Workflows
Document Extraction That Updates the System of Record
Invoices, forms, and purchase orders can be read, checked against rules, reviewed by a person, and written to your ERP. How the workflow fits together.
For: Controller or operations leader · 1 min read ·
Extraction is the easy part
Reading fields from an invoice or order PDF is now a solved-enough problem for many document types. The harder part is everything around it: checking the result, deciding what needs a person, and updating NetSuite, QuickBooks, or a custom ERP without creating a cleanup job.
The workflow
- 01Document received
- 02Fields extracted
- 03Checked against rules
- 04Exceptions reviewed
- 05ERP updated
Rules before review
Plain business rules catch most problems before a person sees anything:
- Does the vendor or customer exist in the ERP?
- Does the PO number match an open purchase order?
- Do line totals add up to the document total?
- Is the amount above an approval threshold you set?
Where the person sits
Items that pass every rule can be queued for a quick batch approval. Items that fail a rule, or where the extraction is uncertain, go to a reviewer with the original document beside the extracted fields. The reviewer corrects and approves; only then is the system of record updated.
Over time, the review queue tells you which suppliers or forms cause trouble. That is often more valuable than the time saved.
What this is not
It is not a promise that every document is read correctly. It is a workflow that makes errors visible and cheap to fix, with a log of what was changed and who approved it.