Did you search for "Kofax Process Director" and land on a Tungsten Automation page? You didn't make a mistake: it's the same product under a different name.
If you're evaluating how to automate vendor invoices, the real question isn't the name but whether the product fits your company. And that depends mostly on whether you run on SAP.
In this guide, you'll see what Process Director does, where each name comes from, who it makes sense for, what alternatives exist depending on your ERP, and how the same process is handled in Odoo. One disclaimer: KPB is not a Tungsten partner or implementer, so this is a neutral overview.
What Kofax Process Director is and why it's now called Tungsten Process Director
Tungsten Process Director, previously known as Kofax Process Director and ReadSoft Process Director, is accounts payable automation software that runs inside SAP: it captures vendor invoices, validates their data against SAP master data, matches them against purchase orders and goods receipts, routes them for approval, and posts them.
The name change came from the company, not the product. On January 16, 2024, Kofax announced it was changing its name to Tungsten Automation, and today the former product page on kofax.com redirects to the Tungsten Process Director product page (checked in October 2026). That's why all three names coexist in documents and tenders.
What it automates: invoice capture, validation, approval, and posting in SAP
Tungsten describes it as a platform embedded in SAP that centralizes, automates, and controls accounts payable processes that start from a document or a request. Its product page organizes it into five stages:
- Capture and classification of invoices on paper, PDF, email, e-invoice, EDI, and SAP Ariba, with intelligent document processing.
- Validation and matching: each line is validated against SAP master data and business rules, and two- and three-way matching compares the invoice against the purchase order, the goods receipt, or the service order.
- Exceptions: discrepancies and invoices without a purchase order go to approvers according to configurable workflows, roles, and thresholds.
- Automatic approval and posting in SAP, with an audit trail.
- Monitoring with dashboards and reports on status, bottlenecks, and KPIs.
It's used from Fiori, SAP GUI, the web, or mobile, and invoices can also be approved by email. Tungsten states that it holds SAP Clean Core certification, which leaves SAP's core untouched, and that it integrates with Sovos for tax determination.
It's not a general-purpose workflow tool: its product page focuses on accounts payable inside SAP. For processes that span several departments, see what workflow automation is.
ReadSoft, Kofax, and Tungsten: the brand's family tree
Each stage left a name behind:
| Stage | What happened | Product name |
|---|---|---|
| Origin | ReadSoft launches Process Director as an SAP-certified add-on | ReadSoft Process Director |
| 2017 | Thoma Bravo acquires Lexmark's software business and combines Kofax and ReadSoft into a single company under the Kofax brand | Kofax Process Director or Kofax ReadSoft Process Director |
| 2022 | Kofax acquires Tungsten Corporation, a London-based business-to-business e-invoicing network | No change |
| 2024 | Kofax changes its name to Tungsten Automation | Tungsten Process Director |
Tungsten AP Essentials, the product it gets confused with
Tungsten AP Essentials is a cloud accounts payable service that captures and validates invoices. Its product page lists integrations with Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle Financial Cloud, Oracle NetSuite, and Coupa; SAP isn't on the list. It isn't Process Director, although the vendor documents an integration between the two.
Who it makes sense for, and who it doesn't
Process Director makes sense when:
- Your main ERP is SAP and you want to automate vendor invoices without taking the cycle out of the ERP.
- You process a high volume of invoices that arrive through different channels and formats.
- You need three-way matching, multi-level approvals, and an audit trail inside the ERP.
- You have an SAP team or a partner to manage add-ons and updates.
Think twice if:
- You don't use SAP. The product page only describes it embedded in SAP: invoices can be approved from the web or by email, but they're posted in SAP.
- The real problem is your data. If purchase orders and goods receipts are recorded late, no software can deliver reliable matching.
- You're thinking about switching ERPs. Decide that first: see the Odoo vs SAP Business One comparison and how to choose an ERP for your SMB.
Alternatives by ERP and company size
Kofax alternatives depend more on your ERP than on features, because they all capture, match, and approve. The table summarizes the official product pages (checked in October 2026).
| Your situation | Options to evaluate | What to keep in mind |
|---|---|---|
| Large enterprise on SAP with high volume | Tungsten Process Director or OpenText Vendor Invoice Management (VIM) | Both run inside SAP; check who implements them in your country |
| Company on SAP, or with more than one ERP | Esker Accounts Payable | Prebuilt integration with SAP ECC and S/4HANA; the invoice is created in SAP FI or MM |
| Company on Dynamics 365, Oracle, or NetSuite | Tungsten AP Essentials | Cloud service with integrations to those ERPs |
| Company on Dynamics 365 Finance | Invoice capture, Microsoft's solution for Finance | Uses Power Platform and AI Builder; check the included invoice quota |
| SMB in Chile without SAP, or considering a move away from it | An ERP with built-in accounts payable, such as Odoo | The DTE arrives as XML, and OCR is left for everything else |
Selection criteria
- Target ERP. Where the invoice gets posted is half the decision.
- Invoice format. If almost all invoices arrive as structured data, like the DTE, OCR matters less than matching.
- Volume and legal entities. With few invoices, maintaining an add-on can cost more than it saves.
- Exceptions. How it handles invoices without a purchase order and who resolves discrepancies.
- Approvals and auditing. Approval levels by amount, segregation of duties, and evidence for every step.
- Total cost and local support. License, implementation, maintenance, and support in Spanish.
If you don't use SAP: how it's handled in Odoo
In Chile, vendor invoices are DTEs (electronic tax documents) in XML: rather than reading a PDF, the job is to match documents and meet deadlines. Here's how the stages look in Odoo:
| Stage | In Process Director (SAP) | In Odoo |
|---|---|---|
| Capture | Paper, PDF, EDI, SAP Ariba | DTEs from the SII (Chile's tax authority) in the exchange mailbox; PDFs digitized with OCR and AI |
| Matching | Two- and three-way | Three-way matching in Purchase |
| Approval | Configurable workflows | Purchase order approval above an amount; custom rules for invoices |
| Control | Dashboards and reports | Keep Checking alerts and Keep BI dashboards |
According to the Odoo 19 documentation, digitization consumes credits, but XML files don't use them (checked in October 2026). The full flow, from receiving the DTE to the deadline for disputing it, is in the guide to finance and accounting automation. For paper or PDF invoices, see AI document processing, and for issuing invoices, electronic invoicing with Odoo.
Why do it with KPB Solutions
If you run on SAP and Process Director fits your operation, evaluate it with the vendor or its partners: KPB does not implement Tungsten.
If you don't use SAP or are thinking about leaving it, that's where we can help. As an Odoo Gold Partner, during the Odoo implementation we set up the receipt of vendor DTEs, matching against purchase orders and goods receipts, approvals, and invoice digitization, plus SII certification if you don't issue DTEs yet. Bank connectivity and automatic reconciliation come through Fintoc, our partner for Odoo.
For control, Keep Checking adds alerts inside Odoo such as “Bills not matched to a purchase order” and “Bills to pay X days past due,” with plans from 3 to 10 UF + VAT per month (the UF is Chile's inflation-indexed unit of account) depending on the number of alerts, and setup in 7 days. To catch duplicate invoices, you can request a custom alert. Build your alert selection and request your quote.
Want to see your accounts payable process in Odoo? Book a meeting and we'll review it with your invoices.
