Document Automation Help and User Guide v25

1. Migration from DA v1 to DA v2

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Document Automation (DA) v1 has now been decommissioned. Please ensure you have migrated to DA v2 to prevent you losing this access.

1.1. Enabling Document Automation v2

Sicon Documents v 22.1 or above is required for this version of Document Automation.

There are separate menu items for this version of Document Automation. The previous version is now in a menu folder called Legacy Document Automation. If you are using the previous version of Document Automation, you can still use it alongside version 2, but this is only recommended for a short time while you are in transition. The two versions are entirely separate, so invoices ready for processing in one version will not automatically appear in the other version.

You will also need an enable string for Document Automation. You will also need an API key which needs to be requested from Sicon. These then need to be entered in the Settings screen, found within Sicon Documents\Document Automation\Automation Settings. You can trial the system with 100 free documents once you have an API key.

Clicking Automation Settings will open the Sicon Document Automation Settings screen.

To enter the Enable String or Api Key, tick the box to the left of those fields and then enter the appropriate text. Click Save, and then assuming you have entered a valid value, a green tick will appear to the right of it.

1.2. Document Automation v2 New Features

• Improved table extraction, line recognition and order .
• Improved document recognition time; now just a few seconds rather than 15-30 minutes in some.​
• Supplier data is no longer stored outside of your client’s sage database, (limited info such as account reference is stored as a tag on the model but not things like address, vat number etc). All supplier recognition is performed locally with instant feedback on matching issues and the ability to fine tune and resolve in.​
• Data and documents leave the sage database for a few seconds during model training and are then deleted when this is.​
• Support for handwritten and scanned documents, (must be saved as a PDF to be processed).​
• Support for multiple buying/pricing.​
• Multiple regional formats.​
• Improved validation detail.​
• Ability to update supplier accounts directly from DA v2 screen.​
• Ability to query and assign documents to specific users. 

1.3. Migration Timeframe

The Cogidocs platform has been decommissioned since 31st December 2024, please ensure you have moved over to DA v2. The Sicon Document Automation v2 platform on Azure is now performing very well with many satisfied customers following their migrations. As usual, we are happy to assist where needed to get your customer migrations completed.

1.4. Migration Steps

1.5. Migration FAQ's

What version do I need to upgrade to?

You can upgrade your customer to the latest iteration of Sicon documents within Sicon v21.1 or Sicon v22. The code and functionality is exactly the same in all versions. If their document version is older than this, you should upgrade them to Sicon v22.1. Use the Sicon auto installer for this process.

How do I access DAv2 once it’s installed? New features need to be assigned to the relevant user roles within the Sage System Admin to give access to the new DAv2 screens.

How long will I need to stop using Document Automation for during the migration? You can use both DAv1 and DAv2 at the same time while migrating them over, allowing super users to trial DAv2 in the live system before moving all users over to v2.

How do I start the extraction process? One main feature in v2 is the ability to drag & drop invoice attachments from emails onto a drop panel in Sage 200 which starts the extraction process. This may seem like a backward step but 80% of sites prefer this approach as it avoids the cost of the automation engine having to process junk email.

Is Email Integration available in DAv2? Email integration is available for Office 365, but will require the Sicon Web Api to be installed on the server and give the Sicon addons Enterprise Application in Azure permission to access your exchange 365 instance. This will require a onetime login as an azure global admin for the tenant to generate an OAuth token which can be revoked at any time. We do no not want to know the details, just that someone from IT will need to enter them at the required time. Shared mailboxes plus addressing/subdomains are supported.

Do I need to re-train the new system to read document content? Training of documents will need to be carried out again from scratch. However, one document training layout will be sufficient rather than 5 or more and as it is field based rather than coordinate based, it is much faster, easier and more accurate to complete.

How and where is the document identification and data extraction carried out? All Document identification and data extraction is carried out in the UK on the Microsoft Azure UK South platform.

What do I do if I still have document bundles to use up on DAv1? All remaining document bundle balances on DA v1 with Cogidocs will be transferred over to the new Sicon Azure DA v2 platform.

2. Processing Invoices

2.1. Uploading a Document

Once a document is ready to process in Sage 200, open the navigation bar and go to:
Sicon Documents > Document Automation

From here, you can select the relevant processing screen. Document Automation currently supports:

• Invoices – Use Process Invoice & Credit Notes
• Credit Notes – Use Process Invoice & Credit Notes
• Purchase Orders – Use Process Purchase Orders
• Remittances – Use Process Customer Remittance

Uploading via Processing Screen

For this example, open the Process Invoices & Credit Notes screen. Select the New button (bottom left hand-side) to upload a document into Document Automation.

If you’ve configured an Exchange mailbox, documents emailed to that mailbox will automatically appear in this screen—no manual upload required.

Uploading via Document Drop

Alternatively, open Sicon Documents > Document Automation > Document Drop.

This form allows you to upload all supported document types (Invoices, Credit Notes, Purchase Orders, and Remittances).

You can:

• Drag and drop a file onto the relevant button (e.g. Invoices, Credit Notes, Purchase Orders, Remittances), or
• Click the button to browse and select the file manually.

