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About the product

ABBYY Invoice Reader is an easy-to-deploy application that lets enterprises capture data from invoices and enter it into ERP systems quickly and efficiently. It is based on ABBYY FlexiCapture Standalone.

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Setup

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Initial system setup by the Administrator

After ABBYY Invoice Reader has been installed and a license has been activated:

1. Open the invoice capture project.
2. In the Document Definition settings, import the business unit and vendor lists (for details see “Setting Up”).

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Configuration by the Administrator

ABBYY Invoice Reader does not need to be set up (except for business unit and vendor list import settings) and is ready for use immediately after installation. If necessary, the Administrator can change invoice capture settings:

1. Import business unit and vendor lists again in order to refresh data on available business units and vendors and add new ones.
2. Change field settings.
3. Change the rule set.
4. Change the tax rate of countries (by editing an XML file).
5. Change export settings.
6. Add new rules.
7. Create a layout alternative for a vendor using ABBYY FlexiLayout Studio and import it.

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Capturing Invoices

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Invoice capture by Operator

The Operator captures data from invoices to the ERP system. Invoices with no recognition errors are processed automatically. The Operator reviews only invoices with errors, warnings and the Rejected and Exception statuses and corrects errors. Once this is done, an invoice’s status either changes to Valid or its current status is confirmed by the Operator. While checking and verifying data, the Operator needs to:

1. Check the invoice’s status. If the status is other than Valid, figure out why this is so and resolve the issues that led to the alternate status. If these issues cannot be resolved (the invoice is formatted incorrectly or the vendor could not be found in the database), confirm the invoice’s status.
2. Check for recognition errors and whether the right data was imported from the Vendor and Business Unit groups in the database. If there are errors, select the correct entry from the database.
3. Review rule errors and rule warnings and try to correct them.
4. Check the Total, Invoice Number and Invoice Date field values by comparing them to the image.
5. Correct any incorrectly recognized characters. The Operator can correct characters individually or type a new value (a list of suggestions appears when the Operator begins typing). A new region on the image can be specified (the old value will be replaced by the value from the new region).
6. Complete the invoice check and send the invoice to be exported.

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Improving recognition quality for invoices with complex structures

The Operator can train the system during invoice capture. If a field was matched incorrectly or not matched at all, the Operator can specify this field on the document image and activate the training mode by clicking the Train button. The invoice will be used for training along with the other samples. When the training session successfully completes, its results are saved for later use during invoice capture.

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Product description

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Installation

To install the standalone version of ABBYY FlexiCapture:

1. On the Autorun menu, select Standalone Installation (you can run the autorun.exe file manually).
2. The setup program checks the version of your operating system and whether you have the necessary administrative privileges. If the version of the operating system is not supported by the program or you do not have the necessary administrative privileges, a warning message is displayed and the setup program is terminated.
3. If all the checks are passed successfully, the end-user license agreement will be displayed. Read the license agreement carefully and if you agree with the terms of the agreement, select the corresponding option and click the Next button.
4. A dialog box will open prompting you to provide some information about yourself. Type the required information and continue with the installation.
5. In the next dialog box, select one of the available installation modes:
   • Administrator Station
   • Operator Station
   • Administrator and Operator Station

Select the first or third installation option (the Administrator Station must be installed in order to set up Invoice Reader).

1. Next, select a destination folder. By default, the program is installed to %systemdrive%\Program Files\ABBYY FlexiCapture 12. If there is not enough space on the selected hard disk, a window is displayed showing your hard disks, the available free space, and the space required by the installation. Select a disk with sufficient free space and continue with the installation.
2. The program files will be copied onto your computer. Once the installation is finished, the setup program will display a message saying that the application has been successfully installed.
3. ABBYY FlexiCapture 12 License Manager will be launched automatically so that you can activate your serial number. Click Activate License… and enter the serial number of your trial license. Click Next… and follow the instructions of the activation wizard. You will need an internet connection to activate the license.

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Setup

There is an Invoice Reader project in the InvoiceReader folder on your installation media. Please copy this folder to your disk. Next, open the Administrator Station by clicking Start > All Programs > ABBYY FlexiCapture 12 > ABBYY FlexiCapture 12 Administrator station. You will be prompted to open a project. Click Browse… and select the Invoice.fcproj project in the InvoiceReader > FC Project folder. You should use the Administrator station to perform the actions described in this section. Before you start working with your invoices, you have to import Vendor and Business Units data from your databases to the project. Database requirements:

• Import is now possible from a SQL database or a Microsoft Excel file. If you have another type of database, you can export it to an Excel spreadsheet.
• Each database entry must contain a unique ID (VendorID field).
• The Vendor and Business Unit databases have the same structure. Both of these databases should contain the following fields:
• VendorId - INT;
• VATID - NVARCHAR;
• NationalVATID - NVARCHAR;
• IBAN - NVARCHAR;
• CountryCode - NVARCHAR;
• Name - NVARCHAR;
• Street - NVARCHAR;
• ZIP - NVARCHAR;
• Country - NVARCHAR;
• City - NVARCHAR;
• BankAccount - NVARCHAR.
• CountryCode cannot be empty. Please use country codes in ISO-3166 alpha-2 format (two-lettered code). Name, VATID and IBAN should also be filled in, as this will significantly improve recognition quality.

