Supplier identification: Overview

The ability to automatically identify an invoice with its supplier is a key factor to processing invoices successfully and efficiently.

To facilitate this in INVOICES 5-7, the information that is found on an invoice to identify it is now included in the process log by default to provide input on why invoices are/are not identified properly.

It is also possible now to have INVOICES change the identifiers automatically when the operator selects them in Verify. In this way, the invoice may not need to be sent to Optimize for manual optimization.

The identification process

INVOICES tries first to match each incoming invoice with an existing invoice definition. This is done using heuristics to reduce the number of invoice definitions that need to be checked. The results are then listed in the process log (if used):

• If no definition candidates are found, INVOICES does not continue to look for identifiers, and the invoice is considered unidentified.
• If unmistakable identifiers are found on a single definition candidate, it is connected with the invoice.
• If definition candidates are found, but unambiguous identifiers cannot be matched for a single definition, the invoice cannot be connected with a definition, and it is considered unidentified (matching definitions are listed in the process log providing an indication as to how well the heuristics are working). This includes situations when AND is used in the identification settings (meaning that more than one identifier is required for a definition to match).

If an invoice cannot be connected to an invoice definition, Interpret continues to search the invoice for supplier information connected with master data if:

• Use imported supplier data... is selected in the Master data policy dialog, and

• INVOICES' database contains a supplier registry with supplier fields to be found on the invoice.

Note:

The way in which suppliers are identified is different for image based and XML invoices:

How suppliers are identified for image based invoices

INVOICES takes all of the text in the invoice and compares it to the following fields in the supplier registry to find a match. The fields are searched in this specific order:

• VAT registration number (shown in the Suppliers dialog)

• Tax number 1 (shown in the Suppliers dialog)

• Tax number 2  (shown in the Suppliers dialog)

• Bank account number (shown in the View supplier dialog)

• IBAN (shown in the View supplier dialog)

• Telephone number (shown in the View supplier dialog)

• Fax number (shown in the View supplier dialog)

If an exact match is found using these fields, the supplier is considered to have been identified, and the program stops searching.

If an exact match is not found using these fields, the program continues to look at the name and address fields. If a match is found for a single candidate, the supplier is considered to have been identified. However, if an exact match is still not found using the additional information, the supplier cannot be identified.

If multiple candidates are found, the search will only continue if the candidates are considered to be the same company. The set of candidates is then narrowed by successively intersecting matches found on Name, Address (combined field), Street, City, Postal code, and Bank code. When multiple candidates are found with the same name, one of them is selected as a match, but all matches are displayed in Verify for the operator to pick from.

When the supplier is identified successfully:

• The invoice is automatically connected to the correct invoice definition. If no definition is currently found in the system for the supplier, a new one will be created in Verify.

• If invoice sorting is used, the supplier's country code is used to connect the invoice to the correct country profile.

The fields that are used to identify suppliers for invoices can be specified in the [OcrSupplierIdentification] and [OcrSupplierBankIdentification] sections of eiglobal.ini. It is not possible to specify the order, however.

How to avoid buyers from being identified as suppliers

In some situations, buyers can be mistaken as suppliers on invoices during identification (when one subsidiary from the same company invoices another one, for example). Before a field from a supplier is matched against the OCR data in an invoice, it is matched against the buyer data. If a match is found there, the field is not used to identify the invoice since it could be caused by buyer data being present on the invoice.

To help avoid this:

• Include buyer information in the buyer registry--corresponding information that is found in the supplier registry is automatically not included in the search for suppliers.
• Include information in the buyer and supplier registries (VAT registration numbers or account numbers, for examples) that allows INVOICES to make the connection between buyers and suppliers that are very similar to each other. When matching information is found in both places, the corresponding buyers are removed from consideration as suppliers.

See the [OcrBuyerSuppression] section and CheckIfSupplierIsBuyer flag in the [OcrSupplierIdentification] section in INI file help for more information.

How suppliers are identified in connection with XML invoices

Supplier data registry information is not used to identify suppliers for XML invoices. XML invoices are identified using the Supplier ID. If it is not found, the program tries to find the supplier using the Supplier name, number, and description.

In addition to which fields are used, the order in which they are used can be specified in the [SupplierIdentification] section in eiglobal.ini. Buyer information can also be used for identification using the [BuyerIdentification] section in eiglobal.ini.

Related topics

Troubleshooting supplier identification

Master data: Overview

Importing master data

Specifying that master data is to be used