Get rid of paper invoices! Electronic invoice management

Many of our customers ask how they can send their invoices from their accounting systems into FileHold to store into the repository. Print-to-FileHold is ideal to use in these cases as it acts as a virtual printer driver which means that any application that has the print function can use Print-to-FileHold. When the invoice is “printed” from the accounting system, it is converted into a PDF document. Once converted, the familiar FileHold Office Client Window opens allowing you to set the schema, metadata fields, and set the destination folder for the invoice.

Since the invoice is electronic in origin and contains text, this text layer is preserved during the PDF conversion process. Maintaining the text layer during the conversion process allows you to be able to do a full text search on your documents in the repository.

If your accounting system has a database for a backend, then database lookups on the schema can be employed to reduce the manual tagging that needs to be done by the end user. For example, your accounting system uses a SQL database to store the invoice number, invoice date, vendor name, and amount of the invoice. For your invoice schema in FileHold, you can configure the schema lookup so that only one piece of information, such as the invoice number is entered and then the remaining field values are filled out once the lookup is done.

Print-to-FileHold can be used in conjunction with auto-filing scripts. Using auto-filing scripts removes the manual process of setting the destination folder in the FileHold Office Client window. For example, if your library structure is configured as: Accounting Cabinet / Invoices Drawer / Invoice Year 2015 Folder. The auto-filing script is configured so that once the “Auto-file” button is clicked, the destination folder for the invoice is automatically set to Invoice Year 2015. This automation reduces the amount of time needed for a user to add an invoice into the FileHold repository.

There are also a number of printing preferences that can be configured for Print-to-FileHold. For example, when adding the document into the FileHold repository, perhaps you want to email a copy to the vendor. Or perhaps you want to add some headers or footers to the document. Maybe you would like a watermark placed on the document that states “Paid” or “Overdue”. You can configure these types of options and many others when “printing” a file.

Any printing preferences that are defined can be maintained in the Print-to-FileHold printing preferences. Print-to-FileHold can also be set as the default printer in order to reduce paper usage, costs and storage.

Once the invoice has added to the repository, an electronic workflow can be started in order to get any reviews or approvals. Watch the video below to see how Print-to-FileHold can help automate the processing of electronic invoices.