Options Panel

At the bottom of the Document Drop form, the Options panel provides advanced controls:

• Analysis Type – Choose whether to read the document only or also analyse it for tables (instead of doing it when training the document).
• Preview Documents After Analysis – Opens the Document Results screen showing extracted values.
• Show Trader Identification Forms – Displays the supplier identification window if the supplier wasn’t automatically matched.
• Show Advanced Options for Each Document – Opens the Advanced Options form before upload.
• Always On Top – When accessing the document drop via the Sage 200 Navigation, choose of the window is always on top of other Sage 200 windows or not.

Once uploaded, Document Automation reads the file, applies the appropriate data model, and makes the document available in the corresponding processing screen.

2.2. Purchase Invoice and Credit Note Processing Screen

This is the main area you process documents once they have been scanned. This screen is split into two main sections. The Documents Pain on the left-hand side where you can filter/select documents and the right-hand side is the Features Pain that allow you to train, read and alter documents.

The Documents pane (top left) displays all documents that are waiting to be processed. These documents have not yet been posted to the purchase ledger in Sage.

The Lines pane (bottom left) shows the item lines related to the document currently highlighted in the pane above.

The Actions pane (right-hand side) displays the scanned image of the document selected in the top-left pane. Additional options are available within the tabs, which will be outlined later.

2.2.1. Default Filters

There are several filters at the top that allow you to refine the list of displayed documents. These filters become available once documents are loaded—either automatically by enabling Load Document when the form opens, or manually by clicking the Load Documents button in the bottom left-hand corner.

The list below highlights the function each button calls:

1. Refresh – Updates the list of documents.
2. Ready – Show/Hide documents that are ready for processing.
3. Need Attention – Show/Hide documents that have validation issues.
4. Receipt Issues – Show/Hide documents where the Purchase Order has not had the good received (only if delivery matching is enabled)
5. Not Validated – Show/Hide documents that couldn’t be linked with a supplier.
6. Queried – Show/Hide documents that have been marked as queried.
7. Multi-select – When active, this allows you to clock multiple documents at once.
8. Filters – Show/Hide additional filter options.

The filters (including Ready, Needs Attention, Receipt Issues, Not Validated and Queries) all work in the same way. When select, documents that meet the buttons criteria will be displayed and when unselected these documents will be hidden.

The Multiselect button can be toggled to add checkboxes to the left of the Document ID values. These can then be used if you wish to perform the same action against multiple documents at the same time, i.e. delete, validate or process 10 documents.

The Filters button toggles additional filtering options, allowing you to narrow down the list of documents. These options will be explained in more detail below.

2.2.2. Advanced Filters

Upon selecting the filters button, the section below appears:

Changing any of the filter options will update the document counts to reflect the active filters. The Filters button will also display a number indicating how many filters are currently applied. Filters are persistent, meaning they will remain active even after closing and reopening the screen.

The filter fields include a mix of text boxes and dropdown menus, allowing you to refine the document list using the following criteria:

• Filename – Filter by the document’s filename.
• Document ID – Filter by the document ID (shown in the first column of the list).
• Max Records – Limits the number of documents displayed. This is useful if you’re experiencing performance issues. Note: This is the only filter not cleared by the “Clear Filters” button and must be cleared manually.
• Created By – Filter by the Sage user who created the document.
• Assigned To – Show only documents assigned to a specific Sage user.
• Supplier – Filter by a purchase ledger account.
• Customer – Filter by a sales ledger account. (Not applicable for purchase invoices or credit notes.)
• Document Types – Choose to display invoices, credit notes, or both.
• Sender Name – If the document was received via email, this is the sender’s name as extracted from the email.
• Sender Email – The email address of the sender, if the document was received via email.

Once you’ve selected your desired filter options, click Apply Filters to update the list. You can hide the filter panel by clicking the Filters button (next to Multi Select) without losing your current filter settings—useful if you want to free up screen space. To remove all filters, click Clear Filters.

2.2.3. Document List

The Documents pane displays all the documents within Document Automation that have been uploaded. This will show you basic information regarding each document and its current state:

There are 3 columns that are worth highlighting:

1.Document ID

This column serves two key functions. First, on the far left, you’ll find a checkbox. When Multiselect is enabled, you can use these checkboxes to select one or more documents for batch actions. Simply tick the boxes next to the documents you want to process, then choose the appropriate action from the available options.

Note: If the Multiselect button is not activated at the top, the checkboxes will not be visible.

Additionally, next to the check boxes is an icon that represents the status of the document. If you are unsure of these icons, the Default Filter bar denotes their meaning.

2.Document Status

The Document Status is an excellent tool for sorting documents by their state.

• New – Document has uploaded successfully, and a training model is yet to be created.
• Live – Document has been run through a training model.
• Queried – Document has been marked as queried by a user.
• Complete – Document has been processed through the Purchase Ledger successfully.

3.Validation Status

The validation status highlights if the document which has been uploaded has matches the order and validation rules.

Needs Attention – When the document has been run through the model, if Document Automations validation has found issues with the document or some figures do not match the Purchase Order, it will flag as needing attention. More information can be found by hovering over the text or going into the Validation tab.

Please note – Although a document maybe invalid, you can still process it manually.

