Basic Concepts in Document Capture

What’s a document, and how do I process it?

A document is either a scanned paper document, a PDF file, or an XML file that’s imported into Document Capture. It can be any type of document, such as a purchase invoice, a sales order, a contract, an item certificate, a bill of lading, a customer statement, or virtually anything else.

Once a document has been imported into Document Capture, you can capture textual information in it and start working with it. The information you need to capture depends on the specific type of document, but no matter what types of documents you’re dealing with, you handle and process them in the same place – the document journal.

The main purpose of the document journal is to enable you to work with imported documents and capture textual information contained in these documents. Once the information has been captured in the document journal, you must register the document. By registering a document, you convert all captured information into a real business entity in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. For example, when you register a purchase invoice received from a vendor, you create a Business Central purchase invoice.

The process can be outlined as follows:

1. The document is scanned or sent to Document Capture and OCR-processed >

2. The document is imported into the document journal >

3. Information is captured >

4. The document is registered >

5. A Business Central purchase invoice is created.

Importing documents into Document Capture

Before you can start working with documents in Document Capture, the documents must be imported into the system. There are several different ways of doing this, as explained below.

Via email: You can import documents into Document Capture by attaching them as PDF or XML files to an email and then sending that email to a dedicated email address monitored by Document Capture. There’s a dedicated email address for each document category within Document Capture, so be sure to send your documents to the right one. You can either forward the documents you receive to the dedicated email address yourself or ask the original senders (often your vendors) to send them directly to that email address. To learn more about this, see Importing Documents.

Using a network scanner: Another way to import your documents is by scanning them using a network scanner. Most network scanners can be set up to scan and send documents as PDF files to a predefined email address. You simply set up your scanner to send all scanned files in PDF format to the email address that’s monitored by Document Capture, as described above. No additional configuration is required, as Document Capture automatically reads all incoming emails and their attachments as outlined in the above section.

Using a desktop scanner: Document Capture supports the scanning of documents using a desktop scanner connected directly to each end user’s PC. Document Capture can communicate with the scanner and start the scanning directly from Business Central. To learn more about how to connect desktop scanners, see Connecting a Desktop Scanner. You can find more information on how to use desktop scanners here.

Via the Continia Delivery Network: The Continia Delivery Network connects you to the global PEPPOL eDelivery Network, which enables you to import PEPPOL documents directly into Business Central. To learn more about the Continia Delivery Network, see Understanding the Continia Delivery Network.

Working with documents

When your documents have been imported into Document Capture, you can start working with them. All documents are organized into document categories, and most of them make use of document templates. Both of these concepts are essential for you to understand, which is why they’re explained in the sections below, along with a few other crucial concepts.

Document categories: All documents belong to a document category, which serves as a sort of container for all documents of a specific type. For example, all purchase invoices and credit memos belong to the document category PURCHASE, whereas all sales orders belong to the SALES category. Each document category includes a set of rules and configurations that define how to process documents within that category. If you’re only working with, say, purchase documents, this may be less important to you – but you could still occasionally benefit from knowing that there are different types of documents and that they’re grouped into document categories. To learn more about document categories, see Working with Document Categories.

Templates: A template is a collection of rules and configurations that determine how documents should be captured and processed. All templates are associated with a document category, and each template is linked to a specific vendor. Templates can be linked to other entities than vendors, but this article will focus exclusively on vendors, for illustrative purposes. In the template, you determine what information and which fields should be captured whenever you receive a document from a specific vendor. As each vendor has a unique template, you can use templates for capturing different information or for applying different rules and configurations for each vendor. To learn more about templates, see Overview of Documents and Templates.

Documents: Documents are the actual entities that are processed and stored in Document Capture, such as purchase invoices and credit memos. When you import a document, Document Capture will identify the source of that document (for example, the vendor that sent it) and link it to the specific template associated with that source. Once a source has been identified (or manually assigned) and its associated template has been applied, all relevant information in the document is automatically captured, and the document is processed according to the rules and configuration of the applied template. To learn more about documents, see above and Overview of Documents and Templates.

Document journal: The document journal is where you process imported documents and capture the textual information that’s contained within them. What information to capture depends on the type of document you’re dealing with, and you can define the exact rules in templates. No matter what you capture, the capturing allows you to register the documents and thereby convert them into actual business entities in Business Central. To learn more about working with documents, see Working with Paper and PDF Documents.

Document card: The document card is another place for you to work with documents. The difference between the document journal and the document card is that the document card also allows you to capture document lines, which isn’t possible in the document journal. To learn more about working with documents, see Working with Paper and PDF Documents.

Matching purchase documents

Depending on your situation, you may be using Business Central’s functionality for purchase orders and return orders. If so, it’s important that purchase invoices and credit memos are linked to these types of documents when processed. Document Capture has been built with a strong focus on doing exactly this as efficiently as possible. To learn more, see Overview of Order and Receipt Matching.

Approving purchase documents

The majority of companies prefer having their purchase invoices and credit memos approved before posting them and paying their vendors. Document Capture offers a streamlined workflow that meets the needs of most companies, and more than 2,000 companies are already using this. Maybe you should too? To learn more about approving purchase documents, see Overview of Purchase Approval.

