How Do I Process a Vendor Invoice and Ready it for Auditing?

After Extraction is complete, the extracted Vendor Invoice will be listed on the Extract - OCR Vendor Invoices index page. When the extraction process results in a fully balanced Extracted Vendor Invoice and all required fields are satisfied, the resulting status will be Ready For Processing*. You may want to review the data you've attached before processing the invoice into the Audit phase.

Watch this video to learn more!

1. Click on Extract.
2. Next, you can either:

• Click the Process Invoice(s) button on the Extract - OCR Vendor Invoices index page.

or

• Edit extracted Vendor Invoice files individually. To do so click on an invoice.

• Then click the Save button at the top of the Edit page.

Invoices that are not yet Ready For Processing cannot be processed due to one or more of the following reasons:

• A matching Vendor Account is not found
• Invoice Total does not reconcile to Line Item Total (Extra Data lines do not count toward the line item total)
• All required Invoice fields are not met
• Every line item is Extra Data. At least one line item must be a charge, fee, or tax.
• A fee line item (Allocatable Fee, Allocatable Service Fee, or Extraneous Charge) has no Vendor Fee
• A Sales Tax line item has no Sales Tax Type

Before an invoice is sent to Needs Review, Discovery automatically tries to complete and reconcile it. If the invoice then balances and has every required field, it moves to Ready For Processing. If not, it goes to Needs Review for you to fix.

Data extracted from a Vendor Invoice may need adjustment to balance or required data fields that cannot be auto-extracted from the Vendor Invoice. These Extracted Vendor Invoices will have a Status set as Needs Review and will require manual adjustment before they can be progressed to the Audit phase.

Whereas we cannot provide real-world instances for every scenario in which an Extracted Vendor Invoice might be prevented from processing, we can illustrate the general approach with one example involving two common issues: a missing required field and an imbalanced line item total. Here's how these are addressed:

1. Click on Invoicing.
2. Click on Extract.
3. Once you locate your Extracted Vendor Invoice, click anywhere on the invoice's row to open it.
4. In the invoice detail pane on the Extracted Invoice tab, please fill in any missing required fields and correct any line items that need attention. Here, the Issues reported (listed in the pink Issues bar above the invoice and indicated in red text below) are an Invoice Number that failed to extract and we have an imbalance in our Line Item total.

5. Entering the missing Invoice Number under Details and Totals and then clicking the orange Save button clears out the missing Invoice Number issue.

6. Discovery is reporting that the line item total of  $1,400.00 does not match the invoice total $1,501.50. This typically means one or more of the following:

• Invoice Total was incorrectly extracted.
• Line Item(s) was included that should not have been.
• Line Item(s) was not included that should have been.
• Line Item amount(s) was incorrectly extracted.

7. To begin, we recommend ensuring the Invoice Total amount was extracted correctly. It was correct at $1,501.50.
8. Next, determine the amount of imbalance you are seeking to identify. Here, it is $101.50 as shown in red text at the bottom of the invoice.

9. The last line item on the invoice is a sales tax line item with an amount of $101.50.  This line item was missed in the extraction step and needs to be added.

To add a new line item, click on the orange + Line Item button at the bottom of the page.

10. A new line item card opens on the page. Fill in the required fields, marked with a red asterisk:
    1. Start Date
    2. End Date
    3. Description
    4. Quantity
    5. Amount (Unit Price is calculated from Amount ÷ Quantity and can't be edited)
    6. Type - in this case, select Sales Tax.
    7. Subtype - This may vary depending on the selected Type.

To save typing, click (copy invoice date) next to Start Date to use the invoice's Invoice Date, and (copy start date) next to End Date to match the Start Date.

Click the Save Line Item button.

A line item with the type Extra Data is for text on the invoice that is not a charge. It does not need dates, a description, a quantity, or an amount, and it does not count toward the line item total.

11. With that Line Item classified as Sales Tax, the resulting Line Item total is now $1,501.50.
12. To edit another line item, click it. The line item expands in place so you can change its fields. Click Save Line Item to keep your changes or Cancel to discard them.
13. When you are finished editing the extracted invoice, click on Save in the top right corner to process the invoice.

Line Item Dates Far From the Invoice Date

OCR sometimes misreads a line item date, usually a wrong year or swapped digits. If that date goes through, it can create a Pickup on the wrong date and show your customer a bad date. To catch it before it moves forward, Discovery flags line items whose Start Date is far from the invoice's own Invoice Date.

