Identifying the Document Type and Other Basic Details

• 08/06/2023
• 5 minutes to read

When an imported document has been OCR-processed and a document source (such as a vendor) has been assigned either automatically or manually, Continia Document Capture will try to automatically identify the document type and a number of other fundamental document details. The details to be identified depend on the overall document category. For the purchase category, the details that Document Capture will attempt to identify are the following:

• Currency
• Document type
• Due date
• Salesperson/purchaser
• G/L account and other account types, if relevant

If Document Capture fails to identify any of these details, you'll have to enter them manually yourself.

Note that for illustrative purposes, this article will be based on invoices imported in the purchase category. Much of the information and all of the underlying principles also apply to other categories and document types though.

Identifying the document type

To identify the document type, Document Capture checks the first page of the imported document for any captions that may signify a document type (such as the words invoice or credit memo). If it identifies one or more relevant captions, it picks the one with the highest position on the page. So if, for example, the word Invoice is located vertically higher than any other identified captions, the document is identified as an invoice.

Even if it says Credit Memo immediately below the word Invoice, the document will by default be regarded as an invoice. However, it's possible to change this default behavior by setting up Document Capture to prioritize credit memos over invoices during recognition. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Choose the icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.
2. To open the purchase document category, select the PURCHASE line (not the PURCHASE code itself), and then select Edit in the action bar.
3. On the Templates FastTab, in the list of templates, select the template that you want to edit, and then select Edit to open the template card.
4. On the Purchase Documents FastTab, enable Prioritize Credit Memo as Document Type.

With this setting enabled, Document Capture will identify any imported document that uses this template and includes the text Credit Memo (or similar) as a credit memo, even if the word Invoice is located higher than Credit Memo in that document.

Identifying other basic details

To identify the currency, Document Capture initially searches for a currency code in the imported invoice. If no such code is present in the document, it checks if there's one on the vendor card. In case no currency code is found here either, Document Capture uses the local currency (LCY), provided that this has been defined in the General Ledger Setup.

To identify the due date, Document Capture searches for it in the imported invoice. If this fails, it creates a due date based on the vendor's payment terms combined with the posting date that's typically included in the document.

To identify the salesperson/purchaser, Document Capture checks the Our Contact field of the imported invoice. If this is empty, it searches for an order number in the invoice and then fetches the salesperson/purchaser code from the related purchase order, if present.

To identify the G/L account number and any potential other account codes, Document Capture checks if any rules have been set up in Accounts for Amounts. Using this setup, Document Capture may be able to apply codes for G/L accounts, items, resources, fixed assets, item charges, amount distribution codes, and/or purchase contracts.

See also

Set Up Currencies (Microsoft article)
Working with Paper and PDF Documents
Capturing Fields in a Document
Purchaser Code Translation