PrexFlow Process
PrexFlow allows you to automate the entry of purchase invoices in Prextra as soon as they are received, using artificial intelligence.
IMPORTANT : To take advantage of this feature, we invite you to contact your project manager to proceed with the configuration of your company(ies).
1. Prerequisites
To optimize the PrexFlow process, it may be useful to complete certain information in your supplier records:
Complete the tax codes of your suppliers in their supplier record. The artificial intelligence uses these fields as a priority to identify the supplier on your invoice.
Complete the “Purchase account” button by entering a default General Ledger account in this button for suppliers for whom you only create General Ledger account invoices.
Example: Hydro-Quebec, Bell, Telus.
If the company requires mandatory warehouse in purchases (i.e., the “MandatorySiteInPurchase” configuration is active), you must complete the “Warehouse Item” field in the supplier record. This field must be completed for suppliers that are never linked to a purchase order.
NOTE : The “SupplierMaintenanceShowFields” configuration with the value “siteid” must be active to display this field.
If the company requires mandatory sector, you must select a sector in the “PrexFlow Sector (Cost)” field in your suppliers that are never linked to a purchase order.
NOTE : The “SupplierMAintenanceShowFields” configuration with the value “prexflowciesector” must be active to display this field.
Complete the “PrexFlow” button — this button appears in the supplier record when PrexFlow is activated in your company. Only certain suppliers may be affected.
| Field : | Description : |
|---|---|
| Use only page 1 of the invoice : | Check this box if the following information: subtotal, taxes, shipping, and total, are displayed on the first page while the other pages show the subtotal details. NOTE : Suppliers such as Hydro-Québec, Cogeco, Bell, Telus, Purolator, Canada Post often have this type of invoice. The system will display a detail line with the subtotal amount. |
| Keep document taxes : | Check this box to use the taxes from the document instead of recalculating them based on the subtotal + shipping sum. NOTE : This allows for managing tax rounding differences. |
| Manage eco-fees : | Check this box to enable automatic eco-fee management for this supplier. NOTE : Checking this box will display two new fields. |
| Item : | Enter the item code used to enter eco-fees in your receipt purchase invoice or purchase order. NOTE : This field is not mandatory. |
| GL Account : | Enter the General Ledger account to be used for entering eco-fees in the purchase invoice. NOTE : This field is mandatory. |
| Project : | Enter the General Ledger project linked to the General Ledger account if necessary. NOTE : This field is displayed only if the entered GL account is project-based. |
Complete the PrexFlow control — to get started with PrexFlow, your user must be in the “Administrator” field to access the PrexFlow document list.
NOTE : Refer to the “PrexFlow” documentation for more information on the PrexFlow control.
2. Receiving Documents in PrexFlow
Navigate to the “PrexFlow Document List” option in the “Utilities” menu of the “PrexFlow” module to view the list of documents uploaded to PrexFlow.
NOTE : To access this option, the user must have been previously selected in the administrator list of the PrexFlow control.
To add documents to the PrexFlow document list, you have 3 options:
Send a PDF document by email to your company’s PrexFlow email address. This address will be provided by support on the day of training;
NOTE : Only the PDF document from the email will be viewable in PrexFlow; any information or questions written in the email body will not be viewable in Prextra. We recommend forwarding your current payables email to the PrexFlow email.
Click and drag one or more PDF documents from your computer directly into the PrexFlow document navigation list.
Click the add icon in the navigation list and select the PDF document(s) to add from your computer.
IMPORTANT : Only PDF documents sent to the PrexFlow email address from authorized sender email addresses will be automatically uploaded. Any document sent from an unauthorized address to the PrexFlow email will not be uploaded. Furthermore, each email must not contain more than one PDF document.
When a document is being uploaded to the PrexFlow document list, the status will be “In Progress”.
NOTE : Documents with this status can be viewed, but no actions will be available.
When a document has been uploaded to the document list, it will have either the status “Pending Approval” or “Failed”.
When the automatic approval process is configured, documents may transition from “In Progress” status to “Successful” automatically. Documents still in “Pending Approval” status will need to be manually approved, as they do not meet the approval process criteria or are blocked by validations.
3Reviewing Documents Pending Approval**
When a document has been successfully uploaded, it has the status “Pending Approval”.
NOTE : When the approval process is activated, only invoices that are not created automatically will be displayed with this status and will require manual approval.
Double-click on the document line to approve or click the edit icon in the navigation list for a document, to validate and/or complete the information that will be saved in the Prextra purchase invoice.
Double-click on a document line with “Pending Approval” status in the PrexFlow document list to view and approve the information extracted by PrexFlow.
NOTE : For more information about the fields on this screen, refer to the “PrexFlow” documentation.
3.1 Creating a Purchase Order and/or Receipt Invoice
When PrexFlow can extract a purchase order number, Way Bill, or supplier reference from the document, along with a corresponding supplier in Prextra, a purchase order or purchase receipt invoice will be created.
For each item linked to a receipt, the General Ledger account from the purchase order will be displayed by default on the detailed lines. The field will be editable. Furthermore, if the GL account is project-based, the project linked in the purchase order will also be pre-filled and editable.
NOTE : The General Ledger account for each detail line and the GL account project (if applicable) are mandatory fields for this type of invoice.
NOTE : Learning is available for the fields: “Purchase order #”, “Supplier”, “Way Bill”, “Supplier Ref.”, “Invoice #” or “Invoice Date”, when they do not display the correct information after the initial PrexFlow processing. Click the learning icon and select the area in the document where the specific information is displayed to correct it. You can then relaunch the document analysis by clicking the “Re-run Analysis” button to automatically complete the mandatory fields in the detail if the system finds the links.
