Smartscan recognition

The article below pertains to Procure to Pay (P2P) for the following applications and/or module(s):

AP Automation

Smartscan uses templates. A template contains information on which the system can recognize specific data on the invoice. For each field to be recognized (invoice number, invoice date, etc.), a template determines which search term should be used, at which location the value can be found and which pattern this value must comply with. There are two types of templates, a free form template and a vendor specific template.

The free form templates are used for general recognition of invoices. Free form templates are language specific and are maintained by ISPnext.

The vendor templates are useful for vendors from whom invoices are received regularly. For this specific vendor a template can be created. Specific fields and values ​​can be recorded in this template, so that the content of the invoice is better recognized than when using the free form template.

Free form template

If no specific template has been created for the vendor, the free form template is used.

The free form template is language specific and contains a large number of terms that are searched for in the invoice. A free form template is available for the languages ​​Dutch, English, German and French. For example, if the field "Invoice number" is searched for, terms such as "invoicenumber", "invoicenr", "invoice number" and "invoice" will be searched for based on the free form template (EN). In addition, so-called "exclusion terms" will also be specified in the free form template, which means, for example, that if the term "invoice" is found, it may not be used for the invoice number if it is followed by the word "date".

As soon as a search term is found on the invoice, there will be searched for a value that meets the criteria near by the location of the search term. If all three criteria are met (search term, location, rules), the value is copied into the appropriate field.

In this example of a free form template, you can see which values ​​were found and which search term was used. By clicking on the info icon next to the template name, it becomes visible which possible search terms are used.

Vendor template

If recognition is not sufficient based on the free form template, a custom template can be created for this specific vendor. Specific fields and values ​​for this vendor can be recorded in this template, so that the invoice is better recognized than based on a free form template.

Create

Open an invoice, indicate by coding which supplier it concerns and click on the icon of the Learn module with icon.

If the vendor is recognized correctly and no template has yet been created for this vendor, the recognition will be shown based on the free form template. Recognition can now be optimized by entering specific search terms. Then click on Create template. The new vendor template will be used when processing newly scanned invoices from this vendor.

In this example invoice, the invoice number is not recognized properly and we want to optimize this.

The invoice number is recognized by the term 'Invoice#' of the free form template. This results in 'Not found' as the found value; no data can be found under the value 'invoice #'. It is also possible that an incorrect value is entered, this may be because the Smartscan encounters a number close to the search term.

To correctly recognize the invoice number, use the search term 'Invoice number:'. The text 'Invoice number:' can be placed directly in the search term field by clicking on the search term field and then on 'Invoice number:' in the PDF.

Once all search term fields have been completed as desired, click create template. This saves the search term fields and also applies them directly in Smartscan. As shown in the example below, the search term for invoice number is now 'Invoice #' and the correct number has also been found.

It is possible to indicate that OCR always takes place for this vendor. You can also indicate for which pages Smartscan should perform recognition. The light green background immediately shows that this is a vendor template, the text free form is no longer shown.

After closing the Learn module, the invoice will appear again from where the Learn module was opened.

Please note: The vendor template you just created does not yet apply to the open invoice. This will have to be coded as usual. The new vendor template will be used for all new invoices when the vendor in question is recognized.

Modify

By opening the Learning tool from any vendor invoice, the vendor template will be displayed. Changes can then be entered. After changing, click on 'Update template', the new values ​​found will be immediately visible. From now on, all new invoices from the vendor in question will be recognized using this modified template.

Delete

Click on the 'Delete template' to delete a vendortemplate. After this, the vendor template will no longer be used for the vendor in question. This means that all new invoices from this vendor will be recognized again by using the free form template.