Follow the instructions below to connect to your Vendors database:

1. Open the Document Definition: open the Project menu, click Document Definitions…, select the European Invoice definition and click the Edit… button.
2. In the Document Definition Editor, open the Document Definition menu, select Document Definition Properties… and open the Rules tab.
3. Select Rules stored in the object and its children from the Show in list drop-down list, expand the rule tree, select Invoice Layout > Vendor > Database check and click Edit…
4. Establish a connection with a database. Database connection settings can be configured in the Data Link Properties dialog box that opens when you click the Set… button.
5. Select a database schema and table from the list.
6. Click the Update Cache button.

The Business Units database can be connected in the same way with one exception: when completing the 3rd step, select the Invoice Layout > BU > Check Business Unit rule. Languages, formats, currencies, VAT rates, key words and other country-dependant settings are now stored in the InvoiceSettings.xml file (Project folder > FC Project > Templates). You can adjust country-specific settings, such as VAT rates and keywords, by editing these files. You can also change predefined export settings, such as export settings for images and documents with errors, output formats and export to database settings. To change these settings, open and edit the Document Definition (Project > Document Definitions…, select the European Invoice definition and click the Edit… button). Then open the Document Definition menu and select Export Settings…

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Invoice processing

To begin processing invoices, you will need to create a batch (optional) and acquire invoice images from a scanner or load them by clicking the Load images… button. You can select image loading options using the arrow on the right side of the button. If you do not create a batch in advance, one will be created automatically when you start scanning or loading images. Invoice Reader supports all import formats and import features available in ABBYY FlexiCapture. You can check recognized data during verification. The data is also checked against validation rules. If any inconsistencies are discovered, warnings will be displayed. The warnings will disappear once you correct the errors; the data is checked again and is found to satisfy the validation rules. An invoice can have one of three statuses: Valid, Exception or Rejected. The status of an invoice is determined by validation rules:

• Valid

All rule checks have been passed and the invoice can be exported to an ERP system.

• Exception

The invoice satisfies all rules that check if it violates any laws, but the invoice will require additional operations when it is exported to an ERP system (such as adding a new vendor to the database or entering an invoice without specifying its vendor).

• Rejected

The invoice does not satisfy rules that check if it violates any laws (required data wasn’t found, is missing from the invoice, or was recognized incorrectly). Required data should be specified (in case of recognition errors) or the invoice should be processed separately (for example, the invoice may need to be returned to the vendor if it is invalid or formatted incorrectly). An invoice’s status will change automatically when errors are corrected. The Operator can also change the status of an invoice manually (the reason for this change must be entered before it will be made). To begin the verification process, double-click any invoice. The document editor window will be opened. The Document Editor window is divided into three parts: the page image, the data form and the Errors Window (this area only appears if there are errors in the invoice). There are four types of errors: assembly errors, unmatched region errors, format errors and rule errors. You can choose which types of errors will be displayed by clicking the corresponding button at the top of the page. Any combination of the four error types can be selected. The data form’s shortcut menu can be used to confirm the value of a field, choose whether to show format errors, go to the previous or next item that requires verification, and change the field navigation mode. In the data region, uncertainly recognized and questionable characters are marked with color, and fields with incorrect data types or unfulfilled rules are highlighted. To confirm that all data in a field that contains uncertain characters is correct, place the mouse pointer over it and press Enter. The Operator can select vendors and business units from the database during the verification stage. The database lookup window opens automatically when the Operator starts typing in either the Vendor or the Business Unit field. The Operator can also use the Find Field dialog (opened by clicking the Find… button in the Vendor or Business Unit section) to find vendors and business units. The upper part of the dialog contains the search box, and the lower-left part contains a list of business units or a list of vendors the fields of which contain the search query. To select an entry from the list, click it (detailed information will be displayed in the lower part of the window when you do so) and then click the Select button. Click the Export button to export data using the default settings. Click the arrow on the right side of the button to choose other export options. By default, data is exported to a Microsoft Excel file in the Export folder in your project folder (InvoiceReader > FC Project > Export > <Batch name>).

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Training

The structure of invoices from some vendors can be very different from the norm, and a flexible layout may be applied to one of these invoices incorrectly. When this happens, fields in this invoice may be matched incorrectly or not matched at all. ABBYY Invoice Reader can be trained on invoice samples from a vendor in order to improve data capture from the vendor’s invoices. Training is carried out by an Operator during invoice capture and improves recognition quality for the vendor’s invoices Follow the instructions below to train ABBYY Invoice Reader.

