Processing an invoice in Perk involves three steps:
- Upload the invoice to Perk.
- View the invoice, validating or editing the information required information such as cost centers, categories, etc.
- Finalize the invoice, either submitting for approval and then review, or rejecting the invoice.
- Export the invoice once approved and reviewed for accounting.
Note: You can only edit invoices that have New, Draft or Needs revision status. If the invoice‘s status is In approval, In review or Ready to export, you need to recall the invoice first.
Viewing invoices as a submitter or invoice processor
Depending on your role, you can view or edit invoices
| Invoices shown in summary table | ||
|---|---|---|
| Employee (submitter) | Assigned invoices only |
|
| Invoice processor | All invoices |
|
The invoice summary table contains a list of invoices, either the invoices that have been assigned to you as a submitter, or all invoices available in the company. Click or tap on an invoice to edit an invoice.
Invoice summary (submitter)
Invoice summary (invoice processor)
Editing an invoice
The invoice detail view shows a preview of the invoice document on the left and the Invoice header overview that contains the data Perk AI has extracted. You can see the Actions toolbar at the top of the screen, where you see the actions to save, reject or submit the invoice, as well as other options.
Below, you can see the line items that have been extracted from the invoice by Perk. In addition, there are four other tabs: History, Approver, Documents, and Related invoices.
1. Invoice preview, 2. Invoice header overview, 3. Invoice line items, 4. Panel grabber
Tip: You can adjust the size of the invoice line item table by dragging and dropping panel grabber (4) on the lower part of the screen.
Warning: Changes in the invoice are not saved automatically. You need to press Save to keep the changes. Otherwise, any changes you make will be lost.
Invoice header overview
This section shows an overview of the basic data of the invoice. In the mobile app, this section is found in the Details tab. The invoice header contains the status of the invoice, the origin of the invoice, and the company associated with the invoice.
The origin indicates whether the invoice was uploaded manually by a user, or uploaded via email, including the email address of the user who sent the email.
Depending on your configuration, the invoice header may contain other fields, such as custom fields for your company. For each invoice, you can edit the following data:
Invoice header fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Invoice number | The number that is stated on the invoice serving as its unique identifier. |
| Supplier |
The supplier from which the invoice comes. This field is usually pre-filled by Perk based on the supplier master data that have been captured in Perk. If Perk is unable to find a match, the field is empty. You need to select the correct supplier from the dropdown or add the supplier to your supplier master data. |
| Purchase order number |
The number of the matching purchase order. If no number has been extracted, no purchase order has been found in Perk. You only see this field if the purchase order module has been activated for your legal entity. Otherwise, it is not displayed. |
| Total amount / Gross amount | The amount and the currency of the total amount stated on the invoice. Currency is required and must be a valid ISO 4271 three-letter code. |
| Invoice date | The date on which the invoice was created. |
| Invoice due date (only visible if activated) | The date on which the payment for the invoice is due. |
| Posting date (only visible if activated) | The date on which the invoice is posted to the ERP system. |
| Invoice service date (only visible if activated) | The date or time period the service that is billed on the invoice has occurred. |
| Payment account | The supplier’s account to which the payment should be transferred. This field is usually pre-filled by Perk based on the invoice information captured by our AI algorithms. If Perk was unable to find a match between the payment account on the invoice and the payment account coming from the supplier master data, Perk will throw a warning called Account mismatch to avoid fraud. In addition, this field is empty if no bank info is provided for the supplier, or no information has been found on the invoice. |
| Reference number | The reference number that is found with payment account data. This usually applies to invoices that have a Swiss QR code. |
| Payment date (only visible if activated) | The date on which the invoice will be paid. |
| Payment term |
Where specific payment terms (e.g., discounts) have been configured for this supplier, you can manually select them from this dropdown list.
Perk then automatically calculates the invoice due date and the payment date (pre-condition fields are empty). All calculations are made based on the date stated on the invoice. |
| Submitter |
By default, the Submitter who imported the invoice is captured in this field. However, you can adapt the submitter by selecting multiple users. After saving or submitting the invoice, a new window pops up where you can decide if you want to notify the newly selected submitters about the invoice they have been assigned via email. |
| Remark/Comment | Add a remark that might be relevant for the financial processing of the invoice or that you want to include when exporting the invoice. These comments appear in the History tab. Depending on your integration, these comments may be sent to your finance system when the invoice is exported. |
| Perk ID |
The unique identifier of the invoice report generated by Perk. Use this ID to track the invoice report in Perk. This is not the same number as the number of the invoice defined by the supplier. |
Invoice line items
In this section, you can find all line items that have been extracted from the invoice with detailed information for each of them.
Note: The logic according to which line items are extracted and default cost objects, as well as categories are assigned, depends on the supplier settings in Invoices > Invoice processor > Suppliers.
