Custom fields

ABBYY FlexiCapture for Invoices lets you extract invoice fields for which no predefined data types are available, and change the way any field is extracted.

There are several ways to do this:

Method Description
Develop an additional FlexiLayout An additional FlexiLayout will let you extract fields for which no predefined data types are available and change the way standard fields are extracted from invoices from any vendor.
Develop a FlexiLayout for a specific vendor Vendor-specific FlexiLayouts let you extract fields for which no predefined data types are available and change the way standard fields are extracted from invoices from a specific vendor.
Train a Document Definition for a specific vendor Creating a Document Definition for invoices from a specific vendor will let you train the program to extract fields from that vendor's invoices.

You can choose to take advantage of any one of these solutions, or combine them. For example, you can add a new field to an additional Document Definition that is applied to invoices from all vendors, and then train the program to recognize the new field on invoices from some vendors and create a FlexiLayout variant for the other vendors.

You can find more information about how multiple FlexiLayouts are applied in How FlexiLayout matching results are merged.

Creating an additional FlexiLayout

Any FlexiLayout created in ABBYY FlexiLayout Studio can be used as an additional FlexiLayout in ABBYY FlexiCapture for Invoices

To extract a new type of field, create a new block with a unique name in a FlexiLayout and define the logic for finding it on images. When this FlexiLayout is added to a Document Definition, a new field with the same name as the new block in the FlexiLayout will be created.

If the name of the block in the additional FlexiLayout is the same as the name of a standard field in the Document Definition, the additional FlexiLayout will be used to extract the block.

To add a FlexiLayout to a Document Definition:

  1. Click Document Definitions... on the Project menu.
  2. In the dialog box that opens, select a Document Definition and click the Edit... button.
  3. Click Document Definition Properties... on the Document Definition menu.
  4. Click the FlexiLayout tab in the dialog box that opens.
  5. Click the Load... button in the Additional FlexiLayout options group and specify the path to the FlexiLayout file in the dialog box that opens (FlexiLayout files have the *.afl extension).

ABBYY FlexiLayout Studio has several features for developing additional FlexiLayouts for invoices:

  • You can find the IDs of the vendor and the business unit of an invoice and reference a data set in a Document Definition.
  • You can specify the positions of elements relative to fields that may be detected when the main FlexiLayout is applied.
  • You can parametrize the FlexiLayout using an XML file, which lets you store and edit complex lists of keywords and other FlexiLayout parameters without editing the FlexiLayout or the Document Definition.

For more information on the special features of ABBYY FlexiLayout Studio, See Special features of ABBYY FlexiLayout Studio for creating additional FlexiLayouts.

Developing a FlexiLayout variant for a specific vendor

ABBYY FlexiCapture for Invoices lets you use a separate FlexiLayout variant when processing invoices from a specific vendor. This additional FlexiLayout variant can be created automatically using training. If you are unsatisfied with the variant, you can open it in ABBYY FlexiLayout Studio and manually change the field search algorithm.

Creating a FlexiLayout variant

Training a Document Definition for a specific vendor

To create a new field:

  1. In the Document Definition editor, select Edit → Create Field (or right-click in the list of fields). Select a field type.
  2. In the Properties dialog box, enter a name for the additional field and select the Can have region option.

Note: For detailed instructions on configuring fields of various types, see Document Definition fields.

A new field with the name you specified will appear on the data form and in the list of fields.

Now you need to train the program to capture data from this field.
Note that training is done separately for each vendor. See Training during invoice capture for more information.

25.05.2023 7:55:02

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