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Custom Ink: Replaced Manual AP with NetSuite-Integrated Automation

A woman sits at a table with a laptop and notebook, surrounded by clothes on a rack, a camera on a tripod, and a ring light in a well-lit room.

4 days

off the close cycle

4 entities

managed in 1 platform

1,260

monthly invoices, 2.5 FTEs

Custom Ink, an online custom apparel and goods retailer, has spent 25 years navigating growth and multiple subsidiary acquisitions. At 4 US-based entities, Nicole Lopez, Senior Manager of Financial Shared Services at Custom Ink, oversees accounts payable and accounts receivable. Her team also handles mass payments, including a unique fundraising payout program, as well as company card administration and expense reimbursements. 

After leading multiple system implementations, Nicole modernized Custom Ink’s financial operations with Tipalti, shaving 4 days off the close cycle, speeding up payouts, and helping the AP team take on more across 4 entities.

Don't wait to automate because it opens up so much. My team can process bills and payments more quickly, thanks to fast OCR scanning with AI and automated email approvals and reminders. We've been able to scale and integrate subsidiaries into 1 platform and create 1 payment run for multiple subsidiaries. I could not imagine going back to the manual processes that we did before.

Nicole Lopez

Senior Manager of Financial Shared Services, Custom Ink

Challenge

Manual Processes and Disconnected Systems Slowing Multi-Entity Growth

Before Tipalti, Custom Ink’s finance operations depended on disconnected tools, manual coding rules, and high-touch vendor management. Workday Financials and a third-party OCR partner helped with invoice processing and a coding portal, but the team still spent significant time maintaining vendor rules, handling complex invoice exceptions, chasing approvals, and managing mass payment issues across four entities.

  • Manual coding rules: AP maintained vendor coding logic via spreadsheets and portals, requiring ongoing maintenance across multiple entities.
  • Vendor onboarding friction: The team manually collected tax forms, verified TINs, and handled bank changes, resulting in increased delays and security risks.
  • Approval delays: Approvers had to log into the system directly, with limited reminders and no email-based approval path.
  • Mass payout burden: More than 300 monthly fundraising payouts resulted in returned checks, requiring manual stop payments, voids, and tracking.

With approximately 1,260 invoices processed monthly across four entities and a fully remote workforce, Custom Ink needed a more scalable way to reduce manual work, improve control, and free finance to focus on more than paperwork.

With the move from Workday to NetSuite, we needed an AI-powered solution that could support the migration while also handling the complexity of our AP needs. With multiple entities, vendor onboarding, coding, approvals, and payments to manage, we needed a solution that could work with our new NetSuite environment and help us scale the process

Nicole Lopez

Senior Manager of Financial Shared Services, Custom Ink

Decision

Build for Multi-Entity Complexity

Custom Ink chose Tipalti because it could handle the complexity of a multi-entity, multi-brand finance environment without adding more manual work. Multiline OCR, native NetSuite integration, and rapid implementation made it the right fit for both AP automation and mass payments.

  • Line-level automation: Tipalti’s multiline OCR could read and code every invoice line. 
  • Stronger vendor security: Vendor-managed banking updates, TIN verification, and W-8 collection helped reduce manual touchpoints and phishing risk.
  • Scalable payment operations: Multi-currency support and automated rejection tracking enabled the team to use a single platform for AP and 300+ monthly fundraising payouts.
Tipalti stood out because it solved several critical needs in one platform: a secure vendor portal, Invoice Capture Agent for automated invoice extraction, Invoice Coding Agent for intelligent invoice coding, NetSuite integration, and two-way payee sync. We needed vendors to manage their own banking details securely, and Tipalti gave us that control and scalability.

Nicole Lopez

Senior Manager of Financial Shared Services, Custom Ink

Solution

End-to-End AP Automation and Mass Payments with Native NetSuite Integration

Custom Ink deployed both Tipalti Accounts Payable and Tipalti Mass Payments simultaneously with its NetSuite migration , signing in October and going live by April. That’s a rapid timeline given the complexity of running two system implementations concurrently across four entities. 