Document archive

When a document has been imported and processed, it’s automatically stored in the document archive. Here you can access it – along with all other processed documents – whenever you want, for as long as you want. To learn more about the document archive, see Accessing the Document Archive.

Working with Templates

In order for Continia Document Capture to be able to capture the fields of imported documents, each document must be linked to a document template. A document template is essentially a collection of rules and configurations that determine how documents should be captured and processed. Overall, there are three types of templates in Document Capture, two of which are document templates:

This article will focus on the two types of document templates – master and source templates – using vendors and the PURCHASE document category as an illustrative basis. For more information on identification templates, see Understanding Identification Templates.

Customizing templates

As indicated above, master templates aren't themselves linked to any vendors, but they're used as a basis for the creation of vendor templates: Whenever a document is imported from a vendor with no associated template (typically when you receive a document from a vendor for the first time), Document Capture will automatically create a template for the vendor during field recognition by copying one of the master templates that are assigned to the PURCHASE category. The copied master template then becomes a source template that's associated specifically with this vendor – a vendor template.

However, you can easily customize the template if some of the default fields aren't exactly right for you. If you choose to customize the vendor template, for example by adding or removing fields, your changes will only apply to this particular template and this particular vendor. For more information, see Adding and removing template fields and Setting up New Template Fields.

You may also want to edit the master template. For example, if there are fields that should be captured in all or most of your documents, it's a good idea to add these fields to the master template, so that you don't have to add them manually to each individual vendor template. For details on how to edit the master template, see To configure master templates below.

To configure master templates

To configure master templates, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. To open the purchase document category, select the PURCHASE line (not the PURCHASE code itself), and then select Edit in the action bar.

3. On the Templates FastTab, in the list of templates, select the master template for PDF files (PURCHASE-GB), and then select Manage > Edit to open the template card.

4. On the General FastTab, you can edit some of the basic template settings, such as what date format to use when capturing dates in documents, if this template should be the default vendor template, and whether or not it should capture document lines.

5. On the Purchase Documents FastTab, you can edit a range of settings related to the registration, approval, and matching of documents.

6. On the Fields FastTab, you can customize the individual template fields and their availability:

   • To edit the properties of a field, or to move, copy, or delete it, see To customize master template fields.

   • To create a new template field, see To create a new master template field.

7. On the Codeunits FastTab, you can specify exactly what codeunits to run at certain stages in the process in order to carry out certain actions.

For most of the changes you make to the master template, a dialog box will ask if you want to update all related templates accordingly. If you select Yes, all vendor templates based on the master template in the PURCHASE category will inherit the changes you've made.

To copy and create new master templates

Rather than editing an existing master template, you may also want to create a new one. During the overall setup of Document Capture, a number of default master templates are created for several document categories, including the PURCHASE category, and you can create a new master template simply by copying one of the existing ones. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. To open the purchase document category, select the PURCHASE line (not the PURCHASE code itself), and then select Edit in the action bar.

3. On the Templates FastTab, in the list of templates, select the master template for PDF files (PURCHASE-GB), and then select Manage > Copy... to open the Copy Template page.

4. Edit the default settings if necessary, and select OK > OK to create a master template copy and add it to the list of templates.

   Note

   For master templates, we recommend that you disable Automatic Numbering and enter an appropriate name for the new template under New Template No., as automatic numbering simply provides the new template with a number that makes it somewhat difficult to identify.

5. To edit the copied master template, locate and select it in the list, select Manage > Edit, and then follow the guide above.

To copy vendor templates

The process of copying vendor templates is virtually identical to that of copying master templates, except for the naming of the new templates (referred to as numbering in the user interface). To copy vendor templates, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. To open the purchase document category, select the PURCHASE line (not the PURCHASE code itself), and then select Edit in the action bar.

3. On the Templates FastTab, in the list of templates, select the template that you want to copy, and then select Manage > Copy... to open the Copy Template page.

4. Edit the default settings if necessary, and select OK > OK to create a template copy and add it to the list of templates.

5. If you chose to enable Automatic Numbering on the Copy Template page, the new template is provided with a number instead of an actual name (the next consecutive number in the list of templates). However, you can of course rename it at any point, simply by locating it in the list and entering a new name in the No. column.

Importing Documents

Before you can start working with documents in Continia Document Capture, the documents must be imported into the system. There are several different ways of doing this, as explained before but below its explained the mostly used method, via email.

Via email

You can import documents into Document Capture by attaching them as PDF or XML files to an email and then sending that email to a dedicated email address monitored by Document Capture. There are different document categories in Document Capture – such as Purchase for purchase documents and Sales for sales documents – and each document category has a dedicated email address, so be sure to send your documents to the right document category. You can either forward the documents you receive to the dedicated email address yourself or ask the original senders (often your vendors) to send them directly to that email address.

To import a document via email, follow these steps:

1. In the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Role Center, under Continia Document Capture Activities, go to Actions and select Submit Document.

2. On the How-to Submit Documents page, under E-Mail Address, your dedicated Document Capture addresses are displayed for each document category. Copy the relevant email address – for example the one from the Invoices and Credit Memos category if you want to import an invoice.

