Invoices and Credit Notes
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      3. Invoices and Credit Notes

      Introduction to the AI Scanning Inbox

      Learn how PurchasePlus helps your Organisation to automatically extract data from PDFs and create Invoices and Credit Notes.

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      What is the AI Scanning Inbox?

      The AI Scanning Inbox is a dedicated area of PurchasePlus where you can create, view, update and delete Scan Tasks. 

      If enabled for your Organisation, the AI Scanning Inbox feature will appear in [Invoices] → [AI Scanning Inbox] in the side navigation bar:

      AI Scanning Inbox View All

      What is a Scan Task?

      When you upload a PDF Invoice or Credit Note into our AI Scanning feature, our AI creates an Scan Task, and assigns it a unique Scan Number. In the AI Scanning Inbox, you can view these Tasks, as well as any documents that are eventually generated from the Scan Task.

      You can think of a Scan Task as the interim step between your Supplier’s PDF Invoice, and the PurchasePlus Invoice or Credit Note that you reconcile and export using our software.

      Scan Task Statuses

      Scan Tasks can be in one of the following Statuses:

      • Scanning (Navy): The AI Scan Task was recently started and it is still scanning.
      • Scanning (Red): The AI Scan Task has been scanning for longer than 5 minutes and the AI has given up, but technically the task has not yet failed.
      • Scanned (Blue): The AI Scan Task has successfully scanned the PDF file, and now a user can visit the Scan Task and manually review it before deciding to create an Invoice or Credit Note from it.
      • Completed (Green): The Scan Task has generated an Invoice or Credit Note and no longer needs actioning. We keep a record of the Scan Task, so users can quickly view the actual document (Invoice or Credit Note) that was generated from the Task.
      • Failed (Red): The Scan Task failed for some reason.

      Viewing Scan Tasks in the AI Scanning Inbox

      You can view a record of all your Organisation's Scan Tasks by navigating to [Invoices] → [AI Scanning Inbox] in the side navigation bar:

      AI Scanning inbox - View all scan tasks

      In this table view, you can see some important information regarding each Scan Task:

        • Scan Number: The unique Task identifier that the AI Scanner assigned this Scan Task.
        • Created By: The name of the user that initiated the Scan Task.
        • Supplier: The Supplier that sent the original PDF to your Organisation. 
        • Purchaser: The Organisation that the document has been assigned to.
        • Document: A link to the Invoice or Credit Note that has been generated from the Scan Task.
        • Document Type: Indicates whether the Scan Task has been identified as an Invoice or a Credit Note.
        • Status: The status that the Scan Task is in currently. Please see Scan Task Statuses above for more information.
        • PDF File: A link to the original PDF that was uploaded into the AI Scanner.
        • Created On: The time and date that the Scan Task was created.  

      You can view any single Scan Task by clicking on the [Scan Number] from the table:

      Scan Task in Scanned State

      From this view, you can update the Scan Task if required, and Create the Invoice or Credit Note. More on this below.

      Scan Task Origins

      The AI Scanning Inbox displays all of the Scan Tasks that were created directly in the AI Scanning Inbox, and you will also find Scan Tasks generated as part of the Create New Invoice and Create New Credit Note experiences, if the user opted for the [Drag and Drop PDF] option:

      Create new Invoice from PDF

      Quick Tips for Navigating the AI Scanning Inbox

      The AI Scanning Inbox has three main navigation assistance features, to help users quickly find the right Scan Task:

      AI Scanner quick navigation features

      1. Filter by Status: Using the tabs along the top of the AI Scanning Inbox, a user can quickly filter the list of Scan Tasks by those in one of the following statuses: Scanning, Scanned, Completed, Failed.
      2. Advanced Search: Filter the list of Scan Tasks by either Invoices or Credit Notes.
      3. Search by Supplier Name: Enter the name of a single Supplier (as it appears in PurchasePlus) to view a list of Scan Tasks where this Supplier has been identified as the sender of the original PDF.

      Creating New Scan Tasks 

      To create a new Scan Task in the AI Scanning inbox, click [Create New AI Scanning Tasks]:

      Create New Scan Task from AI Scanning inbox

      You will have the option to identify whether the Task relates to an Invoice or Credit Note, before uploading the PDF to be scanned:

      Create new Scan Task select invoice pdf and upload

      Finally, you may choose to identify the Supplier that the document relates to, but if not, our AI Scanner will attempt to detect the Supplier during the Scan.

      Click [Start] when you are ready to begin scanning:

      Create New Scan Task start scanning

      Creating multiple Scan Tasks concurrently

      You may choose to select multiple PDFs and upload them at the same time. In this scenario, our AI Scanner will create a Scan Task per PDF. This is an extremely powerful way to rapidly ingest a large volume of PDF Invoices or Credit Notes into PurchasePlus.

      Tip: If you select ‘Invoice’ or ‘Credit Note’ during the creation of the Scan Task(s), this choice will be applied to all Scan Tasks, and it is not currently possible to edit this choice post-scanning. We recommend uploading all PDF Invoices and beginning the Scan Task, and then repeating the process with all PDF Credit Notes.

      What can be detected and pre-filled by the AI Scanner?

      - The Supplier (if a match is found),

      - The PO Number (if a PO Number is found),

      - The Department and Account Code (if applicable),

      - The Product on each Invoice Line (if a match is found), and

      - The Category and Sub-Category of each new product on each Invoice Line.

      Converting Scan Tasks into Invoices or Credit Notes

      A Scan Task must be reviewed and manually converted into an Invoice or Credit Note by a user of PurchasePlus within your Organisation.

      To do so, first click on the Scan Number of the Scan Task in the AI Scanning Inbox. The Scan Task must be in the Scanned state:

      Converting a Scan Task to Invoice Step 1

      You will arrive at the Invoice or Credit Note Creator screen, which displays the data that was detected and pre-filled by our AI Scanner alongside the original PDF.

      You will have the option here to review and make amendments to most of the extracted data (for example, Reference, Account Code, Line Items and Unit Prices) if you wish. 

      Once you are comfortable with the data, click [Create Invoice] or [Create Credit Note]:

      Converting Scan to invoice step two - Invoice Creator

      Setting: Manual vs Automatic processing

      Depending on the setting applied to your Organisation, when you click [Create Invoice] or [Create Credit Note], the resulting document can be automatically processed according to your Flag Settings and Thresholds so that it initially appears in a Flagged or Reconciled state. If this setting is disabled for your Organisation, the Invoice or Credit Note will initially appear in an Open state.

      Deleting Scan Tasks

      Scan Tasks can be deleted by clicking [Delete] from the [More] menu in the AI Scanning Inbox:

      Delete a Scan Task

      The Scan Task can be deleted while in any status. If the status is Completed, then the Invoice or Credit Note that was generated will persist despite the original Scan Task being deleted.