The set of rules allows you to automate many small steps and also ensures a more consistent process. The processing of documents is accelerated and simplified.
Overview of rules in the invoice receipt book
Click on the Rules tab to display the list of rules you have created. Click Add to open a new window in which you can define the details of a new rule.
You can access the same screen by selecting and editing or duplicating the rule (to adapt it and save it under a new name).
Creating and editing rules for the invoice receipt book
An example of a rule could be to search the text for a known vendor customer number and optionally for a known vendor VAT ID number when an invoice is received, in order to then automatically set the supplier/vendor found.
Let's take a closer look at the rule details using the following screenshot of rule number 2. A double-click on the existing rule shows the following:
The header data of a rule in the invoice receipt book
Most of the header data can also be found in the rules for the document worklist or bank transactions.
One special feature, however, is the time of application (see below).
Number
The rules are checked and processed in the order of their number (ascending). If there are general but also very specific criteria for actions, the special rules should be higher up in the priority list (and therefore have lower numbers).Description
The description is shown in yellow as a mandatory field before the entry and should be unique.Color code
This visual differentiation can be used as an indication of the hit probability. This allows you to get a quick visual overview of how likely it is that a rule will lead to a clear result. We recommend using green for a high probability,
yellow for a lower probability and orange for the lowest probability that the result will be unambiguous.Enabled
Disabling rules is useful for temporarily suppressing them instead of deleting them completely.Rule behavior (Terminating / Continuing)
According to the number, the rules are checked and applied in a specific order.
However, if the conditions of a "Terminating rule" are met, only the actions of this rule are executed, but no other rule is applied.
In the case of a "Continuing rule", the next rule in the sequence is always applied, regardless of whether the "Continuing rule" has been fulfilled or not.Application time
Here you determine whether your rule is applied before scanning, when the invoice is received or only after verification. Different conditions and actions are offered depending on the time.
If you have selected invoice receipt, you will see the result of the applied rule as soon as you open the invoice receipt book.
The rule for invoice verification is only triggered when you click on the Verification button in the Document details view.
The conditions in the rules of the invoice receipt book
First determine the time of application, as different conditions and actions are available to you depending on this.
First determine whether all conditions or only one condition must be fulfilled.
Working with "All conditions apply" leads to a higher hit quality.
Then click on New entry to set a condition. To add another condition, click on the small plus symbol on the right.
Most of the conditions are self-explanatory, but here are a few examples:
"Text"
The text extracted by text recognition is searched. You can view the raw data as a txt file in the Documents business object.
Structured data from e-invoices is not taken into account under the "Text" designation.
"Always"
This is a so-called "catch all" condition. It can be used well in conjunction with ongoing rules or to test actions."Invoice format"
Can be used to treat PDF invoices, ZUGFeRD files or XInvoices differently (e.g. single item balancing)
You can find tips on processing e-invoices (vendor recognition and balancing) using rules in this short video (duration approx. 6 minutes).
The actions in the rules of the invoice receipt ledger
The options available for selection in the actions also depend on the time of application. Here you can also derive several actions based on a successful check.
The procedure for clicking on New entry or on the plus symbol to add further actions is the same as for setting the conditions.
Depending on the action, you will be offered various selection options. In the screenshot below, for example, the "Set release process" action is selected (3). You will see a list of the release processes that have already been created (4), to which the invoice can be automatically assigned when it is received. To call up this list, click once in the empty field (5) and then on Select release process at the bottom left (6).
Please note that rules are independent of the status of the release processes! If a rule refers to a release process that has already been deactivated, the rule continues to apply and must therefore also be deactivated or changed.