3. Using any external email service, create a new email, attach a document (in this case a purchase invoice) in PDF format, and send the email to the address you copied in step 2 above. Note that the email must meet a number of requirements.

4. In Business Central, close the How-to Submit Documents page to return to the Role Center.

5. The document you sent is now OCR-processed automatically by Continia and will appear in the Continia Document Capture Activities section of your Role Center, in the Pending OCR cue.

6. Once it’s been OCR-processed, the document appears in the Ready to Import cue. From here, you can import the document and see how many other files have been OCR-processed and are ready for import.

7. To import your document (along with any other OCR-processed documents), go to Actions and choose Import Files.

8. When the import is complete, a message will show the number of files that have been imported. Select OK.

The document is now ready to be registered and available in the Ready to Register cue.

Using a network scanner (multi-function printer, MFP)

Using a desktop scanner

Via the Continia Delivery Network

OCR-Processing a Document

Optical character recognition (OCR) is the process of extracting the textual content of a scanned image or PDF file and converting it into something that can be processed by a computer.

Whenever you receive a PDF document in Continia Document Capture, the document is automatically OCR-processed, which enables it to be imported into Document Capture for registration and further processing.

The overall process

For every PDF document that's imported into Document Capture, the ABBYY engine will attempt to capture all characters and their positions. Using this OCR data, Document Capture can then locate all words and phrases in the document, which enables it to search for captions and their corresponding values. In order to be able to display the scanned PDF document optimally in the user interface, along with all identified captions and values, Document Capture converts it into a TIFF file, as this is more manageable and easier to render. However, you can always retrieve the original PDF document via the action bar by selecting Document > PDF File.

For each identified caption, Document Capture will initially look for the value to the right of the caption, and if no value is found there, it will search for it immediately below the caption. If Document Capture fails to locate a value, or if it finds the wrong one, you can help it by identifying the correct value manually. Once a value has been found – whether by Document Capture or by you – Document Capture registers the relative position of the caption and the value, and this is then used to identify the values of this caption in all future documents sent by the same vendor. The position of the caption itself is unimportant; only the relative position between the caption and the value is used.

Working with Paper and PDF Documents

Once a document has been imported into Continia Document Capture, whether as a PDF file or as a scanned paper document, you can capture textual information in it and start working with it. The information you need to capture depends on the specific type of document, but no matter what types of documents you’re dealing with, you handle and process them in the same place – the document journal.

The main purpose of the document journal is to enable you to work with imported documents and capture textual information contained in these documents. Once the information has been captured in the document journal, you must register the document. By registering a document, you convert all captured information into a real business entity in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. For example, when you register a purchase invoice received from a vendor, you create a Business Central purchase invoice.

Overview of the document journal

To access the document journal, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. Select the code of the relevant document category – in this case PURCHASE – to open the document journal.

The document journal consists of four main sections:

Document list (left-hand side): This is in fact a table that lists all documents that are currently included in the selected journal. For each document, the table provides you with useful information such as the document number, the vendor name, the template used, and the number of pages. In addition, the OK field indicates if all captured document values are valid and whether the individual document is ready to be registered.

Document fields (left-hand side): In this section, all fields that have been identified in the currently selected document are displayed along with their corresponding values. The list of fields is determined by the document template, and for each field Document Capture indicates if the value is considered to be valid according to the configuration of each template field.

Comments (left-hand side): This section displays comments relating to the selected document. There are three different types of comments: Information, Warning, and Error. To learn more, see Configuring Comment Types and Importance.

Document image (right-hand side): The image on the right shows a visual representation of the actual scanned document (either PDF or XML) after it has been OCR-processed. For PDF documents, the document image is interactive, meaning that you can manually select text anywhere in the image to capture it as a value associated with a certain field. To learn more, see Capturing fields and Working with field captions and values.

Changing a document’s associated vendor

By default, Document Capture links all documents to existing records in Business Central. Purchase documents are linked to vendors, meaning that each purchase document is linked to one specific vendor. In the document journal, some of the first columns of the document list – the columns Vendor and Name – show the number and the name of the vendor that each document is linked to. When importing documents, Document Capture identifies the vendor automatically based on different parameters. It’s useful to understand these parameters, so we recommend that you read the article Finding the Document Source and Template.

In the event that Document Capture doesn’t manage to identify a vendor, or in case you’d like to change the identified vendor, you can easily assign a new vendor from the document journal. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. Select the code of the relevant document category – in this case PURCHASE – to open the document journal.

3. In the document list, go to the line of the imported document whose vendor you want to change, and select the Vendor field. Then select the three dots that appear in order to open the Vendors window.

4. Choose the vendor that you want to assign by selecting the relevant number in the No. column.

Capturing fields

When capturing fields, Document Capture uses captions and values to search for and identify textual information in your imported documents. Both captions and values are identifiable text strings that are visible as textual elements in the imported documents, but they differ in function: You can think of a field caption as a sort of label that helps Document Capture to identify the correct value for a template field. Each caption is associated with a corresponding value, which is then the actual text that you want to capture and use when registering a document. In the document image on the right side of the document journal, field captions are highlighted using orange boxes, whereas field values are highlighted using blue boxes.