An old invoice is fine as long as its line items are close to its own Invoice Date.

A flagged invoice shows a yellow Needs an override to process banner at the top of the Extracted Invoice edit page. Click (show details) to see which line items are out of range. Each message names the line item number, its start date, and the invoice date.

If the date was misread, fix the line item's Start Date and click Save Line Item. Once the dates are fixed, the banner clears and the invoice processes as usual.

If the date is correct and you want to process the invoice anyway, override the flag:

1. Click Process (or Reprocess if the invoice was already processed).
2. In the Force Processing Required window, review the list under Overridable Errors.
3. In Reason for Overriding, type why the dates are correct (at least 10 characters).
4. Click Override and Process.

Your name, the time, and your reason are recorded on the invoice. Anyone who opens it later sees a blue Overridden error banner. Click (show details) to read who overrode it, when, and why. The override covers the rest of that invoice's review, so you are not asked again if a date is edited later.

Copying Line Items

Discovery allows you to duplicate an existing line item into a new one, pre-filled with the same details.  When extraction misses one or more similar line items (e.g. repeating charges of the same type,) this tool lets you start from a copy of a similar, already correct line item, saving time and reducing the chance of mistyping details.

To do so, click Copy on any existing line item and see a new line item appear, pre-filled with the original line item's details.  If the line item you copy is open, the copy includes your unsaved edits. The copy is not added to the invoice until you click Save Line Item, and you can edit any field before saving.

If you copy an Extra Data line item, the copy's Type is cleared. Choose a Type before saving, because Extra Data does not count toward the line item total.

You can have only one unsaved new or copied line item at a time. Copy is unavailable while one is open or while a line item is saving. Save or cancel it first.

Bulk Assign Type

When several OCR line items need the same Type (and subtype, when that type has one), use Bulk Assign on the Extracted Invoice edit page instead of opening each row. It works like bulk assign on a Vendor Invoice, but only for fields OCR line items support.

1. Open the extracted invoice from Extract (or Invoicing > Extract).
2. In the Line Items list, check the boxes on the rows you want, or check Select All Line Items to select every saved line item on the invoice (including rows on other pages). The label shows how many are selected.
3. Click Bulk Assign. The button only appears when at least one line item is selected.
4. In the Bulk Assign Type modal, choose a required Type.
5. If the type needs a subtype, fill that field too:
   • Sales Tax → choose Sales Tax Type.
   • Allocatable Fee, Extraneous Charge, or Allocatable Service Fee → choose Vendor Fee.
   • Types with no OCR subtype (for example Base Charge or Per Occurrence Charge) show no subtype field.
6. Click Apply. Discovery updates every selected line item, clears fields that do not apply to the new type, and clears the selection. Click Cancel to leave the rows unchanged.

Using AI Select to Add/Edit Line Items

Use AI Select to fill a line item from the PDF instead of typing it. It works on a new line item or an existing one.

Learn more in this video.

Here is a step-by-step demo of the AI Select tool.

1. On the Extracted Invoice edit page, click the orange + Line Item button to start a new line item, or click an existing line item to open it.

2. Next, click the "AI Select" button at the bottom.

3. On the PDF, highlight the line item you wish to extract. While you select, the form shows Form disabled while selecting PDF area. Click Cancel to stop without changes.

4. Once you have finished highlighting the line item, click "Select with AI."

5. Discovery shows Extracting with AI... over the PDF, then fills in the open line item. The labels of the fields it changed turn yellow. On a new line item it can also choose the Type, and the Sales Tax Type or Vendor Fee when the type needs one. If nothing changes, you see AI couldn't find any values to update.
6. Review the values and click Save Line Item to keep them.

Do Not Process (After Vendor Invoice Created)

If an extracted invoice has already been processed into a Vendor Invoice but should not have been, you can still flag it as "Do Not Process" from the Extracted Invoice detail page.

Triggering this action will:

• Delete the associated Vendor Invoice — permanently removing it from the audit queue
• Set the Extracted Invoice status to "Do Not Process" — preventing it from being re-processed individually or via bulk processing

Before the deletion completes, a confirmation warning will appear, since deleting a Vendor Invoice cannot be undone.

Note: This action is only available when the Vendor Invoice is in a writable state. Invoices that have already been approved cannot be deleted this way. The Extracted Invoice record and any associated Gathered Invoice File are not affected.

If you have additional questions or need more in depth information, please feel free to send us a message using the help beacon in the lower right-hand corner.