archive.
• Slack notifications at every stage of the workflow.
• Live budget tracking with automatic alerts when project spending exceeds predefined limits.

The Biggest Advantage

As soon as an invoice is posted to the accounting system, it’s immediately reflected in the project’s budget. There’s no need for manual calculations or spreadsheet updates. Management always has a real-time view of every project’s financial status, and the system automatically alerts the team whenever a budget limit is exceeded.

No More Manual Entry. Complete Visibility Instead.

After six months of using the solution, we’re confident it has delivered exactly what we set out to achieve. Our goal was never to introduce another system – it was to remove friction from invoice processing and turn it into a seamless, almost invisible part of everyday work.

• 2,500+ invoices processed since launch (January 2026)
• Minutes instead of days from invoice upload to accounting
• One click from approval to bank payment
• Real-time visibility into project budget consumption at any moment

Submitting invoices has become dramatically easier. Employees can upload everything directly from their phones and don’t need to follow up on what happens next. Accountants work with clean, structured, and connected data instead of scattered email attachments. Management finally has a live view of company finances, while manual entry errors and duplicate payments have become a thing of the past. The system takes care of the repetitive work – people simply review and make decisions where it matters.

“Working with invoices has become incredibly fast. No more hours every week spent searching for documents or manually assigning them. Everything is simple – from accounting to project financial analysis. Cost centers and projects are assigned right when the invoice is submitted, according to both business and accounting needs. With the same amount of time, I now have a much better overview – not only of accounting, but also of projects and financial performance.” Lucie Gorigová, Make more

Invoices Were Just the Beginning

The invoice workflow was only the first process we built on top of Tabidoo. Once the data foundation was in place, expanding into other business processes became a natural next step – all powered by the same shared data model.

Today, the same platform also supports:

• LuTrack – time tracking directly connected to projects and budgets.
• Project and budget management – planned versus actual spending, updated in real time.
• Management reporting – dashboards and controlling based on one consistent source of data.
• And an increasing number of operational workflows across the business.

Every new module builds on what’s already there, allowing the entire company to evolve without creating new data silos.

We Built It for Ourselves. It Can Work for You Too.

Our original intention wasn’t to create a product – we simply wanted to solve our own operational challenges. But throughout the implementation, it became clear that nearly every growing organization faces the same problems: invoices scattered across emails, manual payments, disconnected budgets, and spreadsheets that no longer scale.

The solution we built isn’t technically complex. It’s simply a well-designed process running on a reliable foundation.

That foundation is Tabidoo – the central data layer that keeps everything connected. If your organization is facing similar challenges, we’d be happy to share what we’ve learned.