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FCFORINVOICES uses rules to validate invoices automatically. Upon validation, an invoice is assigned a status and a list of issued errors and warnings is generated, enabling the Operator to decide whether the invoice needs to be verified manually. While verifying an invoice in the document editor, the Operator sees the list of errors detected by the rules and can use this list to navigate and review the defective fields. ABBYY FlexiCapture for Invoices already includes pre-defined validation rules for invoices commonly used in different countries (See Rules). Users can modify or remove existing rules and create new custom rules.

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Some features specific to rules in FCFORINVOICES

For detailed instructions on working with rules in FC See Rules. Rules in FCFORINVOICES have the following specific features:
To make a rule affect the status of a document, the rule must have a corresponding prefix in its name. Rules with names prefixed with (Exception) or (Rejected) will change the status of an invoice to Exception or Rejected if the rule detects errors in that invoice.
To implement this feature, use conditions for applying rules. For more information, See Rules.Rules detect the country of an invoice based on the country of the business unit to which the invoice has been issued.If a certain kind of validation is relevant only to particular countries, only the relevant countries should be specified in the rule conditions. Conversely, if invoices from all countries must be validated except one particular country, be sure to exclude that country in the rule conditions (the condition must apply the rule only if the value of the country of the business unit is not the same as the name of the excepted country).

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Using the list of rules

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View the complete list of rules

To view all the rules set up for the project:
  1. From the Document Definition menu, select Document Definition Properties…
  2. In the dialog box that opens, click the Rules tab.
  3. In the Show rules list, select owned by Document Definition and its children.
To view all the rules that will be applied to invoices from a particular country, say, Germany use the filter.
  1. In the Document Definition Properties dialog box, click the Rules tab and then click the Filter… button.
  2. In the Filter dialog box, select If this condition is true and then select a desired field in Field in the Invoice Layout\BU\Country field, which defines the country of the business unit.
  3. Select the Overlaps with set condition from the drop-down list.
  4. Use the Select… button to specify the required countries in the field below. A Field Value dialog box will open, where you need to select the countries for which to display the rules. For Germany, for example, select DE.
  5. Click OK.
Now the list will display all the rules that will be applied for invoices of the country that you specified in the filter.Note that the condition that triggers a rule is shown in the Apply rule column.
You can use the following filtering criteria to find a rule:
  • rule name
  • the name of a field referred to by the rule
  • the condition that triggers the rule
  1. In the Document Definition Properties dialog box, click the Rules tab and then click the Filter… button.
  2. In the Filter dialog box, you can select the name of the rule you want to find (the names are listed alphabetically), select a field referred to by the rule, or specify the condition that triggers the rule.
For detailed instructions on using the filter, See Rules.

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Creating new rules

To create a new rule:
  1. From the Document Definition menu, select Document Definition Properties…
  2. In the dialog box that opens, click the Rules tab.
  3. In the Show rules list, select owned by Document Definition and its children.
  4. Select the field where the rule will be stored. This may affect the operation of some rules (e.g. how its error messages are generated). If you have doubts as to which field to choose, select the topmost node, i.e. Invoice Layout.
  5. Click New Rule…
  6. In the dialog box that opens select one of the standard rule types, or select Script, which allows you to write your own rule.
For detailed information about each rule type and for instructions on how to create them, See Rules.
The instructions below are specific to creating rules in FCFORINVOICES.
  1. After you have selected a rule type, you need to specify:
    1. Name
      The name of the rule should reflect the kind of validation performed by the rule. Errors issued by the rule will be displayed to the Operator in the following format:
      Rule name: Error message.
      If you want the rule to affect the status of invoices, prefix its name with (Exception) or (Rejected), depending on the status you want assigned to an invoice if the rule detects an error.
    2. Severity
      Severity flags help the Operator to review the errors and warnings and decide which invoices should be verified manually.
      Data export can also be made dependent on the severity flag. For example, you can:
      • export documents that have no rule errors but have rule warnings to your working database
      • export documents that have rule errors to an exceptions folder
      • prohibit the export of document with errors altogether
For detailed instructions on setting up export based on the severity of a rule, See Rules.
  1. Whether the rule should be enabled after it is created (Rule is enabled option)
  2. In this step you need to specify the condition for applying the rule. Typically, this condition is defined by the value of the Invoice Layout\BU\Country field.
    By default, the rule will always be applied (Apply rule=always). If you want the rule to be applied only under certain conditions:
    1. From the Apply rule list, select on condition.
    2. Click Edit… to modify the condition.
    3. Select the field whose value will trigger the rule (Invoice Layout\BU\Country).
    4. Specify the condition and, if applicable, allowed and prohibited values.
      Example 1. The rule must be applied to German invoices.
      Select the Belongs to set condition, click Add, and add the value DE.
      Example 2. The rules must be applied to all invoices except German and French invoices.
      Select the Does not belong to set, condition, click Add, and add the values DE, FR.
  3. In this step, you need to set up the rule. For detailed information, See Rules.

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Disabling a rule

To disable a previously set up rule:
  1. Find the rule in the list (see above).
  2. Clear the box in the Enabled column next to this rule. Alternatively, double-click the rule to open its Properties dialog box and clear the Enabled rule option on the General tab.
If you are certain that you will no longer need a rule, you can delete it. To delete a rule:
  1. Find the rule in the list (see above).
  2. Select the rule by clicking its name in the list and then click Delete.