Once a purchase document is linked to a vendor in Business Central, Document Capture will automatically check if there’s a template associated with that vendor. If so, this template will be applied to the document, and all fields will be captured according to the rules and configuration of that template. All document fields must be captured and have valid values in order for you to be able to register the document.

If it’s the first time you receive a document from a vendor, there will be no templates associated with that vendor. To assign a template to the vendor, you’ll have to activate field recognition in the document journal (see step 5 below). This will automatically create a new template, link it to the vendor, and capture all fields for that document.

To capture the fields of a document, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. Select the code of the relevant document category – in this case PURCHASE – to open the document journal.

3. If Document Capture has automatically identified a vendor for the document whose fields you want to capture, the number of the identified vendor is displayed in the Vendor field of the document list. If no vendor has been identified, assign a vendor manually as described above under Changing a document’s associated vendor.

4. Provided that you've previously received and imported documents from the assigned vendor, the template that's associated with that vendor is used for capturing field captions and values. The identified captions and values will be highlighted using orange and blue boxes in the document image on the right.

5. However, if this is the first document you receive and import from the assigned vendor, there's no associated template, so you must assign one by activating field recognition: In the action bar, select Process and then Recognize Fields. Field captions and values will then be captured and highlighted using orange and blue boxes in the document image.

You can always change the identified field values and captions. To learn more, see below.

Working with field captions and values

As mentioned above, Document Capture searches for and identifies textual information in imported documents using field captions and corresponding values. For example, consider the following texts which could be found in any invoice:

As is evident in the above, captions and values always work in pairs. Usually, captions don’t change from document to document when the documents have been sent by the same vendor, unless the vendor changes invoice layout. Values, on the other hand, will change from document to document. For example, the invoice number will typically increase incrementally for each invoice, and the same usually goes for the invoice date.

Captions are defined for each template field, and the values are captured and stored in the document itself. It’s important to note that in order for captions and values to be captured correctly, the distance between them should remain the same in all documents from the same vendor. For instance, in the examples above, the caption immediately precedes its corresponding value at a certain distance, and if the two elements have the same position and distance between them in all subsequent documents, they will all be processed correctly. Captions and values can also be split into separate lines, for example if an Invoice number caption is placed on one line and its corresponding value then follows immediately below it on the next line (a common invoice format). This is also perfectly fine, as long as the distance between the caption and the value is the same for all documents from the same vendor. Even captions that are placed far away from their related values are completely acceptable, provided that the distance between the two remains the same in all documents.

When Document Capture identifies the values of fields in a document, it searches for captions that are defined for each template field and then attempts to capture their associated values. For example, if Document Capture searches for the text string “Invoice number” in an invoice and manages to find this, it can then locate the actual invoice number as well based on the template configuration.

Document Capture sometimes fails to capture the value of a field in a document, or it may identify an incorrect element as the field’s associated value. If this happens, you can easily train Document Capture by changing the caption and/or showing it where exactly to locate the correct value in the document. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. Select the code of the relevant document category – in this case PURCHASE – to open the document journal.

3. In the document fields section (under Document Header), select the template field that you want to correct – for example, Posting Description.

4. On a computer, you can use your mouse to select exactly what text in the document should be captured for the chosen template field: To set the caption, right-click and hold the button to draw an orange box around the relevant text in the document image.

5. Similarly, to set the corresponding value for the chosen template field, left-click and hold the button to draw a blue box around the relevant text in the document image.

6. The selected text is added to the template field in the document fields section. Verify that it has been captured correctly.

7. To confirm that the text is consistently captured correctly, go to the action bar and select Process and then Recognize Fields. If the text somehow isn't captured correctly this second time, carry out steps 4-7 again until you get the desired result.

Adding and removing template fields

You can easily capture more information than what’s captured by the default templates. To do so, either add one of the additional fields that are included in the standard configuration, or create your own custom field.

To add an additional field from the standard configuration, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. Select the code of the relevant document category – in this case PURCHASE – to open the document journal.

3. In the action bar, select Template and then Add Template Field to open the Template Field List.

4. In the list, under Field Name, select the field that you want to add to the template.

The Template Field List is closed, and the selected field is added to the list of template fields in the document fields section (under Document Header).

If you need other fields than the ones included in the standard configuration, you can create a custom field. To learn more, see Setting up New Template Fields.

Just as you can add new fields, you can easily remove fields from a template. To remove a field from a template, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. Select the code of the relevant document category – in this case PURCHASE – to open the document journal.

3. In the action bar, select Template and then Remove Template Field to open the Template Field List.

4. In the list, under Field Name, select the field that you want to remove from the template.

5. A dialog box appears, asking you if you want to remove the chosen field from the template. Select Yes.

The dialog box is closed, and the selected field is removed from the list of template fields in the document fields section (under Document Header).

Showing registered and rejected documents

When you open the document journal, it will be filtered to show only open documents. However, you can also easily filter it to display documents that have been registered or rejected. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. Select the code of the relevant document category – in this case PURCHASE – to open the document journal.

3. In the upper-right corner, above the action bar, go to Status Filter and select the box to display the filter options. The default option is Open, meaning that only documents with the status "Open" are displayed in the document list. Change this as needed by selecting your preferred filter option.