• Ready for Processing – When the document passes all validation, this will allow you to process the document automatically.

2.2.4. Action buttons

Underneath the Documents and Lines panel, there are several buttons:

• Load Documents – This will load all documents uploaded into Document Automation. You may need to click this button when first opening the screen to display the scanned documents.
• New – Opens the Automation Document Drop Panel allowing you to add a new document.
• Validate – Validates the currently selected document (or multiple if checked using the Multiselect option)
• Validate All – Validates all documents in the list
• Process Automatically – This will post the currently selected document (or multiple if checked using the Multiselect option) using the automatic option, which will attempt to post without any further interaction needed by the user. Only recommended for documents with a Validation Status of ‘Ready for Processing’.
• Process Manually – This will post the currently selected document (or multiple if checked using the Multiselect option) using the manual option, which will open the Sage Record Purchase Invoice/Credit Note screen if the invoice is linked to a purchase order/return, otherwise it will open the Sage Enter Purchase Invoice/Credit Note screen as it’s posting direct to the Purchase Ledger.
• Edit – Opens the Document Result window for the currently selected document (even if using the Multiselect option) which allows you to update fields pulled from the document.
• View – Opens the same screen as the previous option, but in View only mode.
• Delete – Deletes the currently selected document (or multiple if checked and using the Multiselect option) if you do not want to process it further.

2.2.5. Right Click Options

Within the Documents Panel, if you select and right click a document a context menu will appear.

2.2.6. Settings

Additional settings are available to help you customise your experience based on your screen resolution or the need to quickly adjust a system setting. Depending on your configuration, you may see only one of the following buttons:

This button, located at the end of the Filters icon row, allows you to show or hide the right-hand panel that displays the scanned document. Clicking the small downward arrow next to it reveals six additional buttons:

1. Document Automation Settings – When selected, this will open the Document Automation Settings For more information, go to the Settings section.
2. Open the Processed Form Charts – When selected, the Document Processed By Month More information will be show in later in this section.
3. Configure Form Columns – When selected, this will open the Document Processing List Settings. More information will be show in later in this section.
4. Toggle PDF Toolbar – This button shows and hides the PDF Toolbar Section within the Documents
5. Hide/Show bottom Panel – This button shows and hides the Actions pane on the right-hand side of the screen.
6. Hide/Show Side Panel – This button shows and hides the Lines pane on the bottom left side of the screen.

2.2.7. Document Tab

The Actions pane, found on the right-hand, has six tabs above it. These sections will go through each tab and the functions they possess. The Documents tab is shown as default and shows the scanned document. The first row below the tabs allows you to train and process the document.

These buttons enable you to do the following:

• Process – Choose whether to process the document manually or automatically.
• Train – Train the layout of the document so the information is mapped correctly.
• Query – This allows you to create or manage a document disputes and queries.
• Account – Open the Supplier Recognition Details window.
• Edit – Change the information that is within the document.
• View – View the document and information that has been uploaded into Document Automation.
• Delete – Delete the selected document from Document Automation.
• Analyse – Re-analyse the content and the tables on the document.
• Recognize – Re-apply the model to the document.

Some buttons may not be initially shown (depending upon your screen resolution), it may be accessible behind clicking on a downward pointing arrow to the right of the last button that you can see. You can drag the dividing line between the panels on the left and the document preview on the right-hand side. Dragging it to the left will then give you more space and cause the missing buttons to appear.

The second row down is a selection of tool used to help you view the document.

There are the following options:

1. Move – When selected, allows you to click and drag around the document.
2. Zoom options – Buttons that allows you to zoom in/out and resize the document to fit your screen. On the resize button, Click the downward arrow to see options for fit to width, fit to page or actual size.
3. Orientation options – These buttons will rotate the document anticlockwise or clockwise.
4. Select text – The I button toggles on/off a selection mode, allowing you to highlight text on the document if you then wish to copy it in order to paste somewhere else.
5. Render Page Content with DirectX
6. View Options- These buttons let you toggle the highlighting of specific elements within a scanned document. The available options include:

• Tables – Highlights areas that resemble tables.
• Selection Marks – Highlights items that appear to be tick boxes, interpreting them as true or false. This is typically not relevant for purchase invoices or credit notes.
• Paragraphs – Groups of scanned text identified as paragraphs. Not usually applicable to purchase invoices or credit notes.
• Lines – Groups of scanned text identified as individual lines. Also not typically relevant for purchase invoices or credit notes.
• Words – Highlights each scanned word individually to confirm what has been read.
• Recognized Fields – Highlights values that have been matched to fields in Sage.
• Identification Fields – Highlights values used to identify the supplier account.

7. Show/Hide Tooltips – Toggle tooltips on or off when hovering over fields in the document. When enabled, hovering over any of the highlighted elements above will display a tooltip explaining what is being shown.

2.2.8. Validation

The Validation tab displays the document’s status after processing by the Document Automation model, serving as a crucial tool for ensuring data accuracy before posting to the ledger by highlighting any issues, such as stock mismatches, duplicate reference numbers, or financial discrepancies, through a detailed overview. The image below represents an example of the difference between a valid section and an invalid section.

