Case Study: Panera Bread automates accounts payable and improves accuracy with Ascend Software's SmartTouch AP™

Panera Bread turns to Ascend to automate its AP process

Panera Bread, which operates more than 2,300 bakery-cafes across the U.S. and Canada, faced a heavy manual accounts payable burden after years of paper-based processes and a prior automated solution that lacked accuracy. Seeking a better system via an RFP, Panera selected Ascend Software and its SmartTouch AP™ product to modernize invoice processing and integrate with their Workday ERP.

Ascend Software implemented SmartTouch AP™ with OCR and workflow automation and a Workday-integrated interface that recognizes invoice dates, amounts, numbers, and maps cafe locations to cost centers. The solution reduced manual data entry and intervention, improved invoice accuracy versus the prior system, accelerated error detection and routing, and streamlined high-volume non-PO invoice handling—saving Panera time and making AP-to-Workday processing far more reliable.

Panera Bread

Brett Anderson

Manager Accounts Payable