Line items panel
For each line item, you can edit the following data in the invoice report:
Invoice line item data
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| No. | Position of the line item on the invoice. |
| Description | Description of the line item as stated on the invoice. |
| PO line item (only visible if activated) | Select the line item on the purchase order to which the invoice line item should be matched, if not extracted by Perk. |
| Matching status (only visible if activated) | The status indicating if the invoice line item has been matched to a corresponding purchase order line item. |
| Category | Please select the (correct) category, if not extracted by Perk, on which the line item should be booked. |
| Cost object | Please select the (correct) cost object, if not extracted by Perk, on which the line item should be booked. |
| Quantity | The number of the same line item on the invoice. |
| Price | The total price of the line item. |
| Tax % | Tax rate that is billed on the line item. |
| Net | The net amount of the line item. |
| Gross | The gross amount of the line item displayed in the currency displayed in the Invoice overview section. |
Depending on the data extracted from the invoice, Perk may auto-calculate invoice line item amounts based on the selected tax rate. See Calculating invoice line item amounts.
You can add further line items (+ Add line item) that may be missing on the invoice.
Note: If the purchase order module is not active, you can‘t match invoice line items with purchase order line items. You won‘t see the PO line item and Matching status columns.
History tab
You can see the history of the invoice and all activities including the name of the person who executed an activity and the time stamp when this activity occurred.
For example, you can see the name of the person who uploaded the invoice, if the Submitters of the invoice have been changed including the names of the new Submitters, any remarks entered in the Remark/Comments field by a specific person, and when the Manager user has approved the invoice. Depending on your finance integration, any comments included here may be sent to your finance system when the invoice is exported.
Approver tab
Here, you can see the approval flow of this invoice including all involved approvers. This tab lets you see who’s going to be next in approving your invoice, once you have inputed all the details that you needed to input.
The approval flow is defined during the implementation of Perk in your company’s finance system.
Documents tab
Here, you can upload additional supporting documents to the invoice report. If you have uploaded the invoice via email, then depending on your company settings, you may find the email body as a separate document in this tab.
Perk lets you upload these file types:
- JPEG
- PNG
- DOC, DOCX
- CSV
- XLS, XLSX
You can upload up to three documents per invoice, with a maximum file size of 5MB. To confirm the upload, you must save the invoice. Otherwise, any uploaded documents will be lost.
Note: You can only upload supporting documentation to invoices in New, Draft or In review status. You can’t attach additional files if the invoice is In approval (unless configured to allow approvers to add supporting documents), Ready to export or Exported.
Related invoices tab
Here, you can find other related invoices from the same supplier captured in Perk. This means that if past invoices from the same supplier have been processed, you find them here.
Note: Only invoice processors and financial reviewers can see the Related invoices tab.
Action toolbar
In the top right corner of the web app, you can perform several actions on the invoice:
- Switch between invoices: Click Previous and Next to navigate between assigned invoices.
- Open invoice in new tab: To open the invoice document in a new tab of your web browser, click the double-headed arrow.
- Forward invoice: Click the right arrow to forward the invoice to a new user. A window opens in which you can select a new submitter to check and submit the invoice. You can enter a comment to explain your reason for forwarding the invoice.
- Split invoice: If you want to create multiple invoices from an invoice, you have the option to split the PDF pages by clicking on the scissor icon. This action does not delete this invoice, rather creates a new invoice from the existing one. You must delete the original invoice afterwards.
- Delete invoice: To delete the invoice you currently have open, click on the trash bin icon. The document is permanently removed from Perk.
- Invoice messages: Add any internal comments to the invoice. These comments are lost when the invoice is exported.
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Save: With this multi-action button, you can choose how Perk behaves when it save the invoice. You can choose to:
- Save: Saves the invoice but keeps it open.
- Save and open next: Saves the current invoice and moves to the next invoice in the queue.
- Save and close: Saves the current invoice and returns to the invoice dashboard.
You can click any of the options to perform that action. To keep your desired behavior, click the star icon beside the option.
Note: When you update any details of the invoice (header or line items) and click Save, the action is logged in the History tab.
The Actions (three dots) button lets you access the option to manually create a credit note for a refund (only available in web app).
Bulk edit line items in the web app
In the web app, you can edit the line items in bulk by clicking the checkbox to the left of each line item. Once you’ve clicked the checkbox next to at least two line items, you see several actions:
- Edit: edit the selected line items in bulk, i.e., you can set the same values for all selected line items at once. For example, you can define the same category or cost object for all selected line items. Once you’ve set all applicable values, click Save and your changes are visible in the line items overview of the invoice report.
- Delete: delete all selected line items.
- Aggregate line items: aggregate all selected line items to a single line item. If you aggregate line items, you can‘t return to the complex line item view unless you re-upload the invoice.
Finalize the invoice
Once you’ve checked and adapted the necessary fields in the invoice report you have three options to proceed. You can find them in the top right corner of the invoice report in the web app.
- Save: Click Save if you want to save the invoice report and come back at a later point in time to finalize it.
- Reject: Click Reject if you want to reject the invoice due to one of the following reasons: Duplicate, Declined, Fraud, Wrong data, Incomplete data, Other. Add a comment to your reasoning. (only available in web app)
- Submit: Click Submit if you are ready to submit your invoice report.