How did Schlumberger in the energy and environmental protection industry implement the enterprise input VAT invoice cloud management system?

Connect business, reimbursement, and tax management links so that documents entering through three channels—mobile photo capture, email receipt, and batch scanner entry—are recognized and structured immediately, eliminating manual collection and classification at the source; automatically link tax bureau authenticity verification, duplicate reimbursement comparison, issuer status checks, and invoice compliance validation, blocking abnormal invoices before bookkeeping rather than after certification; establish input risk monitoring covering all suppliers, with real-time alerts for abnormal issuer status, invoice red-letter reversal, absconding and loss of contact, turning passive response into active defense.

What problems did Schlumberger have before launching input and output invoice management?

Procurement along the business chain involves equipment, engineering construction, operation and maintenance services, energy and power, and professional outsourcing, with both large engineering contracts and high-frequency small operation and maintenance and consumables procurement, and invoice amounts and frequencies span widely; input VAT invoices currently arrive through three lines: employee reimbursement uploads, supplier emails, and paper accompanying goods by mail, and finance needs to first collect all invoices, classify them, enter them into the system one by one, and then manually verify whether the invoice face matches the business documents; invoice arrival time is disconnected from business occurrence time, erupting centrally before month-end closing.

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Energy and Environmental ProtectionInput and Output Management

Schlumberger · Global oilfield services giant

Schlumberger | Integrated input VAT invoice collection, archiving, and alerts

Collection + ArchivingIntegrated

Cross-border internal controlCompliance-driven

Enterprise overview

Schlumberger (renamed SLB after a 2022 brand refresh) was founded in 1926 and is a leading global energy technology and services company. Its employees come from more than 140 countries, its business spans more than 80 countries, and more than 90 global R&D technology and manufacturing centers provide technical support to customers, with R&D investment long ranking among the top in the industry. The company entered China in 1980 to provide oilfield technology services and has now formed four major business groups: Digital & Integration, Reservoir & Performance, Production Systems, and Well Construction, with technical services covering major areas of the industry; in 2000 it established the Beijing Geoscience Center in Tsinghua Science Park, and in 2005 it established an equipment manufacturing center and Asia procurement center in Shanghai.

Business pain points

Procurement along the business chain involves equipment, engineering construction, operation and maintenance services, energy and power, and professional outsourcing, with both large engineering contracts and high-frequency small operation and maintenance and consumables procurement, and invoice amounts and frequencies span widely. Input VAT invoices currently arrive through three lines: employee reimbursement uploads, supplier emails, and paper accompanying goods by mail, and finance needs to first collect all invoices, classify them, enter them into the system one by one, and then manually verify whether the invoice face matches the business documents. Invoice arrival time is disconnected from business occurrence time, erupting centrally before month-end closing
Whether an invoice is voided, red-ink reversed, or already reimbursed repeatedly can only be compared by manually checking records, and cannot cover the full volume
Anomalous invoices often only surface at the certification stage, by which time payment has been made and the business is closed, making recovery difficult. The same transaction may simultaneously have a paper printout and a fully digitalized e-invoice source file, making duplicate posting difficult to prevent at the process level
The correspondence between invoices and purchase orders and goods receipt notes relies on manual maintenance, and discrepancies must be traced back item by item, lengthening the reconciliation cycle. After China Golden Tax Phase IV, tax comparison has become increasingly comprehensive. Once the authenticity and compliance of input VAT invoices are problematic, it directly affects deductions and cost recognition, and the frequency of enterprises being questioned by tax authorities increases significantly

Solutions

Connect business, reimbursement, and tax management links so that documents entering through three channels—mobile photo capture, email receipt, and batch scanner entry—are recognized and structured immediately, eliminating manual collection and classification at the source
Automatically connect to tax authority authenticity verification, duplicate reimbursement comparison, issuer status checks and invoice compliance validation, blocking abnormal invoices before entry rather than after certification
Establish input risk monitoring covering all suppliers, with real-time alerts for abnormal invoicing party status, invoice red-voiding, absconding and loss of contact, transforming passive response into proactive defense
Ultimately forms a unified input VAT invoice pool, where invoices, purchase orders, and payment records are traceable across all three, meeting China Golden Tax Phase IV regulatory requirements throughout the entire process
And enabling business, finance, and tax to work on the same set of data, so business initiation, financial review, and tax compliance no longer each use their own standards