The document list will be updated to display only documents with the status you selected. If you selected All, all documents are displayed in the list, regardless of status.

Registering Documents

When you register a document in Continia Document Capture, you essentially turn all of its recognized information into a real business entity in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. For example, by registering a purchase invoice that you’ve received from a vendor, you automatically create a Business Central purchase invoice.

Before you can register a document, all document fields must be captured and have valid values. In the document fields section (under Document Header), you can see if all fields are filled out correctly. If not, you need to make sure this is done before you can register the document.

In the document list, you can also see if the overall document is ready to be registered, as this will be indicated with a checkmark in the OK column. If the document isn’t ready for registration, you should check the Comments section at the bottom to see what needs to be done.

When you register a document, Document Capture sometimes carries out additional validation that may stop the registration. If this happens, you’ll be informed about what to do to complete the registration.

To register a document, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. Select the code of the relevant document category – for example, PURCHASE – to open the document journal.

3. In the document list, select the document that you want to register. Select the document line – not the number in the No. column, as this will open the document card.

4. In the document fields section (under Document Header), check that all fields in the OK column have a check mark. If so, all fields are considered valid. If not, follow the field capturing guides located here and here to ensure that all fields are captured correctly, and generally make sure that all fields have valid values.

5. Not all field values are captured from the document – some must be added manually instead. The most important one of these is the general ledger account number, which in most cases is mandatory. To add this value, go to G/L Account No. and select the three dots in the Value column to open the G/L Account List. Choose a relevant account in the list by selecting its number in the No. column.

6. A dialog box appears, asking you if you want to configure the selected account as the default. Select Yes if you want Document Capture to assign this account to all documents using the same source template – otherwise select No. Your response will close the dialog box and add the selected value to the G/L Account No. field.

7. In the document list, check that there's a check mark in the OK column for the selected document. If so, it's ready to be registered. If not, check the Comments section at the bottom of the document journal, and carry out any required actions specified there.

8. When there are no more comments and there's a check mark in the OK column for the selected document in the document list, go to the action bar and select Process and then Register.

Reopening Documents

You can easily reopen most registered or rejected documents. This is useful if, for example, you’d like to either match a document again or correct any document-recognition errors, or if you rejected a document by mistake.

Note that not all types of documents support reopening, and that some documents can’t be reopened after being posted.

To reopen a document, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. Select the code of the relevant document category – for example, PURCHASE – to open the document journal.

3. In the upper-right corner, above the action bar, go to Status Filter and select the box to display the filter options. Select Registered or Rejected, depending on what types of documents you want to view.

4. The document list will be filtered to display only the selected type of documents. In the list, select the document that you want to reopen. Select the document line – not the number in the No. column, as this will open the document card.

5. In the action bar, select Process and then Reopen.

6. To find the reopened document, go to Status Filter in the upper-right corner and select Open to display all open documents in the document list. Your reopened document should now be in the list.

Rejecting Documents

When you reject a document, it will get the status Rejected but remain in the database for auditing purposes and later retrieval. An alternative to rejecting the document is to delete it, but note that this will delete the document completely from your database. If you prefer to permanently keep all documents in your database, you can prevent the deletion of documents altogether by setting up a document deletion policy. For more information, see Preventing the Deletion of Documents as a Company Policy.

To reject a document, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. Select the code of the relevant document category – for example, PURCHASE – to open the document journal.

3. In the document list, select the document that you want to reject. Select the document line – not the number in the No. column, as this will open the document card.

4. In the action bar, select Process and then Reject.

5. To find the rejected document, go to Status Filter in the upper-right corner and select Rejected to display all rejected documents in the document list. Your rejected document should now be in the list.

Splitting and Merging Documents

Some of the files you scan or receive may consist of multiple documents combined into a single file. For example, a vendor may send you one PDF file containing multiple purchase invoices. In such cases, you can split the PDF file into multiple separate documents in Continia Document Capture. Likewise, you can easily merge two or more separate PDF files into one single document, if necessary.

You can split PDF documents either manually or automatically, whereas it’s only possible to merge PDF documents manually.

Splitting documents manually

To split a document manually, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. Select the code of the relevant document category – for example, PURCHASE – to open the document journal.

3. In the action bar, select Document and then Split and Merge.

4. In the list of documents, select the document that you want to split and the page from where you would like to split the document. Note that you can’t select the first page of the document as the splitting page.

5. In the action bar, select Split. The document will now be split into two, and the page you selected in step 3 above will become the first page of the new document.

Note that the new document is provided with a new document number, which is displayed under Document No. in the list.

Splitting documents automatically

You can also have documents split automatically by changing the settings of the purchase document category. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. Open the relevant document category. For example, to open the purchase document category, select the PURCHASE line (not the PURCHASE code itself, as this will open the document journal), and then choose Edit in the action bar.

3. On the OCR Processing FastTab, go to the Split section and enable Split Documents Automatically. A number of additional options will appear, as detailed in the table below.

The additional options allow you to specify exactly how you want your documents to be split. All options are explained below:

Merging documents

It’s only possible to merge documents manually. To merge a document, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. Select the code of the relevant document category – for example, PURCHASE – to open the document journal.

