Smart Invoice Extraction

Smart Invoice Extraction is a digital, cloud-based service that automates the extraction and validation of invoice data. This saves time and effort over manual data entry and helps handle volume. 

This feature is only available to Strata Managers if enabled by an Organisation Admin.

Contents

• How it Works
• Premium vs Lite Service
• Service Level Agreement (SLA) Commitment
• Accepted File Types
• Failed Invoices
• Terms of Use

How it Works

Smart Invoice Extraction detects and automatically extracts invoice data from email attachments, including the Plan Number, Creditor Business Number, Invoice Date, Invoice Amount and Invoice Number.

Organisations will be provided with an email solely for invoice submission and processing. The account address will be <organisation_name>@invoices.smata.app.

All attachments sent to the account will incur a charge for extraction. It is recommended to remove attachments that are not invoices, for example, reports. 

An Organisation may instruct its employees or the Service Providers that it works with to remove all attachments from emails prior to submitting an invoice. 

If Smart Invoice Extraction is enabled for the Organisation, all invoices sent to the dedicated account will be scanned by the extraction service. Then the invoice will be sent to the First Approver or Invoice Manager for review. 

Invoices that are uploaded by the Service Provider on the Work Summary page of a Job or that are manually uploaded to the Document Management System do not go through the extraction process. 

For more information, please see Invoice Processing and View & Manage Invoice Rules.

Premium vs Lite Service

The Lite and Premium invoice extraction services both automate the capture of essential invoice details, such as Plan Number, Creditor ABN, Invoice Number, Invoice Amount, and Invoice Date, ensuring seamless data integration for organisational users. However, while the Lite service focuses solely on extraction, the Premium service enhances accuracy and reliability by incorporating validation checks, quality assurance measures, and manual review processes for high-value invoices. This ensures that extracted data is not only captured efficiently but also verified for correctness before being processed.

The Premium service leverages advanced machine learning algorithms to assess confidence levels in extracted data, automatically validating key fields to minimise errors. Additionally, any invoice exceeding $5,000 undergoes a manual review, providing an extra layer of scrutiny for high-value transactions. This comprehensive approach reduces financial risks, enhances operational reliability, and ensures organisations receive the highest quality invoice data. By combining automation with rigorous validation, the Premium service offers a streamlined yet highly accurate invoice processing solution.

Service Level Agreement (SLA) Commitment

Smart Invoice Extraction may take up to 48 hours to extract data from an invoice. This period begins when an invoice is sent to the nominated account and ends when an invoice is sent to the first approver for review. 

If an invoice is high priority, extraction should be bypassed. Instead, these invoices can be manually uploaded to the Document Management System and flagged with a red 'Priority' banner. The first approver can then determine whether an invoice should be overridden and approved for payment.

Accepted File Types

The following file types can be successfully extracted:

.csv, .doc, .docx, .pdf, .ppt, .pptx, .rtf, .tif, .tiff, .xls, .xlsx 

Powerpoint (.ppt, .pptx) and Excel (.xlsx, .csv) files aren't accepted file types, however, the system will try to convert the files to PDF (.pdf). This isn't always successful and depends on the layout of the text and other content.

Image files (.jpg, .jpeg, .png) are excluded from extraction to avoid attachments on email signatures from being accidentally sent for extraction and incurring unnecessary charges.

Failed Invoices

When automated extraction of invoice data isn't possible, manual data entry and verification must be performed by a Team Member within the Organisation.

This often happens when the required fields aren't available or legible on the invoice, such as the Plan Number or Creditor Business Number. 

An Invoice Manager should be appointed by the Organisation to review all files that couldn't be successfully extracted. When this has been completed, the Invoice Manager will delegate data entry to an assigned employee who can send them for review and payment processing.

For more information, please see Managing Failed Invoices

Utility Invoices

Most utility invoices (e.g. Gas, Water, Electricity, Telephone) don't have an Invoice Number but often have an account number. To avoid duplicate flags from triggering unnecessarily, the extraction service will append the Invoice Number field value with the Invoice Date. This makes the invoice data unique so only relevant duplicates will be flagged. 

The extraction service extracts invoices the same way each time to ensure that duplicates are successfully matched and the approver is notified. 

Terms of Use

Please note that this service is charged per file sent to the nominated email address. If a file contains multiple invoices, it will be split out into the appropriate number of files, each occurring a charge. The split invoices will be extracted as individual invoices and presented to the First Approver. 

Be careful of sending unnecessary attachments to the account or additional charges will be incurred. 

Invoices that are more than five pages also occur additional charges. For more information on the Terms of Use, please see the Customer Product Service Agreement.

Strata Managers should contact us with any further questions regarding this process.