NOTE : A nightly job is enabled by default to automatically reprocess all documents with the status “Pending Approval” in order to check whether, since the document was added in PrexFlow, a receipt has been created in Prextra. This ensures that the link between the invoice and the receipt is established, allowing the invoice to be created either by clicking “Approve” or automatically if auto-approval is configured.
Once the information has been validated, click “Approve” to create the purchase invoice, if the approval process is not configured.
IMPORTANT : Items linked to a work order on an unreceived purchase order will not be automatically distributed at the time of invoicing. You will need to manually click the “Distribute” button in the purchase invoice to distribute these items to the work orders.
The created purchase invoice is available in the “Purchase Invoices” option in the “Transactions” menu of the “Accounts Payable” module. Furthermore, the selected receipts will be closed after the invoice is created.
NOTE : In the purchase invoice navigation list and purchase invoice consultation, you can display the optional “PrexFlow” column which will show “Yes” for all purchase invoices created via PrexFlow. Additionally, invoices created from approval automation will have the default user code “PrexFlow”. When manually approved, the user code of the employee who clicks “Approve” is displayed.
NOTE : A copy of the original document uploaded to PrexFlow will be attached to the invoice document in Prextra. The document date will be the date it was uploaded to PrexFlow.
NOTE : The payment term and currency come from the purchase order for PO and/or receipt invoices. Also, if your company is managed by mandatory sector, the sector also comes from the purchase order.
NOTE : It is possible to create an invoice for one or more receipts, whether they come from one or multiple purchase orders.
3.2 Creating a Purchase Invoice Without a Purchase Order
Double-click on a document line with “Pending Approval” status in the PrexFlow document list to view and approve the information extracted by PrexFlow.
NOTE : To create this type of invoice, PrexFlow cannot extract a purchase order number, Way Bill, or supplier reference, and the supplier has no active purchase order or receipt; but when it can extract matching items in Prextra, a purchase invoice without a purchase order will be created.
You will be able to validate the information extracted by PrexFlow, add invoice lines, correct and/or complete the data, items, and descriptions as needed.
If the item has a purchase General Ledger account in its product category, the system will display it by default on the detail lines. The field will be editable. Furthermore, if the GL account is project-based, the project linked to the category will also be pre-filled and editable.
NOTE : The General Ledger account for each detail line and the GL account project (if applicable) are mandatory fields for this type of invoice.
NOTE : If the supplier, invoice number and/or invoice date do not display the correct information after the PrexFlow upload, you can use the learning feature. Click the learning icon and select the area in the document where the specific information is displayed to correct it. You can then relaunch the document analysis by clicking “Re-run Analysis” to automatically complete the mandatory fields if the system finds the links.
Once the information has been validated, click “Approve” to create the purchase invoice without a purchase order, if the approval process is not configured.
The created invoice is available in the “Purchase Invoices” option in the “Transactions” menu of the “Accounts Payable” module.
NOTE : In the purchase invoice navigation list and purchase invoice consultation, you can display the optional “PrexFlow” column which will show “Yes” for all purchase invoices created via PrexFlow. Additionally, invoices created from approval automation will have the default user code “PrexFlow”. When manually approved, the user code of the employee who clicks “Approve” is displayed.
NOTE : A copy of the original document uploaded to PrexFlow will be attached to this invoice document in Prextra. The document date will be the date it was uploaded to PrexFlow.
NOTE : The payment term and currency come from the supplier record. Also, if your company is managed by mandatory sector or warehouse, the sector and/or warehouse also come from the supplier record.
3.3 Creating a General Ledger Account Invoice (Expense Invoice)
Double-click on a document line with “Pending Approval” status in the PrexFlow document list to view and approve the information extracted by PrexFlow.
NOTE : When PrexFlow cannot extract a purchase order number, Way Bill, supplier reference, receipt, and/or matching item code in Prextra, the invoicing will be a General Ledger account invoice, commonly called an “Expense Invoice”.
You will be able to validate the information extracted by PrexFlow, add invoice lines, correct and/or complete the data and descriptions as needed.
If the supplier has a purchase account checked “Default” in the “Purchase Account” button of the supplier record, the system will display it by default on the detail lines. The field will be editable. Furthermore, if the GL account is project-based, the linked project will also be pre-filled and editable.
NOTE : The General Ledger account for each detail line and the GL account project (if applicable) are mandatory fields for this type of invoice.
NOTE : If the supplier, invoice number and/or invoice date do not display the correct information after the PrexFlow upload, you can use the learning feature. Click the learning icon and select the area in the document where the specific information is displayed to correct it. You can then relaunch the document analysis by clicking “Re-run Analysis” to automatically complete the mandatory fields if the system finds the links.
Once the information has been validated, click “Approve” to create the GL account invoice, if the approval process is not configured.
NOTE : In the purchase invoice navigation list and purchase invoice consultation, you can display the optional “PrexFlow” column which will show “Yes” for all purchase invoices created via PrexFlow. Additionally, invoices created from approval automation will have the default user code “PrexFlow”. When manually approved, the user code of the person who clicks “Approve” is displayed.
NOTE : The editable “UOM” field must never be completed to approve a GL account invoice. If no item is found during document processing, the blank “UOM” field will automatically be empty.
The created invoice is available in the “Purchase Invoices” option in the “Transactions” menu of the “Accounts Payable” module.
NOTE : A copy of the original document uploaded to PrexFlow will be attached to this invoice document in Prextra. The document date will be the date it was uploaded to PrexFlow.
NOTE : The payment term and currency come from the supplier record. Also, if your company is managed by mandatory sector or warehouse, the sector and/or warehouse also come from the supplier record.