• Valid – Valid section will have green ticks on the left-hand side. All child items within the section will also need to pass to ensure validity.
• Invalid – You can identify issues that Document Automation has found and then deduce if there is an issue with either the Purchase Order or the document.

There are a few additional buttons and options to allows you to change the layout, these are found above the Validation pain as shown below:

• Validate – This button will revalidate the document. Once this validation check is complete, you will see that the last validated date and time updates at the top.
• Show invalid Only – This filters the view to only show items that need attention (identified by a orange exclamation mark to their left).
• Line Description Matching Threshold – This is a numerical value between 0 and 100, the higher the number the stricter the matching on the line description is. You can adjust this if you are seeing validation errors informing you that the line cannot be matched to a purchase order line. You can lower this value and revalidate to see if the line can then be matched. If you lower the number too far, it could then start matching lines incorrectly.

2.2.9. Fields

This tab displays the values found when running the document through the model. This allows you to double check or edit fields before posting it to the Purchase Ledger.

Additional buttons allow you to view the original document or amend potentially incorrect information.

• Edit Document – You can edit the document when changes are needed to values extracted during scanning—such as correcting an incorrect order number quoted by the supplier. Please note that these values cannot be edited directly in the list and must be adjusted using the Edit function before processing.
• View Document – View the document and the original values extracted.

2.2.10. E-Mail

If the document was received via email, then the email will be displayed on this tab.

2.2.11. Bundle Usage

The Bundle Usage tab tracks the number bundles used for the selected document. Most documents will tend to use only 1 bundle, however if additional analysis or recognition operations have been manually carried out, then more credits will be used and will be shown on this tab.

In the example above, the document has used 3 bundle credits.  You can see the date and time, operation conducted, and who they were used by.

Document Processing Pricing

2.2.12. Model

The Model tab allows you to manage the Azure model used for the uploaded document. There are a number of different options that you are allows you to train and amend the model to improve its accuracy.

• Train Model – This will apply the model to the selected documents.
• Edit Model – This will allow you to amend the models information such as the name, training of the model and the documents using the model. This has an independent pop-up so will be done externally of the processing screen.

• View Mode – This feature allows you to view the model’s output along with the system’s confidence in the extracted values—where a high confidence level indicates the system is likely correct, while a lower confidence may result from poor document resolution or clarity.

These options can all be found on the Model tab as represented in the image below.

Please note – This may not be shown on your Purchase Invoice and Credit Note Processing screen, you can then find this on the Document Processing List Settings.

2.2.13. Log

The Log tab displays a timeline of document-related events recorded since the document was uploaded to Document Automation. While typically only used during support investigations, it automatically refreshes every minute to keep you updated on the latest activity.

There are some additional options as shown below:

• Export – allows you to save the displayed log entries as a csv file.
• Clear – resets the log.

2.2.14. Documents Processed By Month

When selecting the Document Processed By Month button (as shown withing in the settings button), A dialogue box will appear that will show an empty bar chart with some features, to generate the graph select the Display button at the top right-hand corner of the screen.

The Graph gives you flexibility to drill down onto specific dates and customers so you can hone into specific seasonality changes or supplier issues. The graph itself breaks down the documents you have processed and by the processing method used, the key on the right-hand side shows you what each bar represents.

• Green Bars – Documents you were able to process automatically without manual intervention.
• Orange Bars – Documents you needed to process manually.

You should aim to have 80%-90% of documents processing automatically to save time. If you are struggling with this, speak to your Business Partner to discuss possible solutions.

2.2.15. Document Processing List Settings

When selecting the Configure Form Columns button, you can customise the Processing Screen to improve the loading times or refine the information being displayed.

Column Settings

Columns Settings allows you to show or hide columns within the Documents list. Simply check the columns you want displayed or uncheck the ones you want to hide.

Restore Column Order button will reset the columns back to the default order if changed.

Custom Fields

The Custom Fields tab allows you to show or hide columns within the Documents list. Simply check the custom fields you want displayed or uncheck the ones you want to hide.

Row Settings

The Row Settings tab only currently has one option, this is the Fade List Items On Refresh which will toggle the flash when a document is validated.

Background Processes

The Periodically Check for New Documents option when checked will allow you to check for new documents automatically.

Please note – If you process a large array of documents, we recommend not activating this check as this causes the application to slow down.

Form Settings

This allows you to control what the form does when it opens. This allows you to either validate or just load the documents when clicking the page.

Please note – If you process a large array of documents, we recommend not activating this check as this causes the application to slow down.

Tab Visibility

This allows you to decide to show the Model tab or not. If selected, this will allow you to view, edit or train the model. More information will be in the Model Tab section above.

2.3. The Scanning Process

There are various stages that an invoice goes through before it is ready for processing.

The first step is to add the invoice to the system via the Automation Document Drop Panel. As part of the scanning process, the system is identifying the supplier and then looking for a model for this supplier to use to match fields.

If the supplier has not been used previously with this version of Document Automation and the supplier has been identified, then you will see this message confirming that no model has been found for them for this document type:

Click OK on this message. At this point the document is added to the Purchase Invoice and Credit Note Processing screen with a status of ‘Not Validated’.

