Documents Help and User Guide v20

1. Overview

Sicon Documents allows users to attach documents, emails, orders and transactions in Sage, either by using a desktop scanner, browsing from a network location or dragging and dropping from an email.  There is no need to re-index a document after scanning; by attaching documents directly into Sage then relevant attributes are applied to each document automatically as each order, ledger or transaction etc. is saved.

Document Automation can be used if you would like to have your suppliers emailing you their invoices in, and you want the invoices to be scanned so that they can be processed into Sage with the minimum effort.

Document Distribution can be used to make the emailing of documents to customers or suppliers as efficient as possible while automatically archiving them at the same time.

Page Size Warning:  when scanning directly into Sage, a warning will appear if the size is greater than allowed, but the document can still be scanned in.  Our advice would be that an A4 page scan should be between 35 and 75 Kbytes and if there are scanned images much larger than this, to check the scanner settings.

Black & White or Colour:  HMRC are happy to see a black and white copy of the original invoice and so there is generally no need to scan images in full colour.  However, with modern scanners and image compression software, the colour scan and black and white scans should not be too dissimilar in size.

Drag and Drop:  drag and drop a file from a location, e.g. an email attachment – email is Outlook and Gmail, not web based email clients such as Gmail.  It is also possible to drag and drop from Windows Explorer.

Scanner Recommendations:  our recommendation would be the Fujitsu fi-7160 as a fast, reliable and robust scanner for use as a personal desktop scanner.  This is the most efficient way to work for high volume users that receive a lot of paper invoices; low volume users can use a shared scanner or network copier to scan images and attach via the file attachment method.

2. HM Revenue & Customs – Document Storage

The HMRC guidelines state that you must be able to guarantee the authenticity and the integrity of the content of your source documents throughout the storage period by either electronic or procedural means.  Store all the data related to your invoices, including such evidence as is required to demonstrate that authenticity and integrity has been ensured, be able to recreate the invoice data as at the time of its original transmission or receipt, and present the invoice data in a readable format.  You must keep history files so that the appropriate details from any particular time can be provided if one of HMRC’s visiting officers asks you to do so.  The same rules apply to the storage of electronic invoices as to paper invoices; you must normally keep copies of all the invoices you issue and receive for six years.

Sicon Documents can assist with complying with these regulations; please ensure you adhere to HMRC guidelines when using this product.

Source – Electronic invoicing (VAT Notice 700/63) Published 19th May 2015.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/electronic-invoicing-notice-70063#conditions-for-electronic-storage

For further HMRC Document Retentions Guidelines, please refer to:

https://lgw.cnsonline.net/web/content/helpdesk/hmrcbestpracticeguides.jsp

3. Sage Admin Features

For users to be able to access Documents Settings and other features, users will require permissions detailed below; these will need enabling as required for each organisation.

Document Automation – Upload Suppliers/Process Invoices: These permissions will allow users to send all supplier information to Cogidocs (if using Document Automation), or to access the Process Invoices screen where the document automation occurs.

Tools – Split PDF:  this permission will allow users to be able to split multi-page PDF documents into single page documents.

Settings:  configure to allow users the ability to access Documents settings.  As this will allow for users to allocate licences and switch on or off other settings, this would usually just be an Administrator permission. There is also a separate feature to give access to creating or editing Email Templates for use with Document Distribution. The feature for User Settings is likely only needed as a result of a support issue if the user needs to clear their caches, or if the user wants to reset the tips.

Enquiries – POP Receipts and Despatches with No Documents:  this permission will allow users to be able to find all receipts and despatches that have not had documents added.

Enquiries – POP Orders and Returns with No Documents:  this permission will allow users to be able to find all orders and returns that have not had documents attached.

Enquiries – Document Search:  this will give users the ability to be able to search to find specific attachments within Sage.  Users will only be able to view documents as per their permissions set within Documents Settings.

Enquiries – PL Transactions with No Documents:  this permission will allow users to be able to find all PL transactions that have not had documents attached.

Document Search:  this will give users the ability to be able to search to find specific attachments within Sage.  Users will only be able to view documents as per their permissions set within Documents Settings.

Help & User Guide:  this will give users the ability to view the Help and User Guide from within Sage.

Settings:  configure to allow users the ability to access Documents settings.  As this will allow for users to allocate licences and switch on or off other settings, this would usually just be an Administrator permission.

4. Settings

There are a number of configuration options within the main Documents Settings.

4.1. Licence Tab

A licence string will be supplied in accordance with how many ‘Index and View’ and ‘View only’ licences have been purchased.  This will need to be updated on a yearly basis or if the number of licences has changed.

If using Sicon Document Automation there is an additional enable string once you have proceeded beyond using the initial test bundle. You can add the Licence Bundles which have been purchased using the ‘Add Bundles’ button.

The Bundle will be displayed outlining how many documents are available on that bundle and below will show how many are available in total, how many used and how many remaining.  You can also set the system to warn you when you have x number remaining in case you want to organise a new bundle.

4.2. Sage Users Tab

Once the Documents Licence has been applied, allocate the ‘View and Index’ and ‘View Only’ licences to the Sage users as required.  Clicking ‘Update Users’ will add in any users from Sage System Admin that have access to the current Sage Company.