1. If you see any fields that were matched incorrectly or not matched at all, select them on the document image (click the field in the data form and then specify the region containing the necessary data on the page image by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the mouse pointer). The Train button will become active.
2. Click the Train button to add the document to samples and activate the training mode.

Important! The document can only be used for training once, so make sure that all errors have been corrected before clicking the Train button!

1. Add a few more invoices from the same vendor (the Train button is available in the training mode even if you don’t make any changes to an invoice). After a sample has been added, ABBYY Invoice Reader will perform a training session and check the results.
2. When satisfactory training results have been achieved, they will be saved for later use and the training mode will be deactivated.

The training process can be repeated as new samples become available. All samples will be used during the new training session, including the ones you added earlier.

• Reject all training results by deleting a vendor’s training batch.
• Remove samples from the training batch to exclude them from the training process. These documents will not be used during the next training session.
• Enable a flexible layout created in ABBYY FlexiLayout Studio for a specific vendor: create the layout, save it as Current.afl, remove the automatically generated layout from the batch’s attachments and attach the layout you created to the batch.

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Specifications

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Languages

• English
• German

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Fields from which data is extracted

The following invoice field groups are captured:

• Business Unit
  When this field group is captured, Database Lookup is used to compare recognized fields like name, address and telephone with their values in the database.
• Vendor ID
  When this field group is captured, Database Lookup is used to compare recognized fields like VATID, IBAN, address and telephone with their values in the database.
• Invoice Data (Invoice Number, Date and Type, Due and Delivery Date, Order Number, Customer).
• Amounts (Net Amount, Tax amount(s), Tax rate(s), Total, Additional Costs).

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Rules

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Rule errors which set invoice status to Rejected

BU address is required. This rule checks whether the address (at least one of the address fields) of the business unit is present in the invoice. BU name is required This rule checks whether the name of business unit is present in the invoice. BU VATID is required This rule checks whether the VATID of a business unit is present in the invoice. Vendor address is required This rule checks whether the address (at least one of the address fields) of the vendor is present in the invoice. Vendor name is required This rule checks whether the name of the vendor is present in the invoice. Vendor VATID is required This rule checks whether the VATID of vendor is present in the invoice. Invoice number is required This rule checks whether the invoice number is present in the invoice. Invoice date is required This rule checks whether the invoice date is present in the invoice. Delivery date is required This rule checks whether the delivery date is present in the invoice. All VAT rates applied This rule checks if there is a Net Amount for every VAT rate found in the invoice. Total Tax Amount is required This rule checks whether the VAT amount is present in the invoice. Tax Amount per Tax Rate is required This rule checks if there is a Tax Amount for every tax rate found in the invoice. Total amount is required This rule checks whether the total amount is present in the invoice. Currency is required This rule checks whether currency is present in the invoice.

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Rule warnings which set invoice status to Exception

Total amount check 1 Performs the following check: Sum = Net0 + Net1 + Net2 + TaxAmount1 + TaxAmount2. Total Tax Amount check Performs the following check: Total Tax Amount = TaxAmount1 + TaxAmount2.

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Rules which don’t alter invoice status

Vendor check Use this rule to look the vendor up in the vendor database. BU check Use this rule to look the business unit up in the business unit database. Total Net Amount check Performs the following check: Total Net Amount = Net0 + Net1 + Net2. Invoice date must be within a year before today Performs the following check: invoice date is within the interval Today - 360 days <= Invoice Date <= Today. Delivery date must be earlier than Invoice date and later than a year ago Performs the following check: delivery date is within the interval Today - 360 days <= Delivery Date <= Invoice Date.

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Rules which don’t alter invoice status and don’t show error messages

Set invoice type If the Invoice Amount is negative or the words “Credit note” are found, Invoice type will be changed to Credit note. Is reversed charge If the only found VAT rate is equal to 0 or the words “Reversed Charge” are found, the value of the Reversed Charge field will be set to Yes.

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Appendix

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Planned Improvements for the Official Release

In addition to the functionality available in the technical preview, the official release will include the following features:

• Multi-page invoices
• Country pane with county-specific rules, rule parameters and formatting settings
• First-time setup wizard
• Line items capture and purchase order matching
• Some settings that can currently only be changed by editing an XML file will be accessible from the UI.
• Some additional training features will be available from the Administrator Station
• Import from email body

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Contacts

We are constantly working to improve our products and make them easier to use. This version of the product is intended for evaluation and familiarization with its features. We would greatly appreciate any feedback and suggestions on how we can make ABBYY Invoice Reader better. If you have any questions, feedback or suggestions, please send them to the ABBYY representative who offered you the chance to participate in our testing program, or send them to invoicereader@abbyy.com.