If the supplier has been identified and a model found, then you won’t see the previous message, and the document is added to the Purchase Invoice and Credit Note Processing screen with a status of ‘Not Validated’.

If the supplier has not been identified, then no message is displayed, and the document is added to the Purchase Invoice and Credit Note Processing screen with a status of ‘Not Validated’. When viewing the entry in the list, it should be obvious to see that the Supplier No. and Supplier Name columns are empty.

See the Supplier Identification section if the supplier isn’t identified.

The next step is to match the scanned details from the invoice to the fields that they relate to when posting the invoice/credit note into Sage. If an existing model was found, then these fields will be matched already. For any supplier being used for the first time, then you will need to match the fields for the model to be generated. See the Training the Invoice/Credit layout section for further details.

Once the layout has been trained, then you will need to train the model. See the Model section for further details. Once the model is updated, then you need to validate the document again in order for the details in the model to be applied to this document.

At this stage, the document has been analysed and recognized. See the Analyse and Recognise section for further details, and when you might need to do either of these again.

Once you have validated the document again, it’s Validation Status will be updated to one of the following statuses: –

Ready For Processing: The document has passed validation and is ready to be processed.

Needs Attention: The document has failed validation, and the reason for this should be investigated by referring to the Validation tab in order to find the details that should be investigated. See the troubleshooting validation section for more details. It is still possible to process these invoices, but you should investigate first, otherwise you could continue to see the same status on all future invoices from this supplier.

Receipt Issues: The document has failed validation, as it is linked to a purchase order where some items have not been sufficiently received. See the troubleshooting validation section for more details.

Once you are happy to post the invoice into Sage, then you can do this using either the Process Automatically option, to post it with no further input, or to use the Process Manually option to then be presented with either the Sage Record Purchase Invoice/Credit Note screen if the invoice is linked to a purchase order/return, or the Sage Enter Purchase Invoice/Credit Note screen as it’s posting direct to the Purchase Ledger.

2.3.1. Supplier Identification

Supplier identification is done by extracting fields from the scanned document, and comparing them to the following fields in the Purchase Ledger:

• VAT Number
• Bank Sort Code
• Bank Account Number
• IBAN
• Email Address
• Website

You can see which information has been used to identify the supplier using the I button toggle above the document preview.

Each of these values is assigned a score of 1. Whichever supplier has the highest score is the account that is then selected. Within the General Settings tab of Sicon Document Automation Settings, there is a setting where you can change the minimum score that needs to be reached for a positive supplier identification. You may want to increase this score if you have multiple purchase ledger accounts with either the same bank account number, or website for example.

It is also possible to configure specific supplier accounts with custom fine-tuning fields if there are other values on their documents that you wish to use for supplier identification.

The Supplier Recognition Details screen can be accessed via the Account button within the Document tab in the Purchase Invoice and Credit Note Processing screen. This will show which fields have been read from the document, and which accounts they are matched to. So, in the example above, there are three numbers in the document that could potentially be a VAT Number, and it has been able to match the final one to the KIT002 purchase ledger account. There are two numerical values that could have potentially been bank account numbers, but it hasn’t matched either to a bank account number in the purchase ledger. This has resulted in a score of 1 for KIT002, which is enough for a positive identification.

The Copy Document Value button copies whatever line you have highlighted in this screen. This is to make it easier to the just paste this value in the account via the Amend Supplier screen. So, for example, their VAT number has been read from the document but is not on the supplier. It will show in this screen, you can highlight it and click Copy Document Value. Then you can open the Amend Supplier screen, and paste it into the VAT number field in Sage.

Note that when comparing VAT numbers, spaces are ignored. However, if the supplier quotes GB (or other country text) as part of the VAT number being displayed in the Actual Value column above, then this text will also need to be in the VAT number field on the supplier account in the Purchase Ledger.

The Options button gives access to the standard Sage Amend Supplier and View Supplier screens, as well as new options for Update Supplier Fields and Update Fine Tuning Fields.

The Update Supplier Fields button will update the account with the relevant ticked values. So, in the above example, if the bottom value identified as a possible Bank Account Number was correct, you could tick that and then selecting this option would update these fields on the account without you needing to open the Amend Supplier screen to do so.

The Update Fine Tuning Fields button should be used instead if you have ticked the option on this supplier account to use fine tuning instead of the standard fields on the supplier record. If this is the case, then the fine-tuning values would be updated instead of the standard Sage fields.

2.3.2. Training the Invoice/Credit Layout

The act of training the document layout is what you do to match the scanned information to the relevant fields in Sage. When you click the Training button on the Document tab within the Purchase Invoice and Credit Note Processing screen in Sage, then the Document Labeller screen is opened.

Once you match the fields, these are then applied to a model which is used for future documents from this supplier. So, you will need to do this for the first document from that supplier, for each supplier.

To match fields, click onto the highlighted text on the left-hand side, and then click onto the relevant label on the right-hand side. In the example above, the invoice number is 090123001, this has all been identified as a single piece of text. Clicking onto this will highlight it in a darker colour. Then, over on the right-hand side, click anywhere on the words ‘Invoice Number’. This will then match that text to the Invoice Number label.