Can Index:  whether the user is able to add documents into Sage; either by scanning, dragging and dropping or browsing. This permission is required if the user intends to process invoices using Document Automation.

Can Re-Index:  whether the user will be able to re-index a document once it has been added.

Can Delete:  whether the user is able to delete documents added into Sage.  This is usually just an Administrator permission.

Delete on Indexing:  selecting this option will delete documents from the location once uploaded; this is useful if documents are being scanned in using a network scanner and then uploaded into Sage from this folder.  This is dependent on Windows users file permissions.  Usually this would not be switched on initially but can be turned on once the users are confident with the system.

View Rights:  determine whether the user is able to view all indexed documents, only those they have indexed themselves, or documents that have been indexed by other users in their Sage Role.

Default Indexing Option:  if a particular option is specified, the default option will be performed as soon as the add document screen is opened.  This can be set as No Default, Scan, Scan with Options or Attach.

Default Attachment Path:  enter a file path if documents will always be added from a specific location – this will remove the need for the user to always browse to a particular location.

4.3. Settings Tab

Scanning Options

Scanned File Type:  when scanning in documents, to either scan as a PDF or Tiff file.

Default Scan Resolution:  this sets the default DPI; increasing this will mean the document size will be greater when stored.

Page Size Warning:  when scanning directly into Sage, a warning will appear if the size will be greater than set here, but the document will still be scanned in.

Test Scan Driver:  select the driver configured, either Twain or WIA.

Test Scan Source:  select from the drop down list the scanner to run the test scan on.

Attaching Options

Default Attachment Location:  if a location is entered here, then when all users go to add a document, this will be the default location to pick up the attachment from.  Make sure that this location is able to be accessed by all users.

Logging Options

Log to File:  by default, these settings are off but can be enabled if tracking down a problem with Documents.  If on, this setting will record events in the Log File.

Log to Windows Event Log (on premise):  by default, these settings are off but can be enabled if tracking down a problem with Documents.  If on, this setting will record events in the Windows Event Log.

Functionality

Enable Add and View button context menus:  by default, this will be on and will allow the user to right click on the Add Document button and add a different Document Type; i.e. when adding a document against Sales Order, the default document added would be an Order but another document type can be selected from the list if required.

Convert Tiff files to PDF when opened:  this is a work around for a limitation of Windows photo viewer which does not have an option to print a single page of a multi-page file.  By converting to PDF, all of the features of the PDF viewer can be used, including printing specific pages.

Enable Document Count Columns:  by default, this is enabled and will show a count of documents added, e.g. see Supplier Transaction screen against a PL Supplier below.  Documents can be added or viewed against an invoice here too by clicking the Add Document or View Document buttons at the bottom of the screen.

Enable Document Count Column in Cashbook Transaction Enquiry:  if the document count column should not be visible in the cashbook transaction enquiry, remove the permission here.  This can be useful if loading the document count column is causing speed issues in this screen.

Enable Document Count Column in Nominal Transaction Enquiry:  if the document count column should not be visible in the nominal transaction enquiry, remove the permission here.  This can be useful if loading the document count column is causing speed issues in this screen.

Advanced Settings:  please do not select any of these options – these are to be used only by a Business Partner working with Sicon during the implementation of the Documents module.

4.4. Indexing Information

This tab can be used to show how Modules, Entities, Document Types and Attributes are linked together and what attributes are available under a particular document type.

Modules:  Sage and Sicon Add-on modules where Documents can be used to index and view documents.  The System modules cannot be edited but additional modules can be added as needed.

Entities:  this is a list of entities against which document types can be stored.  System entities cannot be edited but additional entities can be added if required.

Document Types:  the classification of documents when added to Sage via Documents against a particular entity.  System document types cannot be edited but new document types can be added if required; there is a wizard for adding new document types.

Attributes: these are used to automatically reference the documents added to Sage via Documents.  System attributes cannot be deleted or edited (apart from the Description attribute which can be marked as mandatory if required), but additional attributes can be added if required.

Adding a New Document Type:  it is possible to either use the wizard to create a new document type, or right click on an Entity and click ‘Add New Document Type’.

Enter a name and a friendly name; the name cannot contain spaces but the friendly name can.  Pick a template to copy the attributes from and click Save.  This new document type will then be visible against the chosen entity when right clicking on Add Docs.

4.5. Required Documents

It is possible to configure certain transaction types to require a document to be attached; for example, Purchase Invoices can be configured to require an attachment while a Purchase Credit can warn if no document has been attached but can be saved without.

Various pop up messages will show to the user depending on the required option if no document has been attached.

Warning prompt but the user is able to continue saving the transaction without adding a document.

Warning prompt and the user is not able to save without attaching a document.

4.6. Document Automation

Before you can start using Document Automation you need to register an account and email address that will be used to process your invoices.  This email address can either be given to a Supplier or Invoices can be passed through from a company’s internal email address (e.g. Invoices@yourcompany.com). Invoices sent to this email address would need to be separate attachments, i.e. it can’t process a single PDF that contains multiple invoices. But there can be multiple PDFs on the same email, each being a separate invoice.

In order to register for an account, you need to fill in the following information:

Document Automation – Customer Details: All these details are required when signing up a new database / email source.

