Match Vendor Invoices to Purchase Receipts Using OCR

Overview

Vendor Invoice Optical Character Recognition (OCR) integration is designed to help you quickly verify vendor invoices match Purchase Receipts (PRs) to ensure clean job costing and accounting.

This article walks you through the full Vendor Invoice OCR workflow including uploading invoices on the OCR Invoices screen, monitoring statuses as Aspire scans and matches each one, and confirming matches in the side-by-side review screen.

Things to know

• Match confidence tells you where to look first, not what to approve. A five-bar match can still be wrong, and a low-bar match can still be right. Confidence is advisory. It doesn't approve, reject, route, or filter anything on its own.

• OCR supports PDF files only, with one invoice per PDF. You can upload up to 20 invoices at a time.

• OCR only matches invoices to Purchase Receipts in New or Received status that have Invoice Matching (OCR) turned on.

• Approved Purchase Receipts aren't eligible for OCR matching. If you open an invoice in Match Review status, and the linked Purchase Receipt was already approved, the review screen is read-only.

• Reviewing and confirming OCR matches doesn’t mark PRs as received or approved.

  • You can receive partial quantities from the OCR match review screen, which is the only time this process can mark a PR as received.

• Invoices are automatically removed from the OCR Invoices screen 30 days after the invoice date.

Requirements

• Vendor Invoice OCR must be active for your system. Read our article about enabling Vendor Invoice OCR for more information.

• You must create purchase receipts, and Invoice Matching (OCR) must be active for receipts before they can be matched to invoices.

• To upload invoices and run manual rescans, you need the Upload Invoice to OCR permission.

• To edit and confirm purchase receipts while they're in Match Review status, you need the Edit PRs in Match Review Status permission.

• The System Admin and Branch Admin roles have both permissions by default. Other roles may need them added.

Upload invoices to the OCR Invoices screen

1. Go to Purchasing > Purchase Receipts, and select the OCR Invoices tab.

2. Select Add Invoice in the top right corner of the screen.

3. Select one or more PDF files from your computer. You can upload up to 20 at a time.

4. Select Upload.

   
   

Each uploaded invoice appears in the OCR Invoices list with the Scanning status. During scanning, Aspire reads the PDF, extracts the invoice data, and tries to match it to an existing PR.

Monitor the OCR Invoices screen

The OCR Invoices screen shows each invoice's current status. Use the Search bar to quickly find invoices by any of the data columns on the screen. Use the Status, Uploaded On, and Uploaded By quick filters to view specific sets of invoices.

You can view an uploaded PDF by clicking on its name. Select the Linked PR number to view the original PR.

Use the Match Confidence column to see how strong each match is without opening it, and select the column header to sort by it. This screen isn't sorted by Match Confidence by the default, so you’ll need to apply it yourself.

Invoices that are still scanning, or that Aspire couldn't match, have no value and show an empty cell rather than a zero. When you sort by Match Confidence, those invoices group together at the end of the list.

Note: You must refresh the OCR Invoices screen to see updated statuses as scans complete.

Match status

• Scanning — Aspire is still reading the PDF. Wait for the scan to finish.

• Match Review — Aspire matched the invoice to a Purchase Receipt. Select Review next to the line item to review, make adjustments, and confirm.

• Unmatched — Aspire couldn't match the invoice automatically.

• Scan Failed — Aspire couldn't read the PDF because the file was corrupt or the text was unreadable.

• Complete — The match has been reviewed and confirmed. No further action needed.

Match confidence

The Match Confidence indicator shows how closely an invoice matches the Purchase Receipt Aspire paired it with, so you can tell how much attention the invoice in front of you needs. The more the invoice and the Purchase Receipt have in common, the more of the five bars fill:

• Five bars — the invoice and the Purchase Receipt line up very closely.

• Four bars — a strong match, with a small number of differences to review.

• Three bars — a moderate match. Some lines or totals differ enough to warrant a careful pass.

• Two bars — a weak match. Verify you're looking at the right Purchase Receipt before you review the lines.

• One bar — the two documents have little in common. Confirm the Purchase Receipt is correct before anything else.

Rescan, manually link, or delete

If an invoice shows the Unmatched or Scan Failed statuses, select the three-dot icon next to the invoice and choose one of three options:

• Scan / Rescan starts the OCR scan again. Rescan is useful for invoices in Scan Failed status or matches you want OCR to attempt again.

• Manually Link Purchase Receipt opens a window where you can search for and select the correct Purchase Receipt.

• Delete removes the PDF so you can upload a better version.

Review a matched invoice

When an invoice is in Match Review status, select Review to check the invoice against the matched PR.

The review screen opens with the invoice PDF on the left and the matched PR on the right.

• The PR area has between two and four sections, depending on whether any items failed to match and whether you’ve dismissed any

• You can zoom, scroll, and drag the PDF view to get a closer look.

• Each line item in the PDF is highlighted with a different color that matches a section in the PR on the right.

• Fields with a blue sparkle icon next to them were automatically matched by OCR. Other fields were either auto-filled from the PR or require your input.

Invoice Details

This section shows the basic details from the PR including the Branch, Received date, Receipt Status, Inventory Location, Invoice Date, Sync Status, Vendor, Invoice number, and Ticket.