3. In the action bar, select Document and then Split and Merge.

4. In the list of documents, select the documents that you want to merge. On a computer, you can select multiple documents by pressing Shift+Click.¹

5. Once you’ve selected the documents that should be merged, select Merge in the action bar. The documents are merged into one, and the constituent documents are renamed as follows in the Name column: The first page of the merged document will either be renamed Page 1 or named after the vendor, while all following pages will simply be named by page number, such as Page 2, Page 3, and so on.

6. Optional: You can reorder the pages of the merged document using the Move Up and Move Down options in the action bar.²

1. The documents to be merged must be arranged in sequence. For example, documents 1, 2, 3, and 4 on the list can be merged, but documents 1 and 4 can’t.

2. The Move Up and Move Down options can only be used to move pages within a document. Separate documents can’t be moved up and down the list using this feature.

Moving a Document to Another Company

When you have multiple companies set up in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, you may sometimes want to move a document in Continia Document Capture from one company to another. This could be relevant if you’ve set up Document Capture to import all documents to one particular company, or if somebody by mistake sends a document to the wrong company.

For example, some organizations ask their vendors to send all purchase invoices to the same email address, from which the organizations can then manually distribute the documents to the intended recipient companies. In such cases – and other cases requiring manual transfer – the manual method described below can be used.

As detailed further below, it’s also possible to have incoming documents moved automatically to another company.

Moving documents to other companies manually

To manually move a document from one company to another, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. Select the code of the relevant document category – for example, PURCHASE – to open the document journal.

3. In the document list, select the document that you want to move. Select the document line – not the number in the No. column, as this will open the document card.

4. In the action bar, select Actions > Functions > Move to Company...

5. On the Move to Company page, in the Name column, select the name of the company that you want to move the selected document to.

6. If the document transfer was successful, a dialog box will confirm that the selected document was moved to the selected company. Select OK to close the dialog box and return to the document journal.

However, if the document transfer was unsuccessful in step 6 above, a dialog box with an error message will appear instead. This may be because Document Capture wasn't activated or set up correctly in the destination company. To resolve this issue, select OK to close the dialog box, and then make sure that Document Capture is activated and fully functional in all relevant companies.

Moving documents to other companies automatically

As an alternative to moving documents manually, you can set up Document Capture to automatically forward incoming documents to the intended recipient companies immediately after import. In order to do so, follow these steps:

To set up automatic forwarding of documents, follow these steps:

1. Follow this guide to set up a number of company identification texts (free-text keywords that you can map to specific companies).

2. Make sure that Document Capture has been activated and set up in both of the companies that you want to move documents between.

3. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

4. Open the relevant document category. For example, to open the purchase document category, select the PURCHASE line (not the PURCHASE code itself, as this will open the document journal), and then choose Edit in the action bar.

5. On the OCR Processing FastTab, enable Auto Move to Company by toggling the switch.

Finding the Document Source and Template

For all incoming documents, Continia Document Capture attempts to identify a source (such as a vendor) and a template, which will then be linked to each individual document. As Document Capture is a generic solution, it can basically link incoming documents to any record in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. However, instead of explaining the above process in general terms, this article will use purchase documents and vendors as an illustrative basis, as this is generally easier to relate to.

Whenever you import a purchase document, Document Capture searches for the vendor in the three steps outlined below:

Each of the steps above are carried out by Document Capture in the order shown below. It’s important to note that if one of the steps succeeds in finding a vendor and a template, any subsequent steps will be skipped:

1. Search texts

2. Identification templates

3. Identification fields

To set up search texts for a template

You can set up search texts either directly in the vendor template or from the document journal. Normally, you’ll do it in the document journal when processing documents, as this is typically where you find out that Document Capture hasn’t identified the correct vendor for a document.

To set up search texts for a template from the document journal, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. Select the code of the relevant document category – for example, PURCHASE – to open the document journal.

3. In the document list, select the document whose template you want to add search texts to. Select the document line – not the number in the No. column, as this will open the document card.

4. Select the Search Text field for the chosen document line. Note that in order to view the Search Text column, you may have to move right in the document list using the scroll box (depending on your screen size).

5. For PDF documents, you can either a) manually enter any free-text keyword(s) that you want to use as search text, or b) use existing text from the document image by left-clicking and holding the button to draw a blue box around the relevant text in the image (as when capturing template field values).

6. For XML documents, you must enter a free-text keyword manually, as capturing image text isn't an option.

7. If you want to add more than one search text, select the three dots on the right of the Search Text field to open the Template Search Texts page.

8. Select a new line, and enter the new text in the Search Text column. Repeat this process for every additional text you want to add, and select Close when you're done.

Excluding certain sources (vendors) from recognition

Some organizations set up their own company branches as vendors in Business Central, for various reasons. This may cause Document Capture to assign those vendors to many of the incoming purchase documents, as the branch name, address, VAT number, etc., appear in those documents as the recipient of the purchase documents – but not as the sender/vendor. If you’re not using such vendors for receiving purchase invoices, you can exclude them completely from identification within a document category. To learn more, see Working with Document Categories.

Setting up New Template Fields

If some of the default template fields don't meet your needs, you can easily create new fields or customize existing ones. You can create and customize fields either for a master template or for each individual vendor template, but we generally recommend that you create new fields in a master template and then copy them from there to the vendor templates.