If the values on the left that you are matching contain multiple highlighted words, then you can draw a box around each word so that they are all highlighted, or click onto the separate words one at a time.

The labels on the right each have a colour next to them. This is the colour that the matched element will be highlighted in when viewing the document later. You can click onto these colours here if desired to change them.

You cannot edit the values that have been scanned within this screen, training only allows for matching scanned information into the fields. If the values then need to be manually changed, then you need to use the Edit option from the Document tab back in the Purchase Invoice and Credit Note Processing screen.

If posting only to the purchase ledger, you will need all of the fields that you would expect to populate when completing the Sage Enter Purchase Invoice/Credit Note screen.  So, invoice number, invoice date, net value, tax value and total value.

Three Custom fields are available for you to match scanned text to. These should only be used to match some text that then needs to be split into multiple fields. See the section on Field Extraction for more information on this.

If matching the invoice/credit to a purchase order/return, then you will also need the order number. If you are trying to match the invoice lines to the lines on your purchase order/return, then you will also need to match the elements of the document lines to the relevant boxes in the Invoice Lines section. Note that you only need to do this for either invoices/credits that are part of a purchase order/return, or potentially have document lines that are spread across multiple purchase orders/returns. If neither of these apply to documents from this supplier (i.e. they only ever invoice/credit the entire purchase order/return on a single document), then you don’t need to match the Invoice lines fields as if the value of the document matches the outstanding value of the purchase order/return, then the system will match the lines automatically.

In the screenshot above, we have matched Line Quantity, Line Description (by drawing a box around all the relevant text on the left-hand side), Line Unit Price and Line Net Value.

When matching invoice lines to the lines on a purchase order, it will match on quantity, unit price and net value before trying to match on description. It will also ignore lines on the purchase order that are already complete.

Our invoice though had three item lines on it. The buttons below give us a couple of choices as to how we add the other lines to our table of invoice lines.

The first button clears the table, by first displaying a warning where you must click Yes before the table is cleared.

The middle button applies the identification applied to the first row to each other row identified on the document. There is a warning prompt displayed first, if you click Yes on this then the auto labelling will be carried out. With the example above, this is what was displayed after clicking this button and confirming on the warning:

The third button adds a blank row to the bottom of the Invoice Lines table. You would need to do this if the table on the document cannot be read as easily as in the example above, in which case you may need to build up each Invoice Line separately.

This button at the end of the row can be used to clear any table rows that are not needed. A warning prompt will first be displayed when you click on this button before the row is removed. You will still see the empty rows while you are in this screen, but they won’t be there the next time you view this document.

The following buttons are in the top right-hand corner of the screen and control which panels are displayed:

Each of these toggles on or off the following:

The bottom panel which displays the invoice lines table in a much wider form.

The status bar which displays the cursor co-ordinates and which elements you are hovering over.

The Summary fields displayed at the top of the panel on the right (Supplier account, Document Type Etc.).

The panel on the right which displays the fields that you are training against.

The following buttons are available at the bottom of this screen:

Save – Saves the field matching against this document.

Account Identification – Opens the Supplier Recognition Details screen for this document.

Save & Train Model – Saves the field matching and then immediately trains the model. As with training the model from other screens, this can take as long as between 1-5 minutes for this training to happen.

Model Details – Opens the Model Summary window that this document is linked to.

Close – Closes the screen without saving.

2.3.3. Models

Once you have trained a document layout, this information can then be used to create or update a model. A model is stored per supplier, and effectively is the template used for future documents for that supplier. If you don’t have a model for a supplier, which would be the case for the first document processed for a supplier, then you will see a message advising that there is no model for this supplier. Separate models are maintained for invoices and credit notes from the same supplier.

Creating the model for the supplier is easy through the software. Once you have finished the training of the document, you can click the Save and Train Model button in the Document Labeller screen.

Alternatively, from the Model tab on the document in the Purchase Invoice and Credit Note Processing screen, you can click the Train Model button.

When you train the model, you will receive the following warning message:

Click Yes to train the model.

Once a model has been trained, then this information is visible on the Model tab of the document.

Further documents received from the same supplier will automatically have the details stored against the model applied to them. The model will become more accurate with more documents being used to update it. A combination of single page and multiple page documents from the same supplier (if applicable) would be ideal. For some suppliers, you might only ever need to have the one document for the model to be reliable, for others it could take five or even more.

Adding more documents to the model is done by clicking the Training button on more documents from that supplier; when you then save them the information from this document is then stored ready for the next time that the model is trained.

So, the model is only updated when the train model option is selected, using either method specified previously. When it is trained, the model is deleted and then recreated with all the documents linked to it being used for their information. This does mean that the training time of a model could take longer if it has more documents linked to it.

Clicking the Edit Model button on the Model tab opens the Model Maintenance screen, which displays the documents that are linked to this model and will update it the next time it is trained.

You can delete documents from the model if desired, such as if they reflect a departure from the usual layout for documents from that supplier.

The Model Type drop down should be left on Template as the default. The other option of Neural allows for much more sophisticated models that take much longer to train, and this option should only be selected if directed by the Sicon support department.

Clicking the View Model button on the Model tab opens the Model Doc Types screen.