Native NetSuite Integration for Faster AP Automation

The native NetSuite integration was a critical selection factor: Custom Ink needed a partner that could implement quickly without costly custom integrations. Tipalti’s two-way sync for payees and automatic PDF syncing to NetSuite gave the accounting team direct access to supporting documentation without leaving the ERP.

Invoice Capture Agent and Intelligent Line-Level Invoice Coding 

Tipalti’s Invoice Capture Agent with multiline scanning was a key differentiator. Custom Ink found that it was one of the only solutions that could read and code every line of every bill, not just headers. Combined with Invoice Coding Agent, payee matching, and duplicate bill detection, invoice processing shifted from manual data entry to a review-based workflow.

Automated Approval Workflows That Speed Up Invoice Processing

Automated approval routing with email-based approvals and configurable reminders replaced the old requirement for approvers to log into the system directly, improving both speed and adoption. Nicole noted that approvers and AP staff alike found the interface intuitive, resulting in far fewer questions than with the previous system.

Self-Service Vendor Portal for Supplier Onboarding and Tax Compliance

The self-service vendor portal shifted W-9 collection, TIN verification, and bank information management to suppliers themselves, with built-in approval workflows that flag payee changes for a second set of eyes.

Mass Payments Automation for Returned Checks, Voids, and Rejections

For mass payments, Tipalti eliminated the administrative burden of returned checks by automatically tracking rejections and voids, removing the manual stop-payment process that had consumed the team.

Multi-Currency Payments and International Payment Methods in One Platform

Multi-currency support and international payment methods filled gaps that the previous system could not address, giving Custom Ink the flexibility to pay vendors across countries and currencies from a single platform.

Having a vendor portal where we could actually give vendors access and maintain their own bank information was really high on the list, to reduce the number of phishing attempts and make sure we have that security there. Tipalti stood out for its AI solution, NetSuite integration, two-way payee integration, and multi-line OCR scanning capabilities. When we were looking two years ago, Tipalti was really the only solution out there that we could find that had that capability.

Nicole Lopez

Senior Manager of Financial Shared Services, Custom Ink

Impact

Expanded AP Capacity, Sped up Payouts and Invoice Processing, and Accelerated Close by Four Days

Custom Ink accelerated close by four days with Tipalti. By automating vendor management, approvals, reconciliation, and mass-payment workflows, the team scaled across four entities while taking on additional finance responsibilities.

  • $65K in annual efficiency gains: Vendor self-service for tax documentation, banking updates, and payment information helped Custom Ink expand AP capacity while moving from 3.5 to 2.5 FTE.
  • Four-day faster close: Month-end close moved from two days after month-end to two days before month-end.
  • Automated payout exceptions: Tipalti now handles rejections, voids, and status updates for 300+ monthly fundraising payouts.
  • Stronger vendor communication: Real-time remittance notifications keep suppliers informed without extra AP follow-up.
Don't wait to automate because it opens up so much. My team can process bills and payments more quickly, thanks to fast OCR scanning with AI and automated email approvals and reminders. We've been able to scale and integrate subsidiaries into 1 platform and create 1 payment run for multiple subsidiaries. I could not imagine going back to the manual processes that we did before.

Nicole Lopez

Senior Manager of Financial Shared Services, Custom Ink

Next

Tipalti AI Assistant Adoption and Strategic Workflow Expansion

Custom Ink is using Tipalti’s Reporting Agent to track its transition toward more automated workflows and build KPIs in real time to measure process adoption. Additionally, they plan to explore the Tipalti AI Assistant, a conversational agent that answers natural-language finance questions and generates custom reports on demand.

Related Resources

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Chomps

“Tipalti Expenses has been a big win across the board: managers love approving in-app, our AP team has fewer touches, and the finance team gets faster visibility because they’re saving over 16 hours monthly in manual work. It’s a major step forward from the process we had before.”

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