Customer Name: Company Name prepopulated from Sage

Contact Name: Main contact from process invoices

Contact Email: Main email address for the company contact (generic email address preferred)

Street: Street address prepopulated from Sage

City: City prepopulated from Sage

Post Code: Company postcode, prepopulated from Sage

VAT Registration No: Company VAT number, prepopulated from Sage

Application Type: This has three options available via the drop down, and the option to choose relates to your account that you are creating with Cogidocs. You can leave this as the default choice of Standard flexible UK invoice application.

Email Source Options:

Email Address: The email address you intend to use to send Invoices to, to be processed by Sicon AI.  If you are setting this up on a Live database please ensure the email address is suitable (generic is a preferred preference).  You will also need to select the domain for the email address from the drop-down menu. The domains in the drop down are pre-set to point to the Cogidocs server, it is possible to free type an alternate domain in here as long as you have configured the MX record to point to mail.cogidocs365.co.uk. If you enter a domain here where that hasn’t happened, then you will receive a warning message to that effect.

Forward emails without, or with un-supported attachment(s) to the address below for manual handling: This option, when selected, will notify the specified email address if an email is received that isn’t supported, so it can be processed manually.

Auto Respond to sender when email received: This option will respond to the sender when an email has been received to inform them that their email/invoice is being processed

Label Extraction – Enter a keyword to find in email subject. Separate with a space: Extracting a keyword from the email subject to store in an OCR field

Trial Account: Selecting this option generates a trail account with a limited number of Scans.  It is recommended using this option during the testing phase on a test database and does not require an enable string for Document Automation.

Signup: This button will then generate your account based on the information provided.  The system will prompt if any details are incorrect. E.g. Contact Name is missing

Once you have registered an email address the Setting screen changes showing the signed-up details.  Clicking on the email address will copy this to the clip board.  This screen will also show the Customer ID and the number of Documents that have been received and processed.

Document Automation Options: These options are the default for Sicon AI.  They can be overwritten per Supplier is required

Enable Order Number Matching: This will attempt to match the Invoice against an existing order within Sage.  The order number must appear on the Invoice

Enable Project Number Matching: This will attempt to match the Invoice against an existing Sicon Project within Sage.  The Project number must appear on the Invoice

Enable Item Line Extraction: Sicon Document Automation will read each line on the Invoice and these will be generated when processing the Invoices

Enable Exporting to Excel to re-import using the Sage import routine (via Document Automation): This setting allows to you export invoices via the Process Invoice screen, and then re-import them back in again before processing them.

Update Options: This button will update the options within Sicon Document Automation

Advanced Options: This will show all advanced options available. These settings are read automatically as available options from the Cogidocs web service, so are not all necessarily relevant to the integration within the Sicon module. In an ordinary implementation of this module, you should not need to be changing any of these options.

Receiver recognition for application: This option turns on and off the interpretation of receiver, which uses registers for matching and validation. This option can be ignored.

Table recognition for application: This is the same setting as the Enable Item Line Extraction.

Manual verification for application: The Invoices will be validated by a human at Cogidocs.

Order number matching for application: This is the same setting as the Enable Order Number Matching.

Reference Recognition for application: This option toggles the Reference field for recognition.

Reference Lookup for application: This function turns on and off 2 fields, Referencename and Referencecode. These fields use register for matching and validation.

Job Number recognition for application: This is the same setting as the Enable Project Number Matching.

Unlink Account: This will unlink the account from the database.  This is designed for unlinking accounts when overwriting a Test database with a copy of a Live database

Validation Options:

Validate Invoice Age: Enable validation on the Invoice Age and set the number of days i.e. do not process any Invoices that are dated more than 60 Days old.

Validate Purchase Orders have a GRN: Available if order number matching is enabled.  Will validated that the Purchase Order has been GRN’d in Sage, and flag them as invalid but they could still be processed.

Process Gross Value as Goods Amount: This is to disassociate VAT from the scanned Invoices for companies that don’t record VAT, so the total Invoice Value will be recorded as the goods amount

Block Invoices with no GRN: This will prevent invoices with no GRN from being processed.

Variance Options:

Acceptable Variance %: Specify an acceptable variance percentage, if the invoice matches the value of the purchase order within this percentage, then it will be considered as valid in the Process Invoice screen.

Acceptable Variance Value: Specify an acceptable variance value, if the invoice matches the value of the purchase order within this difference, then it will be considered as valid in the Process Invoice screen.

Ignore variance if the invoice is less than the purchase order: Do not use either of the above settings if the invoice is less than the purchase order. This would be relevant where either the invoice is only a part invoice of the purchase order, or the supplier is invoicing you less than you were expecting.

4.7. Document Distribution Tab

This tab is used to set defaults against the different document types that you will be emailing direct from Sage using the Document Distribution functionality.

The first three columns display the Module, Entity and each Document Type that can be used with Document Distribution. You can use the next four columns to see which settings have been applied to each of these document types. If you wish to use the same letterhead/terms and conditions across multiple document types, you’ll need to add them separately to each document type.

