GST Input Automation for Airfare Invoices

This case study illustrates how EBEX put a robotic process automation for the airfare invoices received to ensure there is no missing or overlooked GST input. Industry operates manually as a standard process and even Travel Management Automation Solution Providers are exploring the solution.

Client

A leading business conglomerate having diverse business presence across Media, Entertainment, Packaging, Infrastructure, Education and many other industries, with worldwide operations (geographically diverse) and a workforce of over 10000 employees with the strength growing day by day, thus needing extensive domestic as well as international travel.

Exisiting Process

The PDF documents of invoices sent by Airlines and received by EBEX are manually downloaded and data is maintained in an excel format. These invoices are –

  • Sent against the bookings done via TMC partners, thus there is no direct transaction with respective airlines
  • Not sent immediately after the travel is booked or realised.
  • Moreover there is no fixed schedule of invoices received for past travels booked and completed.


GST-input-claims-before-rpa
The Problem

It was observed over period of time that around 5% GST input claims were missed directly, having $ impact to organizations at Group level.

The Scope

To have an automated solution for GST input claim purposes for Airline invoices.

  • Sent against the bookings done via TMC partners, thus there is no direct transaction with respective airlines
  • Not sent immediately after the travel is booked or realised.
  • Moreover there is no fixed schedule of invoices received for past travels booked and completed.


GST-input-claims-after-rpa
The Approach
  • DMAIC approach
  • Transparent and meaningful business view for processes
  • Right mix of tools and technology
  • Phase wise implementation of automation journey
The Solution
  • GST credit Automation on Airlines invoices through Robotics Process Automation
  • Reduce Man-hours for reconciliation of GST input for Airlines
  • RPA Automation Flow –
solution-gst-input-claims

An Excel file is generated for each legal entity and for each Airlines for a pre-defined period with following details:

Airlines Name & GSTN PNR Number
Customer Name & GSTN Place of Issue
Invoice Number & Date Basic Tax Value
Document Type (Tax Invoice, Debit Note, Credit Note) GST Breakup
Passenger name Total Value
The Challenges
  • Infrastructure Issues
  • Post-Implementation Adoption
  • Ownership

These challenges were overcome with change management and proper planning & execution of end to end solution

Other risks and assumptions were –

  • Any gaps in the manual process will impact the data quality where BOTS have no control.
  • Any infrastructural issues at the point of data extraction by BOT will impact the SLA.
  • Input might be hampered by manual error if the Email Subject Line or body is not as expected.
  • PDFs are not standardised. Each theatre sends the data in their own format.
  • Any change in the input format of the PDFs and/or Emails will lead to changes in the bot code.
  • Handwritten components in PDF will not be read by the bot.
  • Any addition/deletion of an airline will require the bot code to be changed.
  • All input PDFs will be received on a common EBEX email ID.
  • Bot to process PDFs for only the decided airlines. All other cases will be handled manually.
  • The format of input PDF for an airline must not change.
  • VMs on which BOT runners will be deployed will be running 24*7
The Results

Intangible Benefits

  • Customer Delight – Direct monetary benefits to entities served
  • Manhours Optimization – Manpower efficiency achieved (7 days reduced to 2 days/quarter)
  • Operational efficiency – By achieving 100% input credit

Tangible Benefits

  • 100% GST input with 100% accuracy, giving direct savings to clients
  • Manhours Optimization – from earlier 7 days to 2 Days/Entity/Quarter
  • Paperless and touchless solution - ~8100 invoice in a quarter, storage and retrieval solution for airline invoice GST input