As indicated above, this article uses vendors and purchase documents as an illustrative basis, but the functionality works equally well with other sources and types of documents.

To create a new master template field

To create a new field for a master template, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. To open the purchase document category, select the PURCHASE line (not the PURCHASE code itself), and then select Edit in the action bar.

3. On the Templates FastTab, in the list of templates, select the master template for PDF files (PURCHASE-GB), and then select Manage > Edit to open the template card.

4. On the Fields FastTab, select Manage > New to open the new field's Template Field Card.

5. On the General FastTab, enter a code for the new template field (mandatory), and fill in the remaining configuration fields as needed.

   Warning

   Avoid using spaces in any entered code. It is in fact possible to use spaces, but if you set up a formula that includes one or more fields whose codes have spaces (for example, "AMOUNT 1 + AMOUNT 2"), the formula will fail. For that reason, it's strongly recommended to generally avoid spaces in field codes.

   Note

   On the Template Field Card, the visibility of some of the configuration fields depends on what you select under Data Type.

6. Optional: If you want the new field to be automatically included in all new vendor templates that are created on the basis of the master template, enable Insert on new Templates by toggling the switch. If you don't enable this, the field can be added manually to individual templates later instead, as described below.

7. On the Field Translations FastTab, enter any text that should be translated for this field in order for Document Capture to be able to recognize the field. Select the checkbox in the Case-sensitive column if the entered text should be case-sensitive.

   Tip

   If you enter nothing in the Translate To column, the text you've entered in the Translate From column will be removed from any relevant value identified by Document Capture, which is useful for honorific titles and similar. For example, if you enter Dr. under Translate From and nothing under Translate To, Document Capture will know that whenever it captures a value containing this honorific in a document – for example, "Dr. John Doe" – it should remove the honorific and leave only the actual name for further processing, in this case "John Doe". This will enable Document Capture to identify the correct user in the system.

The new field will be added to the template card, more specifically to the list on the Fields FastTab. It will be inserted right below the list entry that was selected when you opened the template field card in step 4 above.

To create a new vendor template field

The process of creating new vendor template fields is exactly the same as the one for master template fields described above, except that:

• You must select a vendor template in step 3.

• Step 6 is not applicable to vendor templates and should therefore be skipped.

We generally recommend that you create all new fields in master templates, but it may occasionally be relevant to create new fields that only apply to one specific vendor.

To add a new field to a vendor template

Once you've created a new field in the master template as described above, it's available to be added to any vendor template you prefer. If you enabled Insert on new Templates when creating the new master template field (step 6 in the above guide), the field is automatically added to all new vendor templates created as copies of the master template. If you didn't enable Insert on new Templates when creating the field, you can manually add the field to a vendor template in one of the following ways:

• Using the document journal, as described under Adding and removing template fields

• Using the template card, as described below

To add a field to a vendor template using the template card, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. To open the purchase document category, select the PURCHASE line (not the PURCHASE code itself), and then select Edit in the action bar.

3. On the Templates FastTab, in the list of templates, select the template to which you want to add the field, and then select Manage > Edit to open the template card.

4. On the Fields FastTab, select Manage > Add Template Field to open the Template Field List.

5. In the list of fields, find and select the relevant field.

The field will then be added to the list of template fields and displayed in the template card, on the Fields FastTab.

To customize master template fields

To customize master template fields, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. To open the purchase document category, select the PURCHASE line (not the PURCHASE code itself), and then select Edit in the action bar.

3. On the Templates FastTab, in the list of templates, select the master template for PDF files (PURCHASE-GB), and then select Manage > Edit to open the template card.

4. On the Fields FastTab, customize the individual template fields and their availability as needed:

   • To specify that a field value must be present in an imported document in order for the document to be registered: Select the field's checkbox in the Required column.

   • To move or delete a field: Select the relevant field line, and then select Manage followed by the action you want to perform.

   • To edit the properties of each individual field, including its data type, what captions to search for, which rules to use, and whether to add the field to all new templates: In the Field Name column, select the name of the field to open its Template Field Card, and then make any necessary changes there.

   Note

   On the Template Field Card, the visibility of some of the configuration fields depends on what you select under Data Type.

5. Optional: To copy a template field (such as the one you've just customized) to all templates that were created on the basis of the master template: On the Fields FastTab, in the list of fields, select the relevant field, and then select Manage > Copy Field.

   Important

   The field is only copied to templates in which it doesn't yet exist – it doesn't update a previously copied field of the same kind. If you've previously copied the field to all templates but need to update it, you must do this manually.

To customize vendor template fields

The process of customizing fields for vendor templates is very similar to that of customizing master template fields, but there are a few notable differences, as indicated below.

To customize vendor template fields, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. To open the purchase document category, select the PURCHASE line (not the PURCHASE code itself), and then select Edit in the action bar.

3. On the Templates FastTab, in the list of templates, select the template whose fields you want to edit, and then select Manage > Edit to open the template card.

4. On the Fields FastTab, customize the individual template fields and their availability as needed:

   • To specify that a field value must be present in an imported document in order for the document to be registered: Select the field's checkbox in the Required column.