Letterhead:

It is possible to select a PDF letterhead document that will be merged in with the Sage document when it is sent via Document Distribution. If you have already selected a letterhead, then it will be displayed in the preview window in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. If you wish to select a new PDF document, then click on the following button: –

This will then enable you to browse for a PDF file. The file is then copied into your Documents folder location (within the relevant Sage company attachment path), and is stored in a LetterHead folder within the relevant document type. The file name is then stored in the Letterhead column of the main window and you will then see your PDF previewed in the preview window. You can view the PDF in its entirety by clicking the following button: –

The final button allows you to delete the Letterhead from the selected document type: –

This will then delete the PDF from the folder within the Sage Documents folder location.

Terms and Conditions:

In the same way as with letterheads, it is possible to select a PDF document to add the terms and conditions to the bottom of the document that is emailed through Document Distribution.

Contact Role for Email:

Contacts held within Sage against customer and supplier accounts can be assigned one or more roles. These are created within the standard Sage Customer and Supplier Roles screen within the Accounting System Manager\Settings menu. Within each account, there can only be one preferred contact for each of these roles. In this column you can specify which role should be used in Document Distribution to ascertain which contact on the account should be the recipient of this email.

Outlook Options:

These options let you specify against each of the document types what you would like to happen when you click the Email & Archive button. You can either send the email immediately, open the email window in Outlook or do neither (if you want it to go to the drafts folder). The Include Signature option will add the selected signature in your Outlook options.

The Save to Drafts option is not available if you have chosen the Send Immediately option.

4.8. Storage Tab

This tab will show a breakdown of total documents in the Documents folder stored on the server by clicking on the Calculate Documents Folder Size button. You can expand the folders to drill into the size calculations.

Documents are stored in the attachments folder per company as assigned against the company within the Sage 200 System Administrator.

4.9. Metrics

This tab can be used to show the number of documents added per Module, Entity and Document Type to ascertain where documents are mainly being added to the Sage module.

N.B. as this feature requires .net Framework 4.0 or above, this functionality is only available for Sage 200 2015 and above.

Hovering over each section will cause a pop-up window that summarises the number of documents within each box. There are three algorithm options available to display the information in different formats, and you can change the direction that the sections run in. You can also export the graphical information into Excel via the Export Data to Excel button, where the counts of each combination of account and document type will be summarised.

4.10. Web Users Tab

These tabs are for Business Partners working with Sicon on Documents integration.

4.11. Import/Export Tab

This tab will allow for Documents settings to be exported from one company and then imported into another.  When exporting, an XML file will be produced which can then be imported into another company.

NB: any new document types created will not be exported for reimport, these would need to be set up again.

4.12. Warning when saving Settings

When saving the Documents settings, the below message may appear as a warning.  This is stating that there are multiple Companies configured in Sage System Admin to use the same attachments folder.  It is advised that all Companies in Sage System Admin are configured to store documents in individual folders, but it is possible to OK and then save through this message.

4.13. User Settings

This screen gives access to two functions that affect the currently logged in user.

Clear Company and Roles cache:  if a user’s company access or role permission (as set in Sage System Admin) has not changed the user’s Sage interface, clear the cache here to pull through the new permissions.

Reset Tips:  this will reset any tips shown so users will see any new tips for new features and hot fix enhancements along with any previously selected to not show.

4.14. Email Templates

In this screen you can maintain email templates for each document type that you would use with Documents Distribution.

You can also add email templates for additional document types – this doesn’t mean you can then use these for Document Distribution, they are only used if you are viewing a document and click the Email button available in that screen.

This screen lists all of the entities and document types that can be used with Document Distribution. You can create a template for the email that the document will be sent out with. Click the Edit button to open the Email Template editor.

You can enter desired text into the subject and body fields. The Fields window on the right-hand side will show you which fields are available for merging in your template. You can drag these into both the subject and body of the email template.

5. Adding a Document

If the Sage user has been given permission to index, when entering a transaction or using the transaction/order enquiry functionality within Sage and Sicon Add-on modules (locations as defined in Documents Settings), there will be an option available to ‘Add Docs’.

For example, entering a Purchase Invoice within the Purchase Ledger:

Either drag and drop a file directly onto the ‘Add Docs’ button; i.e. a PDF from an email or click ‘Add Docs’ to open the main indexing screen.  This will allow you to either:

Scan/Scan with Options:  this will scan a document directly from a Desktop Scanner (must have a Twain driver installed).

Attach File:  add a document directly from a file source.

Drag and Drop:  drag and drop a file directly from a location onto the page from an email or other file source.

Once the document has been added, the options are to:

Save and Close.

Or

Add Security options, Save and Close; this will give the ability to specify which roles have access to view this document as per the user’s permissions (see Settings – Licence).

Or

Tools; if a multi-page PDF has been added, this tools option can split the document into single pages.

Or

Add New to add an additional document to this transaction or enquiry.

Once documents have been added the number of attachments will be displayed.

6. Viewing a Document

Once a transaction has a document indexed against it, select ‘View Docs’.

From here the document can be opened (a PDF could be printed) and if required, it can be emailed from here.  Depending on user permissions, they may also be able to Re-Index the document or Delete the document.

If multiple documents have been attached against a single transaction or enquiry, these are displayed in either a list, as icons or in card form.

The Next and Previous buttons can be used to move between documents.

‘Multi Select’ can be ticked if multiple documents need to be opened or emailed out at once; it is possible to either hold down the Ctrl or Shift key to select multiple documents.  When in multi select view, the summary window will not be able to be shown.

