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AI Cash Application

The Context / Challenge

Setting the scene

Every bank deposit needs to be matched to the right customer and invoice in NetSuite. With a global footprint spanning 74 bank accounts across 10+ subsidiaries and 8 currencies, this creates a daily puzzle. The team was processing 25+ payments per day, each requiring customer identification and invoice matching. Manual processing consumed approximately 3 hours per day just on research, matching, and data entry.

74 Bank accounts
25+ Daily payments
~3hrs Manual processing/day
Our Approach

The automation pipeline

Two Workato recipes orchestrate the entire flow, from bank statement ingestion to NetSuite payment posting. The system uses a 5-layer matching engine that runs each payment through progressively broader matching strategies until the best match is found.

1

Bank Data Ingestion

Import daily bank lines from statement files across all accounts and currencies.

2

AI Classification

AI identifies customer payments vs. other transactions (equity, internal transfers, tax refunds).

3

Invoice Pull

Fetch open invoices from NetSuite via SuiteQL for the relevant subsidiary and currency.

4

5-Layer Matching Engine

Each payment runs through confirmed mappings, remittance cross-check, invoice reference matching, customer + invoice resolution, and aggregate waterfall allocation.

5

Review and Apply

Team reviews matches in a custom dashboard. High-confidence matches auto-apply directly to NetSuite via REST API.

The 5-layer matching engine

Feedback
Confirmed Mappings — previously verified customers, instant recognition
HIGH
Layer 0
Remittance Cross-Check — matches Jira remittance advice against bank amounts
HIGH
Layer 1
Invoice Reference Match — extracts invoice references from memo and notes
HIGH
Layer 2
Customer + Invoice Match — resolves customer via aliases or fuzzy matching, finds closest invoice
HIGH-MED
Layer 3
Aggregate and Waterfall — groups split payments, runs waterfall allocation across invoices
MED-LOW
The Feedback Loop

The team trains the system

Every thumbs up and thumbs down makes the next run more accurate. No ML model needed, just a growing knowledge base. Confirmed matches permanently link bank names to customers. Rejected matches reveal missing aliases or edge cases. Exclusion patterns teach the system to auto-exclude non-payment items. Accuracy compounds daily.

Results

What we achieved

~70% Auto-match rate
4hrs+ Daily time saved
0 Manual keystrokes
20hrs Weekly capacity unlocked
8 Currencies supported
Day 1 Self-improving

High-confidence matches are applied without manual review. Auto-applied payments go straight from bank to NetSuite with no copy-paste. The team's hours are redirected from repetitive matching to higher-value analysis and exception handling. The system supports USD, GBP, EUR, AUD, CAD, SGD, JPY, and NZD, all mapped to the correct subsidiaries.