Purchase order matching
A purchase order (PO) is a commercial document issued by a buyer to a seller, indicating types, quantities, and agreed prices for the products or services that the seller will provide to the buyer. An invoice is a commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer, indicating the products, quantities, and agreed prices for the products or services the seller has provided to the buyer.
Many companies keep track of purchase orders. Invoices issued by suppliers contain the numbers of the respective purchase orders. When processing invoices, you can compare the products and services stated in them with those stated in the respective purchase orders.
This may be useful, for example, if you want to skip the verification stage for invoices that match a previously confirmed purchase order.
By default, matching invoices against purchase orders is disabled.
Enabling the comparison of invoices with their respective purchase orders
I. Enable the corresponding feature in ABBYY FlexiCapture for Invoices.
- From the Project menu, select Document Definitions....
- In the dialog box that opens, click Edit....
- From the Document Definition menu, select Document Definition Properties....
- In the dialog box that opens, click the Document Definition Settings tab.
- Click the Edit... button next to the Additional Fields and Features group to open the Document Definition Features dialog box.
- Select the Purchase order matching option.
II. Connect a database of purchase orders.
- In the main window of the Document Definition editor, select Document Definition → Document Definition Properties....
- In the dialog box that opens, click the Data Sets tab.
A data set is a table that specifies the structure of data and either stores data or takes them from an external database. - Select Purchase Orders from the list and click Set Up....
Note the structure of the connected data (see PurchaseOrders data set).
If there is no such table in your database, you may need to create a corresponding view using the tools available in your database software. - In the data set (PurchaseOrders) dialog box, specify the string to be used to connect to your ODBC-compatible database of purchase orders, the data schema to be used, and then select the desired table or database view.
- Specify the correspondences between the columns in the data set and in the external database.
Now the program will find purchase order numbers and total amounts on invoices and compare them with those stored in the purchase order database.
III. Connect purchase order line items
If required, repeat steps 1 and 2 in II. Connect a database of purchase orders in order to open the Data Sets tab of the Document Definition Properties...dialog box.
- Select PurchaseOrdersItems from the list and click Set Up....
Note the structure of the connected data (see PurchaseOrdersItems data set).
It is important that the number of a purchase order be identical to the one specified in the purchase order database.
data set PurchaseOrders is a required column. All other columns are optional.
If there is no such table in your database, you may need to create a corresponding view using the tools available in your database software. - In the data set (PurchaseOrdersItems) dialog box, specify the string to be used to your ODBC-compatible database of purchase orders, the data schema to be used, and then select the desired table or database view.
- Specify the correspondences between the columns in the data set and in the external database.
See also Detecting the main fields.
IV. Enable the capture of invoice line items
See Additional fields.
V. Set up comparison rules
ABBYY FlexiCapture for Invoices offers several predefined rules. The Administrator should enable those rules that are required for his/her specific project. This can be done on the Rules tab of the Document Definition Properties... dialog box.
| Rule | Description | Where it is stored | Default status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Check purchase order number and amount | Checks if the order number and amount captured from an invoice correspond to the orders in the PurchaseOrders data set. | PurchaseOrder | Enabled |
| Match invoice line item with order item | Checks if a line item in an invoice corresponds to its respective line item in the purchase order. You can specify which should be compared and how they should be compared. | LineItems | Enabled, if the Line items extraction option is enabled |
| Check invoice line items count against order items count | Checks if the number of line items in an invoice is the same as the number of line items in the corresponding purchase order. | PurchaseOrder | Disabled |
| Check if invoice line items are matched with unique order items | Checks if there are multiple line items in an invoice associated with one and the same line item in the purchase order. | PurchaseOrder | Disabled |
| Collect matched order items (necessary for proper work of PO Matching at items level) | Compiles a list of PO line items that are already associated with their corresponding invoice line items. In the case of manual comparison, the Operator will see only those invoice line items for which no matches has yet been found in the purchase order. | PurchaseOrder | Enabled |
Comparing invoice line items with the purchase order
ABBYY FlexiCapture for Invoices offers several comparison methods:
- you can compare the number and amount of an invoice with those in the purchase order (invoice header comparison)
- you can compare the line items of an invoice with those in the purchase order(s) (invoice line item comparison).
Comparing invoice items with purchase order items
If the Purchase order matching is selected, the Purchase Orders group will be displayed in the data form when you verify invoices.
For each purchase order found on an invoice, a group element will be displayed that will consist of the following:
- order number
- total amount
- Details... button
- Order Checked checkboxes
Clicking Details... displays the details of the purchase order (provided the Administrator has connected the corresponding database with PO details) at the bottom of the document image window, so that invoice items can be easily compared with purchase order items.
To confirm that the invoice matches the purchase order, the Operator can select the Order Checked checkbox. This check box can only be selected manually. When selected, it shows that the Operator has compared the values of the Order Number and Total fields in the invoice with those in the purchase order and confirmed the match. Once the match has been confirmed by the Operator, the values of these fields will not be checked automatically by means of a rule.
If an order has not been detected on the image and is not displayed in the data form, click the Add 'Purchase Order' Instance link at the bottom of the Purchase Orders group. An empty element will be added to the Purchase Orders group. Enter the values of the Order Number and Total fields by selecting the values on the image or by keying them manually. The values you enter will be automatically checked by a rule against the PO database.
Item-by-item comparison
To compare an invoice against its purchase order, line items extracted from the invoice can be used. The Operator may also need to select the appropriate PO item for each invoice item.
If line item capture is enabled, the Line Items group will be displayed on the data form. This group will contain the line items captured from the invoice image.
ABBYY FlexiCapture automatically matches invoice line items with the PO counterparts. To match items manually, the Operator must click the button inside the OrderItemId column and select the desired PO item from the list that opens.
If an invoice line item cannot be matched with a purchase order item but is still valid, the Operator must select the Is valid checkbox for this line item.
Depending on the settings configured by the Administrator, the following rule checks will be performed:
- the number of line items in a purchase order must be the same as the number of invoice line items associated with that order;
- all invoice line items are matched with different PO line items or have been marked as valid by the Operator.
4/12/2024 6:16:02 PM