7. Re-indexing a Document

If a user has permission they will be able to re-index a document already attached; for example, if there is a description that needs to be entered when the document is indexed but this was not done, a user can re-index, enter the description and Save and Close.  The majority of the fields cannot be edited as these are System fields and therefore read only.

It is possible to edit the security of a document when re-indexing, for example to restrict what roles have access to view this document.  Once changes have been made, click Save.

8. Deleting a Document

If a user has permission, they will be able to delete documents attached onto the system.  When viewing a document, the Delete button will be visible.  Usually this permission is just given to Documents Admin users to delete a document that has been added incorrectly.

9. Enquiries

Various enquiries can be run from Sicon Documents.

9.1. Document Search

Select the Entity and if applicable, the Document Type form the drop-down list.  It is possible to search either against a particular Attribute, e.g. Supplier Account code, or change to Text search and then start typing, e.g. a supplier name.  Clicking Find without entering a value against an attribute will return all documents indexed; this could result in a long search time once many documents have been added onto the system.  Multiple search filters can be used, for example in the search below all Purchase Invoices for Kitchen Builders with a document date between 1^st July 2020 and 31^st July 2020 will be returned.

It is also possible to perform the search across all of your Sage companies (via the check box in the top right-hand corner), if you are unsure which database holds the document that you are looking for.

9.2. PL Transactions with no documents

Select ‘Enquiries’ and then ‘PL Transactions with No Documents’ from the side Sicon Documents menu.

It is possible here to select a particular supplier, transaction type (e.g. invoice or credit note) and date range to show all transactions where no document has been attached.

Once transactions are listed, it is possible to add documents directly onto the invoice; once added, the document can then be viewed.  If the search is run again, the invoice which has had a document attached will no longer be visible.

9.3. POP Orders and Returns with No Documents

It is possible here to select a particular supplier, transaction type (e.g. purchase order or purchase return) and the date range to show all orders or returns where no document has been attached.

Once transactions are listed, it is possible to add documents directly onto the purchase order; once added, the document can then be viewed.  If the search is run again, the order which has had a document attached will no longer be visible.

9.4. POP Receipts and Despatches with No Documents

It is possible here to select a particular supplier, transaction type (e.g. Purchase Order or Purchase Return) and date range to show all receipts or despatches where no document has been attached.

Once transactions are listed, it is possible to add documents directly onto the receipt; once added, the document can then be viewed.  If the search is run again, the receipt which has had a document attached will no longer be visible.

10. Document Automation

Please note, this is additional functionality at an additional cost.  For more information, please contact your Business Partner or refer to our price list.

10.1. Upload Suppliers

The Upload Suppliers screen is used to either enable all (or a selected amount) Suppliers to use the Document Automation feature.  You can also see which Supplier has been enabled against each feature as outlined below:  Supplier KEN001 has been enabled for Project Number matching.

In order to enable a Supplier to use Document Automation first click the ‘Display’ button.  You can use the filter to select a specific supplier, use the ‘Enabled for Document Automation’ to display those that are and are not currently available and the ‘Order Number Matching Enabled’ to show Suppliers that have this option turned on.

Once you have the list of suppliers, you can select them individually or use the Select All option and click Update.

The Update to the Document Automation process runs overnight so it is best to allow 24 hours prior to being able to use a Supplier.

It is also possible to Update the Suppliers from the Supplier Record themselves.  With Sicon Documents installed a Document Automation section will be added to the Sicon tab on the Supplier Record.  Here you can enable individual options as outlined in the Document Automation Settings.

Enabling the options per Supplier allows you to differentiate between Suppliers that require Purchase Orders and Suppliers that don’t (i.e. Utilities).  The same would be true for Suppliers that have the ability to put the Project Number on the Invoice.

Delete Supplier: Removes the Supplier from Sicon Document Automation (does not remove them from Sage)

Create Supplier: Creates the Supplier within Sicon Document Automation so they can be used for the Invoicing process. Again, allow 24 hours from doing this before trying to process any invoices against this supplier through Document Automation.

10.2. Process Invoices

Once you have sent an Invoice to your nominated email address specified in the settings it will be picked up by Sicon Document Automation and the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) process will start to process the Invoices.  Depending on whether Sicon Document Automation has seen and processed the Invoice Layout will depend on how well it can pick up the fields.

For this screen to work, access to the Cogidocs web services are required. What this means is that the computer that you are using this screen on will require a working internet connection, and be able to access https://api.cogidocs365.co.uk.

Sicon Document Automation takes a little time to process each Invoice before they will appear in the Process Invoices screen. Some of the information it is trying to find is listed below:

Type: Invoice or Credit Note
Supplier Account No: Supplier Name to associate to a Supplier Reference
Invoice No: The Document No.
Invoice Date: The Date of the Document
Net Amount: Total Net Value of the Document
VAT Amount: Total VAT Value of the Document

Total Amount: Total Net+VAT Value of the Document.  This is also checking the Net Amount and VAT Amount equals the Total Amount.

The invoices are filtered by their current status using a filter line above the main window.

This filter the displayed invoices as to whether they are ready for processing (i.e. all required details have been established) or are needing some kind of attention. Any that relate the purchase order lines that have not been goods received will appear in that filter. It is also possible to export invoices into another system for external processing (if enabled in Settings), and finally you can flag invoices as being under query and they will then only appear under that filter.

