The whole document as one line
For anything that needs no line logic: the invoice goes onto a G/L account as a single line. The fastest case, and the right one for phone bills, rent or electricity.
- Receive
- E-invoicing
- Inbound documents
- Outlook
- SharePoint
AutoFlow Receive
E-invoice or PDF makes no difference to the process: both arrive as an incoming document in Business Central, get read, get matched and become a purchase invoice.
How you work today
The matching happens where the data isn't
Normally the incoming invoice lands in document management first. That is where it gets matched and where it gets approved. But the DMS knows little of what is in Business Central: which order is open, which receipt belongs to it, which G/L account is right, which dimensions apply.
One of two things follows. Either people guess — in which case automatic approval is off the table and every invoice needs somebody to look it up. Or the matching data gets pumped into the DMS permanently: vendors, order and receipt lines, G/L accounts, dimensions. Two systems that have to know the same things, and one of them always finds out late.
What your invoice intake could look like
Check it where the information already is
Business Central knows the open orders, the receipts, the accounts and the dimensions. So Receive does the matching and the approval where that information already sits. The DMS stays the archive it is supposed to be — and no longer has to know what a goods receipt is.
The route it takes is the Business Central one: the incoming document becomes the purchase invoice. Because that is the standard route, the approvals are the standard approvals and the dimensions are the ones that already apply — none of it has to be rebuilt. And because matching is complete before the invoice exists, it becomes possible to decide at all which cases may run through untouched.
How it works
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1. Import
Invoices and other documents come from their source into the Business Central incoming documents — from an Outlook mailbox, from SharePoint, from another system.
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2. Capture
For an e-invoice the XML is parsed; for a PDF, OCR runs. Both end up in the fields of the incoming document, which we extended with additional fields and a lines table for the purpose.
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3. Match
Vendor and lines are matched by four rulesets: the whole document onto a G/L account, a line to a purchase receipt, a line to a subscription contract, or a line by text matching.
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4. Create the document
Once everything is matched, the purchase invoice or credit memo is created from it. If it is not, the incoming document stays where it is — with whatever is already matched visible on it.
Line to purchase receipt
The invoice line is matched against a posted purchase receipt line. That ties the invoice to what actually arrived, rather than to what was ordered.
Line to subscription contract
Recurring items are matched to a line on a subscription contract. Precisely the invoices where the same check is otherwise done by hand every month.
Line by text matching
Then the rest: item, G/L account or anything else, found from the text of the line. You set the rule, and it grows with every vendor.
Around it
Approve it, archive it, let it run
Standard approvals
Approvals run on the standard Business Central workflows — on the incoming document, on the purchase invoice, or on both. No second approval system for somebody to maintain.
Archiving, whenever you want
Filing into the DMS can be triggered at any point in the process — on arrival, after approval, or only after posting. The archive stays an archive.
All the way to blind posting
Where the rules are unambiguous, the document runs through untouched and gets posted. Which invoices may do that is yours to configure — and everything else stops, rather than slipping through.
Questions we get asked
Do we still need a DMS?
For archiving, by all means — that is what it is for, and filing can be triggered at any point in the process. What no longer has to happen there is matching and approval, because the information for those is in Business Central, not in the DMS.
Does it work with PDF invoices too?
Yes. For an e-invoice the XML is parsed; for a PDF, OCR runs. From the incoming document onwards the path is identical — which is why the move does not have to wait on what share of your invoices are electronic.
What happens to an invoice that cannot be fully matched?
It stays as an incoming document, with everything already matched visible on it. The purchase invoice is only created once matching is complete — a half-matched document in the invoice ledger would be worse than none at all.
Can invoices post without anybody touching them?
Yes, if you set the rules for it. Blind posting is configuration rather than development — and it applies to the cases you release for it, not as a default.
Where do the documents come from?
From a mailbox, from SharePoint, from another system with an API. Which connections are ready to use is listed under Connectors.
And outbound documents?
That is AutoFlow Dispatch: sending invoices and other documents in the required format over the required channel. Both sit on the same platform.
Ten years of inbound documents
Show us how your invoices arrive today
We set Receive up around your sources, your rules and your approvals. Tell us how your invoice intake runs today and we will tell you what can run by itself.
- Ten years of experience with inbound documents
- Set up around your documents and your rules
- Its own app, its own price. Terms in the conversation