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 tab, monitoring statuses as Aspire scans and matches each one, and confirming matches in the side-by-side review screen.

Things to know

• 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 OCR Match 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 page 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 OCR Match 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.

Upload invoices to the OCR Invoices page

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

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

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 page

The OCR Invoices page shows each invoice's current status. Use the Search bar to quickly find invoices by any of the data columns on the page. 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.

Note

You must refresh the OCR Invoices page to see updated statuses as scans complete.

• 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.

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. Not recommended for Scan Failed status.

• Manually Link Purchase Receipt opens a window

• Delete removes the PDF so you can re-uploaded 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 some situations explained below.

• 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

Items That Didn’t Match

Disappears after ignoring or manually matching all items within.

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 re-rescanning invoices.

• 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.

  1. 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 — re-runs 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 OCR Match 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.