Can the system read vendor invoices from e-mail and send them for approval?
| Intagya ERP
Yes, when the invoice is a PDF with text in it. In Intagya ERP the Automations app has a recipe called Vendor bills from e-mail: when a message reaches the vendor bills mailbox, intagya AI reads the file and fills a draft vendor bill with the vendor, reference, dates and lines, then an approval request goes out. The bill stays a draft and the AI never posts it. It needs the intagya AI add-on and the Approvals app.
A spare parts vendor e-mails an invoice every week: a PDF with thirty lines. The accountant opens it in one window and the system in another, and types. Description, quantity, price. Then the next line.
A full hour, then a mistake in one line that surfaces a month later in the vendor statement.
Where does the time go with vendor invoices?
In retyping. The invoice is already written and the accountant writes it again. Then it waits for the manager's signature on paper or in a chat, and nobody knows where it is. Retyping costs hours; waiting costs days.
This is exactly where AI helps: reading text that already exists and putting it in the right boxes. The decision stays with a person.
How does the Vendor bills from e-mail recipe work?
Three steps on the canvas:
- Incoming e-mail: the vendor's message reaches the vendor bills mailbox in the system with the invoice file.
- Read an invoice: intagya AI reads the PDF and fills a draft vendor bill.
- Approval request: a request from the Approvals app goes out before the bill is posted.
Open it from Ready recipes, pick your vendor bill approval type in the approval step, then try it and switch it on.
What exactly does intagya AI read from the invoice?
- The vendor name, which it looks up in your contacts.
- The vendor's invoice number, as the reference.
- The invoice date and the due date.
- The lines: description, quantity and unit price.
Its instructions are plain: never invent numbers, leave empty what it cannot find. If the vendor is not in your contacts it fills the rest and notes in the history that the vendor was not found and you should choose it on the bill.
What it does not do: it does not pick accounts or taxes, and it does not post the bill. The accountant checks the draft and completes it, and that is on purpose.
Can it read photographed or scanned invoices?
No, for now PDF files only, and the file must hold real text, the kind a vendor's software produces. A phone photo, or a PDF that is really a scanned page, cannot be read. The step then fails and the history says why: the file has no readable text.
If an e-mail brings more than one file, it reads the latest file attached to the bill.
Ask your biggest vendor to send the invoice as a PDF from their software, alone in the e-mail. A small request that saves more than any setting.
Who approves, and when is the bill posted?
The approval request follows the approval type you chose in the Approvals app, so it reaches whoever you set there. The bill stays a draft in accounting. Posting is the accountant's call after review and approval, not the rule's.
Every bill that went through the rule has a line in Run history: when the e-mail came, how many lines were read, who got the approval request, and where it stopped if it stopped.
What else can AI do in an automation?
Two more steps on the canvas. Sort the message puts an incoming WhatsApp message or e-mail into one of the categories you write, such as complaint, price request or question, and an If then takes the right path. Write a reply drafts an answer that appears as an internal note on the record, for an employee to check and send. The reply is never sent by itself.
What do I need to start?
- The intagya AI add-on, which is paid. Without it the AI steps show locked.
- The Approvals app and an approval type for vendor bills.
- A vendor bills e-mail address linked to the system, for vendors to send to.
Try it on a record walks the path on a real vendor bill and says what it would do, without reading the file with AI and without sending an approval request. That way you check the path before switching it on.
Tomorrow morning pick one vendor who sends regular PDF invoices and let only their bills go through the rule for two weeks. Compare the drafts with the originals, then decide whether to widen it.
In Intagya ERP the mail, the AI, the accounting and the approvals are one system, so the invoice never leaves for another tool to be read.
Read: what does AI do inside an ERP?
FAQ
Does the AI post the bill by itself?
No. It only fills a draft and an approval request goes out. Review and posting belong to the accountant.
What if the vendor is new?
It fills the reference, dates and lines and notes in the history that the vendor was not found, so you choose or create it on the bill.
Can it read a phone photo of an invoice?
Not now. It reads PDF files that contain text; a photo or a scanned page fails with a clear reason in the history.
Do I need intagya AI for every automation?
No. Only for the AI steps and the write-what-you-want box. The rest of the canvas and the recipes work without it.
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