You can also click the Filters button at the end of this row to display additionally available filters: –

The main window of the Process Automated Invoice screen is split into two sections.  The left-hand side of the screen is the list of Invoices in a Grid.

The Grid displayed is editable which allows you either enter or overwrite the data that Document Automation has retrieved from the Document.  Any field that has been pulled from the Document is editable at this point.  Any field shown in Green has been successfully validated on the Document, anything in Red is a column that couldn’t be recognised. An additional narrative field is available for editing in this grid that will add anything entered within it onto the narrative of the nominal postings for the invoice.

If you wish to resize any columns, you can click on the vertical line between the column headings to drag the columns wider or smaller. You can also drag columns around if you would like them to be in a different order. These column changes are remembered when you exit the screen, and are stored per user so your edits won’t impact on other users.

The right-hand side of the screen by defaults shows an image of the highlighted line in the Grid.  This will allow you to spot any missing fields and manually update the Grid with the missing information.  As well as manually typing in the information you can ‘Train’ the system to find any missing information on a Document Layout.

At the bottom of the screen are the following buttons: –

Save Invoices – Save any changes to the currently displayed invoices.

Retrieve Invoices – Reconnect to Cogidocs to see if any additional invoices have been received.

Validate Invoices – Select any invoices to refresh their validation status, if you have updated some information against them.

Process Invoices – Select any invoices that you wish to now post into Sage.

Export / Import Invoices – Select any invoices that you with to export for processing within an external system, or to import any that you have in a file to import back into this screen. The import would use the standard Sage PL Invoices import format, and would update the records tagged as exported. This option is only available if you have enabled exporting on the Document Automation tab of the Settings screen.

Delete Invoices – Select any invoices that you wish to delete, such as ones that have been emailed through more than once.

Query Invoice – Select any invoices that you wish to flag with a query indicator, to make use of the Queried filter at the top to remove them from the main lists.

These actions and others are also available by right clicking on invoices in this screen: –

Any invoices in the Needing Attention section can quickly have their situation diagnosed using the Invoice Validation tab on the right-hand side.

Taking a look at the bottom Kitchen Builders Invoice, we can see that it has picked up the Invoice Date, Currency, Net Amount, VAT Amount, Total Amount and Supplier Name (and associating Reference) but couldn’t pick up the Invoice No.

You can see from the screenshot, the system is highlighting, the areas of the Documents that it has recognised. In this example, the date of the invoice is highlighted in red as this date was earlier than the current date.

Supplier Not Identified

If the supplier account has not been identified, then you will not be able to use the Training button against this invoice. This is because the training information is updated to Cogidocs to improve future invoices received from that supplier. Where Cogidocs haven’t been able to identify the supplier account, then they are unable to update it with any training information received.

In order to process the invoice, you can manually enter the supplier account and any other missing fields by clicking on those fields in the main list of invoices and entering them, but you will likely have the same issues on future invoices from that supplier.

So if invoices are received and the supplier isn’t identified, it is important to review why that is and rectify it in order for future invoices to be processed automatically. The most important fields that Cogidocs are using to identify the supplier from the invoice are:-

• Supplier Name
• VAT Number
• Street
• City
• Post code

Phone and fax numbers are also used, but are given less weighting that the fields above so are less important.

So if the supplier was not identified, then the invoice needs to be looked at and the details above need to be compared to the details against the Supplier account in your Purchase Ledger. If there are any differences, then you should update the Purchase Ledger account so that it matches their invoices. Bear in mind that if any of the fields (including phone/fax numbers) is different, then this can reduce the chance of a successful match, so there are circumstances where you could be better off leaving a field empty. E.g. you have a phone number populated on a supplier account, but their invoice doesn’t show the phone number and they are not being identified by Cogidocs. Cogidocs could be failing this supplier identification because they are expecting that phone number to be on their invoices, and this omission is counting against the identification. You should empty that phone number from the account and try another invoice from them (after a delay to the next day) to see if this improves the identification of that supplier.

We only recommend removing details from your Purchase Ledger accounts where supplier identification is failing.

Changes you make to supplier details are automatically sent to Cogidocs, but only update their system overnight, so you will not notice the benefit until the next day.

Other tabs in this area show the scanned invoice, the Email that it was sent with, the OCR Data (meaning which values have been read against which fields and their status) and a Log displaying the timeline of the retrieval and processing of this invoice.

In order to train the system to find the Invoice Number, click the Training Button below the Invoice Image.

This then enables a tool that will allow you to draw a location around the area where the Invoice Number appears.

Once you have drawn the area where the Invoice number appears on the Document, a new prompt is shown so you can associate that location with the Invoice number.

Field Type: A drop-down list of the available fields

Field Value: The value of area that has been marked on the Document, if Sicon AI recognises the value (alpha numeric) then this will be pre-populated.  If the Value is incorrection then it can be overwritten.

Field Location: This displays the location where the field is located on the Documents

Region: This displays what has been drawn on the document.

The system will then use this information the next time it receives a Document from the same Supplier to retrieve the Invoice Number. Typically, you might need to do these multiple times before the system learns.

Note. The Training feature that allows you to draw is only available on certain types of PDF.  As an example, if you receive a paper copy, which is scanned and emailed you won’t be able to specify a specific location, where as you would if the invoice was generated from software (i.e. Sage or Word).

