Automating accounts payable across a $5 billion logistics network

Business challenges

Toll's Australian business was processing over 120,000 invoices annually, many of them complex, multi-line documents across multiple languages and currencies. But the infrastructure behind that process had not kept pace with the scale of the operation.

• Invoices were physically copied, scanned, and manually keyed into a 27-year-old finance system with no purchase order matching.
• Spend data was scattered across multiple ERPs, access databases, and spreadsheets with no consolidated view.
• The same supplier could appear across six or more sub-entities, each on different payment terms, with no centralised visibility.
• Invoice queries and approvals were routed through manual email chains with no audit trail or SLA tracking.
• Processes running outside of systems created audit risks including duplicate payments, missed payments, and unapproved transactions.

The result: 26 full-time employees dedicated to accounts payable, hundreds of hours lost weekly to manual processing, and a finance team unable to shift from transactional work to strategic, value-adding activities.

Why SpendConsole was chosen

Toll evaluated multiple AP automation vendors but found that most offered off-the-shelf solutions that didn't account for the complexity of a multi-entity, multi-currency, multi-language logistics operation. SpendConsole stood apart.

• Invested time understanding Toll's operating model, from subcontractor invoices to government agency payments, rather than proposing a generic solution.
• Tested over 10,000 invoices across 11–12 languages, including handwritten annotations, proving the AI extraction was genuine.
• Successfully integrated with Toll's 27-year-old bespoke finance system
• Delivered a single, intuitive platform with workflow logic, approval routing, and consolidated visibility, replacing a landscape of disconnected systems.
• Provided direct access to senior leadership throughout evaluation and implementation.

The solution

SpendConsole was deployed across Toll's Australian business as Phase 1 of a broader global transformation, automating the full accounts payable lifecycle and laying the foundation for consolidated spend intelligence.

• AI-powered invoice capture and processing across multiple languages, currencies, and document formats, including handwritten annotations.
• Purchase order matching and three-way matching to eliminate manual invoice-to-PO verification.
• Workflow automation and approval routing replacing manual email chains with logic-driven workflows, SLA tracking, and full audit trails.
• Non-PO compliance tracking providing visibility into maverick spend and unapproved purchases.
• Centralised vendor management consolidating duplicate supplier records and surfacing inconsistent payment terms across sub-entities.
• Consolidated spend analytics bringing procurement and AP data into a single source of truth.

Implementation was structured as a phased rollout, beginning with a soft go-live on a small subset of vendors and invoices, then gradually expanding to the full Australian operation. The program was delivered cross-border, with SpendConsole working alongside Toll's Australian stakeholders, IT department, and the GBS team in Malaysia.

Results

Within weeks of go-live, Toll began realising measurable outcomes across cost, productivity, compliance, and operational visibility.

• AP headcount reduced from 26 to 6 FTEs.
• Invoice cycle time reduced by 30–40%, down from 23 days from receipt to ready-for-payment.
• 50%+ straight-through processing rate achieved, with a path to 70% as supplier adoption scales.
• 80% of non-compliant invoices automatically rejected at ingestion, a control that didn't previously exist.
• Manual exceptions reduced to under 30% of total invoice volume through AI-based validation and workflow routing.
• Hundreds of man-hours saved weekly by replacing email-based queries and approvals with automated workflows.
• Consolidated spend visibility across sub-entities for the first time.