Clicking the View button on here shows the Model Doc Type Details screen, which displays the confidence that the model has for each field within it:

2.3.4. Querying Documents

You can manually assign a Queried Document Status to a document to reflect that there is something that you need to investigate or are waiting for someone else to confirm that the document is okay. Note that a document with a Document Status of Queried cannot be posted, you need to clear the query first.

This can be done by either using the Query button on the Document tab, or by right clicking on the document and choosing the Query Document option in that selection list.

When you do either of these, the Query Document window opens.

Enter a letter of your choice as the Query code, and then enter a note describing your query. Click the Query button to close the screen and save the query, or just the Close button if you don’t want to save it. If desired, you can also assign this query to a Sage user. This is a filter that is then available via the Filters at the top of the Purchase Invoice and Credit Note Processing screen.

Once the document has a Document Status of Queried, then these can be filtered to display using the Queried filter button at the top of the Purchase Invoice and Credit Note Processing screen.

The details of the query can be viewed via View Query, which is available on the Query button on the Document tab or as an option when right clicking on the document.

The query can then be cleared via Clear Query, which is also available on the Query button on the Document tab or as an option when right clicking on the document.

2.3.5. Troubleshooting Validation

If you have documents with a Validation Status of Needs Attention, then you should review the Validation tab for details on this document has this status. You are looking for entries that have an orange exclamation mark on their left.

The text to the right of this message should clarify what the issue is.

Example reasons to look for include:

• The invoice number exists in Sage already for this supplier
• The invoice is matched to a purchase order that is complete
• There is a variance in pricing from the purchase order that is greater than the acceptable variance values specified in Automation settings
• No Order number has been matched, and Order Number matching is enabled for this supplier (see Supplier Settings for how to resolve this)
• Fields are missing and haven’t been trained before the document was validated
• Total Value is not the total of Net Value and Tax Value
• Lines on the document cannot be matched to lines on the order/return. Try lowering the Line Description Matching Threshold displayed in the top right hand corner and validate the document again.

2.3.6. Matching a Document to Multiple Orders/Returns

You can train the document to match the order/return number from fields. If there are multiple order/returns involved, then hopefully the supplier is quoting each relevant order/return number against each line on the document.

If the document has multiple lines on it that each quote the relevant order/return number, then these can be used to train each line to the relevant order/return number.

If the supplier is quoting multiple order numbers in a single field, then you will only be able to match to one order number. Then you will need to process the invoice via the Process Manually option in order to be able to select the other order/returns when you get through to the Record Purchase Invoice/Credit screen.

This can then be done by using the Amend Selected Orders button that appears between the Order Items and GRNs boxes on the left-hand side. After selecting this button, you can select one or more of the current orders/returns for this supplier, which will then populate all of the outstanding lines into the Order Items section. You can then manually match up the relevant items and quantities to the document.

2.3.7. Alternate units of Measure

Sometimes, a supplier may use a different unit of measure (UOM) than the one specified on the Sage purchase order. Document Automation allows you to specify the correct UOM, ensuring the document can still be processed accurately.

The example below will show you how a Purchase Order that uses a UOM of Each and the invoice comes through as a Pack of 10:

1. Inside the invoice processing screen after you have uploaded the invoice, on the Line grid at the bottom of the screen, find the Line Unit column. Right click and select Stock Item > Amend Stock item

2. Note the difference in the UOM (E.g. PO is in Each and invoice is in 10 Pack) and once you’re inside of the Stock Item find the Units of Measure tab and select the Add button.

3. This will open Sage’s Add Unit for item Select the Units of Measure that closely resembles your invoice, the other fields will be amended as desired. For information on setting UOMs that aren’t found in this list, a link to Sage’s Product Page is linked here – Units of measure (stock item)

4. Once completed, select Ok. You may have to save the item and go back into it.

5. When you’re back on the Stock item, go to Suppliers tab, find the supplier you’re processing the invoice for and select Edit.

6. Select the Units of Measure tab and then select the Add button.

7. A new form will then appear, enter the Units on the invoice and the Units of Measure created in step 3.

8. Select Save, now go on the processing screen and revalidate the invoice, the invoice status will then go green.

2.3.8. Analyse and Recognize

These steps are done automatically when a document is added to the Purchase Invoice and Credit Note Processing screen, so you wouldn’t need to do these again for most documents. The automatic processing of these steps uses one bundle credit for this document. Manually requesting further analyse or recognize processing steps for the same document incurs an additional bundle credit for each of these operations.

Analyse – This is the step of reading the text from the document. You can have the system redo this step via the Analyze button on the Document tab. This will use another bundle credit to do this.

You can rerun this with alternative options via clicking on the little downward pointing arrow next to the Analyze button and choosing the Analyze With Options choice. This will use another bundle credit to do this.

This will display these Analyze Options:

The Pages option can be used to restrict which pages are being scanned. In the example above, we only want to scan the first page, so 1-1 is the correct value.

The remaining options would only be altered as recommended by Sicon Support department.

Recognize – this step is when the model is applied to the document. You can use the Recognize button to reapply the model to the document, this would be applicable if the model has been updated since the document was added to the screen and field matching would be improved by reapplying the model. This will use another bundle credit to do this.

