Municipality of Oftringen: How apprentices are helping achieve 80% automation.

The Challenge

Repetitive administrative work instead of valuable practical experience.

The Municipality of Oftringen had already digitised its accounts payable processes at an early stage and introduced electronic approval workflows. Despite this, processing incoming invoices still involved a considerable amount of manual work. Each invoice had to be checked, coded and assigned to the appropriate approver. This was a time-consuming process that placed a particular burden on the municipality’s apprentices.

A large proportion of the accounts payable workload consisted of repetitive administrative tasks. For every invoice, the responsible approver, booking text and account coding had to be entered manually. Different invoice formats and missing references also created additional work.

As invoice processing became increasingly standardised, the municipality decided it was time to automate the next steps.

The Solution

Training DeepO step by step together with the apprentices.

The implementation was intentionally straightforward. After the initial setup by the Abacus sales partner OBT, the Municipality of Oftringen continued processing invoices as usual. Rules, keywords and automation suggestions were then added gradually over time. This allowed DeepO to learn step by step, without the need for a complex implementation project or extensive configuration.

What made the project particularly distinctive was that much of the training was carried out not by external specialists, but by the municipality’s own apprentices.

Working closely with experienced colleagues, they defined keywords, rules and suggestions while observing how DeepO continuously improved its handling of recurring invoices. Before long, the apprentices had become the organisation’s leading DeepO experts and were even supporting colleagues in the finance department with the day-to-day use of the new solution.

The municipality also particularly appreciated the flexibility of the approach. DeepO can be trained entirely at the organisation’s own pace. During busy periods, optimisation work could simply be paused and resumed later without any disruption.

“The greatest value of DeepO lies in the way it reduces the workload for our employees, actively involves apprentices in digital transformation and paves the way for a modern public administration.”

Mario Ivancevic
Deputy Head of Finance & Taxation

The results

Less routine, more responsibility.

Every invoice used to train the system increases the level of automation. Recurring invoices are recognised and processed with ever greater reliability, significantly reducing the workload for the finance department. This is particularly valuable during busy periods, helping to maintain stability and avoid excessive pressure on the team.

The apprentices’ role has changed most significantly. Instead of spending their days entering the same data repeatedly, they now play an active part in improving the automated processes. They review DeepO’s suggestions, refine existing rules and help the system become more intelligent over time.

What was once repetitive administrative work has evolved into a demanding role with real responsibility and an engaging hands-on project centred on artificial intelligence.

Looking ahead: Building the finance department of the future today.

At present, individual rules have been created for around 10% of suppliers. Although only a relatively small proportion of suppliers has been trained so far, the municipality already expects that up to 50% of all accounts payable invoices will eventually be processed automatically or semi-automatically.

The long-term goal is even more ambitious: achieving up to 80% automated invoice processing. Further improvements, including the automatic forwarding of invoices and the introduction of additional DeepCloud products, are already planned.