Receipts everywhere and the accountant chasing? A better way to handle invoices

Our purchase-paperwork system sorts and renames documents from our own operation for the bookkeeping handoff. The examples here are made up.

Start with the part that consumes your time

If most of the work is finding and filing documents, start there. Agree where paperwork arrives, where it belongs and how the person doing the books needs to receive it.

A tool can read dates and totals from the document and propose entries for a spreadsheet. You still need a way to check an uncertain figure and see which document it came from.

You should be able to open the original from the extracted record. If a figure looks wrong, having the document beside it removes another search. Keep every page: a plausible-looking row may still be missing the total printed on the last page.

Leave uncertain figures blank and flag them. Filling an invoice-date field with the email's arrival date makes the row look finished while recording a different fact.

For paperwork collected away from the office, a smartphone app can upload a document to an agreed folder on your local computer or server. The local process can then file it and prepare the details for checking. Decide how uploads reach that system and how you see an upload that has not arrived before relying on it.

Check the exceptions without doing the whole job twice

Give unclear items a visible place to wait. “Total unreadable” or “Missing page” tells you what needs doing. A document disappearing from the list leaves you wondering whether anyone dealt with it.

Our invoice checks look for duplicate records, inconsistent dates, the wrong supplier and arithmetic that does not add up. An unclear item stays for review rather than being treated as finished.

Use a separate test set before live paperwork. Include an unreadable scan, a multi-page invoice, a credit note and a statement. Repeat the checks after fixes. Record what happens to each held item so you can distinguish unfinished work from a confirmed exclusion.

The same invoice can arrive twice

A download and an email attachment may have different filenames and contain the same invoice. Compare them with existing records before adding another entry. Matching amounts alone aren't enough: two separate purchases can cost the same.

Hold a suspected duplicate for review. Deleting it automatically could remove a document you still need.

Before importing the export, check the columns and formats with whoever receives it. Compare extracted totals with the printed figures, using the relevant components and agreed rounding rules where available. Questions about accounting treatment belong with the person responsible for the books.

Agree how the bookkeeper will see the documents still waiting for attention. Sending a tidy export while hiding the unfinished items leaves someone else to discover the gaps. Payment approval can stay separate.