The Training will remain open so you can train multiple fields values at one time.  Once you have finished, click the Exit Training button.  This will then populate the new Values into the Invoices Grid.

Once all details have been captured, the Process Invoice button can be pressed.  Here you have two options, Manual and Automatic.  Manual process is used to manually code the Invoice and Automatic will automatically generate the Invoice.  If you are capturing just the content, i.e. not capturing the Purchase Order then you will be required to enter the Invoice details against a Project, if using Project Costing, or the Nominal.

A prompt will show to confirm you want to process all selected documents:

If the system, believes the Document has already been posted in Sage, is within the Document Automation system, or doesn’t contain the correct amount of details, then you will receive an extra warning confirming if you want to continue.  At this point you can cancel the Invoice or Credit Note creation to ensure that no duplicates are created.

With manual verification selected, if the Invoice isn’t linked to a Purchase Order, then the Purchase Invoice screen is shown, with the details captured filled in.

If you maximise this screen, you are then shown the Invoice entry screen and the document, so it can be coded accordingly.

If matching against a Purchase Order you are shown the Record Purchase Invoice screen against a Purchase Order.  In this example Purchase Order 3483 the system is ignoring the leading zeros on the Purchase Order.

If the purchase order had any GRN discrepancies, then a box would be displayed showing these and asking if you wanted to continue.

If the invoice relates to multiple purchase orders, then you can use the Amend Selected Orders button within the Record Purchase Invoice screen to add additional order lines to this screen.

If the invoice fully matches the value of the purchase order, then the invoice quantity of each item on the purchase order will be set to match the purchase order full quantity. If this is not the case, then no line quantities will default and you will need to manually update these quantities.

How to Handle Invoice Price Differences from Purchase Order Prices

If the invoice turns up with a different unit price to the purchase order line price, you can of course update the price on the purchase order if you are happy to do so, or add a missing delivery charge line. You could also edit the price on the Record Purchase Invoice screen, which will also update the purchase order. Alternatively, you can let Documents record any price differences as a variance, and have it create an extra variance line in the nominal postings that you can then code accordingly. An example of this would be if the invoice has a carriage line that has been omitted from the purchase order.

When you start to process the invoice, if the invoice line value is different from the purchase order line prices then you would see this message displayed: –

This message is only displayed if the invoice value differs from the purchase order value by either a greater percentage or greater difference in value as specified in the variance options on the Document Automation tab in the Settings.

Assuming that you wish to continue with this, you would then click OK. If you are processing the invoice automatically, then a variance line would be created automatically. The example worked through below has been processed using the Manual Verification option.

To ensure the variance line is created, then do not change the Discounted Unit Price in the Record Purchase Invoice screen. In the example below, our purchase order has the delivery line missing If the delivery line should not have been invoiced, we could of course have flagged a query against the invoice in the Process Invoice screen, and not clicked OK at the earlier warning prompt. Assuming that the invoicing of the delivery value is correct, and that we want to record this as a variance, then process the stock lines as normal.

Matching the order lines to the GRNs (if applicable), when you then click Accept and Post you would see the following warning.

If you click Yes to continue, then Documents will create an extra line in the Nominal Analysis section of the subsequent Enter Purchase Invoice screen for the variance amount. No nominal code is selected automatically against this line, you will need to choose the relevant nominal code before you can save and post this invoice.

Note that if you have Sicon Projects installed, then this variance line will have a nominal code determined by Sicon Projects selected for this variance line.

This variance behaviour can also occur if the invoice value against any of the other lines is different to the prices on the purchase order, and you don’t change those line values in the Record Purchase Invoice screen on the order lines. This will then lead to the same warning message displayed above, and a variance posting being created automatically.

11. Tools

11.1. Split PDF

This tool will split a multi-page PDF document into single PDF files per page.  This can be useful if a supplier sends one PDF containing multiple invoices.  If a PDF has 10 pages, then once split, 10 individual PDF documents will be created once split.

Select a PDF file to split and then with the Output file, enter the location for where the documents will be created once split.  Use the Browse buttons to find the correct location.

12. Document Distribution

With this feature, you can create email templates to facilitate efficient emailing of documents using Outlook from Sage to the relevant customer/supplier contacts. Using the existing functions in Documents, these documents can be automatically archived against the relevant order/document type.

The standard document types where this can be configured are:

• Customer Statements
• Purchase Orders
• Purchase Returns
• Sales Credit Notes
• Sales Invoices
• Sales Order Acknowledgements
• Sales Order Goods Despatched Notes
• Sales Orders
• Sales Proformas
• Sales Quotations
• Supplier Remittances
• Customer Debtor Collection Notices (requires Sicon Debtor Management)
• Contract Renewal Reminders (requires Sicon Contracts)

12.1. Distribution Setup

In order to configure this functionality, there are two screens that require configuration. You can also configure information against a stock record if you would like additional documents to be added to emails that relate to orders containing that stock item.

Within the Documents Settings screen, there is a Document Distribution tab. In here you can configure whether you want to merge letterheads and terms and conditions with each of the relevant document types. You can also configure which contact role should be used to determine the recipient of the email, and whether the email will be sent immediately or created in your Outlook drafts folder.