   • To move or delete a field: Select the relevant field line, and then select Manage followed by the action you want to perform.

   • To add a field from the master template: Select Manage > Add Template Field.

   • To edit the properties of each individual field, including its data type, what captions to search for, and which rules to use: In the Field Name column, select the name of the field to open its Template Field Card, and then make any necessary changes there.

   Note

   On the Template Field Card, the visibility of some of the configuration fields depends on what you select under Data Type.

Accessing the Document Archive

The document archive allows you to access all previously imported and processed documents anytime you want, as it automatically stores all documents that are registered in the document journal.

The full archive can be accessed in a number of ways, either in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central or using the Continia Web Approval Portal. The most common access methods are described below, along with a number of alternative ways to locate and open archived files individually.

To access the archive in Business Central

To access the document archive in Business Central, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. Select the code of the relevant document category – for example, PURCHASE – to open the document journal.

3. In the upper-right corner, above the action bar, go to Status Filter and select the box to display the filter options. Then select Registered.

The document list will now be filtered to display all registered (i.e. archived) documents.

To access the archive in the Web Approval Portal

To access the document archive using the Web Approval Portal, follow these steps:

1. Open the Web Approval Portal.

2. On the menu bar at the top, select Purchase > Archive to open the document archive.

3. To search the document archive, enter your search criteria in the provided fields, and select Search in the upper-left corner.

This will list all archived documents that meet your criteria.

To open archived documents from general ledger entries

To open an archived document from a general ledger entry, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter General Ledger Entries, and then choose the related link.

2. On the General Ledger Entries page, in the list of entries, select the entry for which you want to view the original PDF.

   Note

   Note that you can only select entries for registered purchase documents that have been processed in Document Capture. Otherwise, the PDF File option mentioned in step 3 below will not be visible.

3. In the action bar, select Entry > PDF File to open the original PDF.

To open archived documents from vendor ledger entries

To open an archived document from a vendor ledger entry, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Vendor Ledger Entries, and then choose the related link.

2. On the Vendor Ledger Entries page, in the list of entries, select the entry for which you want to view the original PDF.

   Note

   Note that you can only select entries for registered purchase documents that have been processed in Document Capture. Otherwise, the PDF File option mentioned in step 3 below will not be visible.

3. In the action bar, select Line > PDF File to open the original PDF.

Configuring Comment Types and Importance

The Continia Document Capture document journal features a comments section, which displays various comments relating to the document you've selected. There are three different comment types:

Configurable comments

Many of the comments displayed in the document journal are configurable, meaning that they can be edited in the following two ways:

• You can change the comment type.

• For error comments, you can specify if documents with this error should be automatically assigned to a user that can resolve the underlying issue.

If a comment is configurable, the word Yes will be displayed in the Configurable column for that comment – if not, No is displayed instead.

Comment configuration changes can be applied to:

1. A specific vendor template. You do this from the Document Category card (or directly from the document journal) by following the guide below.

2. All templates in the current company. You do this in the Message Center Setup by following this guide.

To configure comments for specific templates

To configure comments for a specific vendor template, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.

2. Select the relevant document category – for example, PURCHASE – and then select Edit in the action bar to open the Document Category card.

3. On the Templates FastTab, in the list of templates, select the relevant template, and then select Manage > Edit to open the template card.

4. In the action bar, select Related > Template > Message Center Setup to open the Edit - Message Center Setup page for the selected template.

5. Configure the comments as needed by editing one or more of the following fields for each relevant comment:

    

   FieldDescriptionUser Defined comment typeEnables you to change the comment type. It's generally possible to escalate the severity of a comment – for example, to change from Warning to Error – whereas de-escalating from Error to Warning typically isn't an option.Assign on ErrorIndicates that whenever the currently selected comment appears in a document, the document is automatically assigned to a specified user for further action in order to resolve the issue. The field is only selectable for Error comments.Assign to User IDEnables you to specify the ID of the user to whom you want documents with the selected comment to be assigned. The field is only editable if Assign On Error has been selected.

   Note

   Whenever you configure a comment, the text of the entire comment line in the setup is made bold to highlight the change, and the Template No. column displays the number of the template that's affected by the change. Note that the Template No. field itself isn't editable – it's merely for display purposes.

6. Select Close when you're done.

To configure comments for all templates in a company

To configure comments for all templates in the current company, follow these steps:

1. Choose the  icon, enter Message Center Setup, and then choose the related link.

2. In the action bar, select Edit List.

3. In the list of comments, locate or select the comment that you want to configure, and then configure it as needed by editing one of the following fields:

    

   FieldDescriptionUser Defined comment typeEnables you to change the comment type. It's generally possible to escalate the severity of a comment – for example, to change from Warning to Error – whereas de-escalating from Error to Warning typically isn't an option.Assign on ErrorIndicates that whenever the currently selected comment appears in a document, the document is automatically assigned to a specified user for further action in order to resolve the issue. The field is only selectable for Error comments.Assign to User IDEnables you to specify the ID of the user to whom you want documents with the selected comment to be assigned. The field is only editable if Assign On Error has been selected.

4. Repeat step 3 for any additional comments you want to configure.