Purchase Receipt Items

The Purchase Receipt side of the review screen shows between two and four sections, depending on how cleanly the invoice matched. Matched line items always appear. Extra Costs always appears, with its own subtotal and an Add Cost option. Items That Didn't Match and Removed or Dismissed appear only when they have something in them.

Items That Didn’t Match

This section appears when Aspire couldn't confidently pair something between the two documents. It opens with a warning icon and the message

"These items couldn't be confidently matched between the invoice and purchase receipt. Expand to review or adjust and resolve before confirming."

Work through everything here before you confirm the match. This section disappears once it's empty.

Items are grouped by where they came from:

• From invoice — lines the vendor billed you for that aren't on the Purchase Receipt. Add them to the receipt or dismiss them.

• From purchase receipt — lines on the Purchase Receipt that Aspire couldn't find on the invoice. Match each one to an invoice line, or leave it as is.

Select the arrow next to any item to expand it and see the details Aspire pulled from the scan.

Add an item to the Purchase Receipt

Each item in the From invoice group arrives pre-filled from the scan with its description, quantity, and unit price. If Aspire finds a catalog item that matches, it suggests that item. You can accept it or search for a different one, and the quantity and price stay as scanned. If nothing in the catalog fits, the item is added as a one-time item instead.

Some fields can't come from the invoice, like item type and category. Fill those in before you save. Until every required field on a card is complete, Add stays unavailable on that row.

1. Select the arrow next to the item to expand it.

2. Check the suggested catalog item, or search for a different one. To add it as a one-time item instead, leave the catalog field empty.

3. Complete any required fields Aspire couldn't fill.

4. Select Add. The item moves onto the Purchase Receipt and the totals update.

To add every item in the group at once, select Add All. It uses the values shown on each card and recalculates the totals once, at the end. Add All stays unavailable until every card has its required fields filled in, so if it's greyed out, look for the rows that still need attention.

Dismiss an item

Select Dismiss on any item you don't want on the Purchase Receipt — a delivery fee you handle separately, or something billed in error. To clear the whole group, select Dismiss All.

Match an item from the Purchase Receipt

Items in the From purchase receipt group are already on the receipt — Aspire just couldn't find them on the invoice. This usually means the vendor described the item differently than your catalog does. Use the Item field to link the line to the invoice item it belongs with.

Removed or Dismissed

Appears after removing or dismissing an item. Restore items with the undo arrow.

• Verify the suggested Invoice Date, Vendor, Invoice Number values on the Purchase Receipt, and make any necessary edits.

  Note: If the matched purchase receipt isn’t correct, read the section of this article about rescanning invoices below.

• Review the matched line items. Each line item on the invoice is highlighted in the PDF view with a color that corresponds to the matched line item from the purchase receipt. Discrepancy badges appear next to any line where the invoice and Purchase Receipt differ:    

  • Qty badge — quantity on the invoice doesn't match the quantity on the Purchase Receipt.

  • Price badge — unit price or extended price doesn't match.

  Update the line item on the Purchase Receipt to match the invoice, or leave the existing value if the Purchase Receipt is correct.  

  
  

• Review the Items Not Found in Invoice tab, if necessary. This section appears when there’s a line on the purchase receipt that OCR couldn’t detect a match for on the invoice. For each line, use the Item field to select a purchase receipt item and link it to the invoice line item.

• Review the Review Extra Items tab, if necessary. This tab appears when there were items found on the invoice that weren’t found on the purchase receipt, they appear in the . Select Add to add the item to the purchase receipt or Dismiss to skip the item.

• Check the Notes and Ship To tabs if your team uses them for vendor-supplied notes or delivery details.

• Select Confirm and Next.

The Purchase Receipt is updated with your changes, the invoice PDF is attached to the Purchase Receipt for the audit trail, and the invoice status changes to Complete. You're taken directly to the next invoice in your Match Review queue.

Manually link an Unmatched invoice

If an invoice is in Unmatched status, you can link it to a Purchase Receipt yourself.

1. From the OCR Invoices list, select Review on the unmatched invoice.

2. Select the option to link a Purchase Receipt manually.

3. Search for the Purchase Receipt by number, vendor, or date.

4. Select the Purchase Receipt you want to link.

5. Continue with the standard review steps to verify and confirm the match.

Rescan or delete an invoice

Use these actions to handle scan failures or to remove invoices that shouldn't be processed.

1. From the OCR Invoices list, locate the invoice.

2. Select the row action you need:    

   • Rescan — reruns OCR on the invoice. Useful for invoices in Scan Failed status or matches you want OCR to attempt again.

   • Delete — removes the invoice from the OCR Invoices list. Use for duplicates, invoices uploaded in error, or invoices that don't belong in OCR.

     Caution: Deleting an invoice removes it permanently from the OCR Invoices list. If you delete an invoice that has already been confirmed and attached to a Purchase Receipt, the attachment on the Purchase Receipt is not affected.

Tips

• Process invoices in Match Review status in one focused session. Confirm and Next moves you through the queue without returning to the list.

• Turn off Invoice Matching (OCR) on Purchase Receipts you know won't be matched against incoming invoices (for example, internal transfers). This keeps the match pool focused and improves accuracy.

• If a vendor sends multiple invoices in a single PDF, split the PDF before uploading. Each PDF should contain a single invoice.