The second step is then to customise the email templates associated with each document type. This is done via the Email Templates screen.

Once you have configured these two screens, then you are ready to use this functionality for the relevant document types.

If you wish to attach additional documents relating to particular stock items that are on the order in question, then you can configure additional documents to be attached to the email templates against the specific document type. In the screenshot below, you can see that there is a product specification document available on this stock item, this was added to the stock item in the normal way via the Add Docs button.

If you then wanted this document added as an attachment to all emailed Order Acknowledgements, then you would just drag this across into the window on the left and drop it onto the order acknowledgement line. This would then create an expanded line that would display this information in the window on the left. In this way, you can drop the document onto different document types, as well as being able to drop multiple documents onto the same document type.

12.2. Sending emails using Distribution

For the document types mentioned previously, a new Email & Archive button has been added to the relevant screens where this document type would be printed.

Using this button instead of the regular Print button will then merge the generated document with the email template (including any letterhead and terms and conditions document), and also archive the document against the relevant entity as if you had added the document yourself.

Depending upon the configuration of your Outlook client, you may see the following warning message. You can click Allow access for up to 10 minutes using this window. If you would like to prevent this message from appearing, then guidance can be found here: –

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/i-get-warnings-about-a-program-accessing-email-address-information-or-sending-email-on-my-behalf-86cc5ece-379e-45e3-b8eb-3fefba09946b#:~:text=A%20program%20is%20trying%20to,is%20up%2Dto%2Ddate.

13. Documents with Disputed Invoices

If an invoice is being marked as disputed when recorded (i.e. with the Sage setting enabled to use disputed invoice processing), it is possible to add a document when entering dispute details.

Against the Purchase Ledger Supplier account a new tab will show ‘Disputed Invoices/Credits’ where individual invoices will be listed and show any attachments; if the user has permission they will be able to view the document or attach new documents.

It is also possible to view these documents through the Disputed Invoices screen.

If the disputed invoice is accepted, the document attached originally will post through to the invoice.

14. Documents with Sicon Construction

Documents can be added on supplier and customer applications and supplier valuations.

15. Documents with Sicon Contracts

Documents can be added against contracts.

16. Documents with Sicon Fixed Assets

Documents can be added against a fixed asset, either when initially adding or when amending an asset.

17. Documents with Sicon Project Costing

Documents can be added against a project; NB documents can only be added against the project once it has been initially created.

Documents can be viewed against a project by using the option to view the Project Enquiry and then the Sicon Documents tab.

18. Documents with Sicon Service

Documents can be added against a service case; either when viewing or amending, or against equipment.

19. Documents with Sicon Common

Documents can be added against a Sicon Projects employee; either when creating a new employee or amending an existing one.

20. Documents with Sicon Works Order Processing

Documents documents can be added or viewed when amending a works order.

21. Documents Locations

Documents documents can be added or viewed (permission dependant) in the below locations.

Cash Book

Bank Account

Bank Statement

Bank Payment

Bank Receipt

Construction

Customer Application

Customer Valuation

Supplier Application

Supplier Valuation

Contract Manager

Contract

Contract Line

Fixed Assets

Fixed Asset

Job Costing

Job

Nominal Ledger

Bank Payment

Bank Receipt

Nominal Transaction

Purchase Ledger

Purchase Invoice

Purchase Credit

Purchase Payment

Purchase Receipt

Supplier Account

Purchase Batch Invoice

Purchase Batch Credit

Purchase Rapid Invoice

Purchase Order Processing

Supplier Account

Purchase Order

Purchase Return

POP Received Notes

POP Returned Note

POP Invoice Dispute

POP Credit Note Dispute

Sales Ledger

Sales Invoice

Sales Credit

Sales Receipt

Sales Payment

Customer Account

Sales Batch Invoice

Sales Batch Credit

Sales Order Processing

Customer Account

Sales Order

Sales Quote

Sales Proforma

Sales Return

SOP Despatched Note

SOP Returned Note

SOP Tax Only Invoice

SOP Tax Only Credit Note

Service Manager

Service Manager Case

Service Manager Equipment

Sicon Common

Sicon Employee

Stock

Stock Item

Works Order Processing

Works Order

22. Enable Module

This module will automatically be enabled for a 30-day trial period from the date of installation.  After this period, a new module enable string must be entered for continued use of the module.

To enter a new enable string, open the Settings screen from the Sage Documents menu.  Select the Licence tab and paste the module enable string provided by Sicon Customer Services, then click the Save button.

A separate enable string can be entered for Document Automation, but this is not required if you are using a Test bundle.

23. Release Notes

The release notes page shows which release of the system includes new features or issues resolved.

At the release of Sicon v21 we announced that going forward, we will only be supporting Sage 200c and as such we are able to drop the year from our version numbers. We moved from 201.201.0.0 to 210.0.0.

New features detailed in the Release Notes relating to Pre-Release versions will not be detailed in the current Help and User Guide until the end of development phase.

24. Sicon Documents Help and User Guide v17

DMS Help and User Guide v17

25. New Features & Important Information

25.1. Sicon v21.1

25.2. Sicon v21

25.3. Sicon v20.1

25.4. Sicon v20

25.5. Sicon v19.2

25.6. Sicon v19.1

25.7. Sicon v19

25.8. Sicon v18