Document Intake — AI Invoice & Receipt Processing

Capture and processing are separate jobs

The person who receives the delivery is rarely the person who should decide which account it hits. Qvian splits the two deliberately:

• Capture is broad. A storekeeper, a chef or a driver photographs the invoice and sends it in. They do not need accounting knowledge and cannot post anything.
• Processing is privileged. Reviewing extraction, classifying lines and posting to the ledger requires the processing permission.

The journey of a document

Common Tasks

How to Capture a Supplier Invoice (upload invoice, photograph receipt, send document for processing)

Do this when the goods arrive, or when a bill lands in your hand.

Required permission: Document create — held by most operational roles

1. In the staff app, open Documents and choose to upload
2. Photograph the document. Use Add page for a multi-page invoice so all pages stay together
3. Add Notes if there is anything the processor should know
4. Submit it

Result: The document appears in the Document Inbox as Submitted, showing who it was Uploaded by and when.

Note: You can also upload from the desktop at Expenses → Document Inbox if the invoice arrived by email.

How to Process a Document Into a Purchase or Expense (process invoice, post supplier invoice, workbench)

The main processing pass — from a photograph to a posted document.

Required permission: Document processing (accountant, operations manager or storekeeper level)

1. Go to Expenses → Document Inbox in the left sidebar
2. Pick a document showing Submitted. Check the Supplier and Total (AI read) look plausible before opening it
3. Open it into the workbench. It reads the document, extracts line items, matches products and accounts, then checks the math
4. Confirm the Supplier — choose New supplier if this is the first time you have bought from them
5. Review each line and its classification — Inventory for stock you will resell or consume, Expense for everything else
6. Check the tax treatment on each line — whether tax is Included in price or Added on top, or the line is Not taxable
7. Resolve anything flagged. The footer will not let you post while items are outstanding
8. Click Create Purchase for a stock delivery, or Create Expense Bill for a service or overhead

Result: The document posts as a purchase order or an expense bill with its accounting, and its status becomes Processed.

Note: If you see Resolve the flagged items first, scroll for lines marked Supplier missing, Category missing or Accounts set — the workbench is telling you exactly what is blocking the post.

How to Correct What the AI Read (AI got it wrong, fix extraction, wrong line items)

Extraction is a starting point, not a decision. Everything is editable before you post.

1. Open the document in the workbench
2. Compare the extracted lines against the document preview beside them
3. Correct any quantity, unit, price or description that was misread
4. Change a line’s classification between Inventory and Expense if it was categorised wrongly
5. Fix the tax treatment on any line where it was misread
6. Post when the lines match the paper document

Result: The posted document reflects the real invoice rather than the extraction.

Note: Per-line tax columns on receipts are not always read reliably. Zero-rated lines in particular are worth checking by hand before posting.

How to Update Selling Prices While Processing a Delivery (reprice on receipt, cost went up, margin check, update price)

A delivery is when you learn your new cost. The workbench shows what that does to your margin while you still have the invoice open.

1. Process the document as usual until the lines are correct
2. On an inventory line, read Avg cost and New avg cost to see how this delivery moves your weighted average
3. Compare Shelf now — your current selling price — against the resulting Margin
4. Where the margin is no longer acceptable, use Update price to set a new selling price
5. Post the document

Result: Stock is received at the new cost and any selling prices you changed are updated at the same time.

Note: This is the cheapest moment to catch margin erosion. A cost increase noticed weeks later has already been sold through at the old price.

How to Handle a Bill Showing a Previous Balance (prior balance, brought forward, statement balance, utility bill)

Utility bills and supplier statements often carry an unpaid amount from last time. That is not a new expense.

1. Open the document in the workbench
2. Find the line identified as Outstanding balance from previous bill
3. Assign it to the correct account rather than treating it as a fresh cost
4. Post the document once the flag clears

Result: This period's charges are recorded as the expense, and the carried-forward amount is treated as the existing liability it is.

Note: If you see Prior balance needs an account, the workbench has spotted a brought-forward amount and is refusing to guess where it belongs. Booking it as a new expense would double-count the earlier bill.

How to Reject a Document (duplicate invoice, reject document, wrong document uploaded)

Use this for duplicates, illegible photographs, or anything that is not a purchase document.

Required permission: Document processing

1. Go to Expenses → Document Inbox
2. Open the document
3. Reject it, giving a reason

Result: The document is marked Rejected and leaves the working queue. The person who captured it can see it was rejected and why.

Note: Reject rather than delete. A rejected document stays as evidence that the invoice was seen and consciously not posted.

Inventory lines and expense lines

The single most consequential decision in the workbench is whether a line is stock or a cost:

• Inventory lines increase stock and become an asset. Their cost reaches the profit and loss later, when the item is sold or consumed.
• Expense lines hit the profit and loss immediately.

One invoice can carry both — a delivery of stock with a delivery charge on the bottom. The workbench handles a mixed document; the stock lines create the purchase and the charge is expensed.