Learn how PurchasePlus helps your Organisation to automatically extract data from PDFs and create Invoices and Credit Notes.
Jump to:
- What is the AI Scanning Inbox?
- What is a Scan Task?
- Viewing Scan Tasks
- Creating New Scan Tasks
- Converting Scan Tasks into Invoices or Credit Notes
- Deleting Scan Tasks
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:
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. You can click into and view a Failed AI Scanning Task and manually review it.
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:
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:
From this view, you can update the Scan Task if required, and Create the Invoice or Credit Note. More on this below.
Locking and Unlocking Scan Tasks
There is a simple Lock and Unlock function on an AI Scanning Task in the AI Scanning Inbox. A user can Lock an AI Scanning Task that they are reviewing, to let other users know that they are editing it, and Unlock it when they are finished.
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:
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:
- 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.
- Advanced Search: Filter the list of Scan Tasks by either Invoices or Credit Notes.
- 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]:
You will have the option to identify whether the Task relates to an Invoice or Credit Note, before uploading the PDF to be scanned:
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.
You get a warning if the Invoice or Credit Note you are about to create will likely be a duplicate, otherwise, the AI Scanning Task will appear in the AI Scanning Inbox with a Status of 'Scanning'.
Once the PDF has progressed to a state of Scanned, you will have the opportunity to review the data that has been extracted, before clicking [Create Invoice] or [Create Credit Note]. You will also have the opportunity to Save and Exit by clicking [Return to Inbox].
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:
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]:
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:
You will have the opportunity to provide a Delete reason, that can be viewed by other users with the appropriate permissions.
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.