How does OCR work?

Overview

OCR or Optical Character Recognition is an up-and-coming technology that can automatically scan invoice details with a high-level accuracy and send them back to the system.

Using Peakflo's OCR, you can eliminate manual and error-prone data entry.

Peakflo always aspires to provide the best customer experience, and we'd like to share some guidelines and best practices on OCR to maintain the highest level of customer satisfaction. 

How does OCR in Peakflo work?

For a clear illustration, here's the flowchart of the process:

1. Customers can send their bill to the OCR email address which you can find by clicking the three dots at the top right of the Bills tab under Payables.
   
   
2.  The time needed for bills to appear in the Peakflo UI is up to 3 business hours.
3. The bills processed by OCR have automated additional validations to ensure AP managers have the correct total bill amount. If bills do not have the correct total amount, they cannot be saved and sent for approval.
    
   
4. The OCR will pick up the following data: 
   1. Issue date: The date the invoice was issued.
   2. Due date: The date the invoice is due.
   3. Bill number: The unique invoice number.
   4. Line items: The item descriptions include the item name, unit price, quantity, and amount.
   5. Subtotal amount: The subtotal amount of all the line items.
   6. Discount: The discount is applied to the subtotal amount.
   7. Tax Amount: The tax applied to the invoice.
   8. Tax WTH: The withholding tax applied to the invoice.
   9. Total amount: The total amount to be paid.
   10. Vendor name: The name of the vendor who sent the invoice.
   11. Vendor bank details: The bank details of the vendor which include account number, account name, swift code, and currency.
   For the Shipping Lists uploaded to Peakflo, the OCR will extract the following data:
   1. Purchase Order Number
   2. Items Code
   3. Item Name
   4. Delivery Quantity
   5. Stamps
5. The OCR can scan documents in the following formats:
   1. .pdf
   2. .jpeg
   3. .jpg
   4. .png
6. Mind that OCR cannot scan .docx or .xlx documents.
7. The bills and shipping lists will be processed when it is received within business hours (08.00 to 17.00 Jakarta Time, 09:00 to 18:00 Singapore Standard Time, and 08:00 to 17:00 India Standard Time, Monday to Friday). Bills and shipping lists that are received outside working hours will be processed the next working day.
8. One email can actually have multiple invoices  ( e.g. 5 invoices = 5 attachments), but for supporting documents, we strongly recommend you consolidate with the respective invoice.
9. The maximum size of the attachment is 20MB with a maximum of 10 pages on an attachment.
10. Also, be mindful to not upload files that are password-protected.
    
    

If you have any questions, reach out to Peakflo's support team at support@peakflo.co