You can rerun this with alternative options via clicking on the little downward pointing arrow next to the Recognize button and choosing the Analyze With Options choice. This will display the same options as above. This will use another bundle credit to do this.

2.3.9. Posting the Documents

Once you are happy to post the invoice into Sage, then you can do this using either the Process Automatically option, to post it with no further input, or to use the Process Manually option to then be presented with either the Sage Record Purchase Invoice/Credit Note screen if the invoice is linked to a purchase order/return, or the Sage Enter Purchase Invoice/Credit Note screen as it’s posting direct to the Purchase Ledger.

If processing via the manual option against a purchase order, the Accept and Post button will post the invoice. You can safely click the Close button to return to the Purchase Invoice and Credit Note Processing screen without actually posting the document if desired.

If processing via the manual option to post to the purchase ledger, the Save button will post the invoice. You can safely click the Close button to return to the Purchase Invoice and Credit Note Processing screen without actually posting the document if desired.

When a document is posted, it will initially remain in the Purchase Invoice and Credit Note Processing screen with a Document Status of ‘Completed’. But the next time the screen is refreshed, or closed and reopened, then the document will be removed from this screen.

3. Process Purchase Orders

3.1. What Purchase Order to Sales Order offers

Document Automation allows users to convert Purchase Orders received from customers into Sales Orders. This automation significantly reduces the administrative workload associated with manually processing orders.

Please note – This feature is still in the beta phase.

3.2. Sales Ledger Setup

There is no specific setup that is needed for the Sales Ledger however there must be a corresponding customer account within the Sales Ledger. If you’re new to Sage 200, you can refer to the Sage 200 Help and User Guide for assistance with setting up customers.

3.2.1. Recognising the account

Document Automation utilises several different fields within the Sales Ledger to match the Purchase Order to a valid Sales Ledger account (without using custom fine tuning enabled). So, when creating the account, you need to ensure these values are populated to ensure the document can be matched to a valid account:

• VAT Number (Found on the Trading tab)
• Website (Found on the Company tab)
• Email address (Found on the Contacts tab)

Please note – The Purchase Order needs to also contain these fields for the document to match to the Sales Ledger account. If unavailable, please setup custom fine tuning below.

3.2.2. Custom Fine tuning

If you have an invoice that doesn’t include the top three values that have been listed above, you can use custom fine tuning to identify unique values within the document. This can be done by going into the Sales Ledger account and selecting the Sicon Tab > Document Automation > Fine Tuning Tab.

You can then check Enable Fine Tuning for Customer Identification; you can then use Fine Tuning in the same way as you do on the Purchase Ledger.

Please note – Activating Custom Fine Tuning will no longer use the values inside the Sales Ledger account.

3.3. Uploading a Purchase Order

Once you’ve set up the Sales Ledger account, you’re ready to process your first document. To do this, navigate to Sicon Documents > Document Automation > Process Purchase Orders.

Note – You can also upload the document through Document Drop.

To upload the document, select the New button at the bottom of the Purchase Order to Sales Order Processing screen.

After clicking the New button, the Automation Document Drop Form will appear. You can either drag and drop the relevant document from File Explorer onto the form or click the Purchase Order button to open File Explorer and manually navigate to the desired file.

Once the upload has been complete, you will then be able to see the relevant file within the Processing screen. If you can’t see it, remember to press the Load Documents button in the bottom left hand corner of the form.

Document Automation will attempt to find the customer record to match the document too. It does this by reading the document and comparing the values found on the document to the Sales Ledger (SL) records. If successful, the Customer No on the Documents table will show the Sales Ledger record it has been matched to.

If Document Automation cannot find the Sales Ledger record, a grey question mark will appear, indicating no customer information was found.

3.4. Training the model

Now the document has been matched with a supplier, now you can train the model. This will allow you to use the model for future purchase orders that are raised by the customer. To get started, go into the Purchase Order to Sales Order Processing screen. On the right of screen, select the Document tab and select the Training button.

This will open a brand-new screen where you can train the values to match certain values to specific fields that DA will use to input this into a Sales Order. You can do this by clicking the value and then clicking the field.

Once you have mapped the items, select Save and Train. This will send the items to Azure, creating a new model for that supplier that will be used for future Purchase Orders. You will then be returned to the Processing screen.

If no errors have been found, you will see a green tick with a Validation Status of Ready for Processing. This means that the order can be processed automatically through Document Automation.

If you have an orange exclamation mark with a Validation Status of Needs Attention, this means that Document Automation has found an issue which are prevent the system processing the document automatically. To view the issues, you can either:

1.Hover your mouse over Needs Attention and this will show you the issues that DA is finding:

2.Or you can select the Validation tab on the right hand side of the screen. This will expand all the validation checks Document Automation uses to ensure a document is valid or not.

This example highlights that there are no desired stock items within the default warehouse. So, I can fix this by amending the quantity of the stock item in Sage or change the default warehouse inside of Sage 200.

Please note – If a document is invalid, you can still process it using the Process Manually button.

3.5. Processing the document

Now, let’s go back to the document being marked as Ready for Processing. Once you are ready for the Sales Order to be created, select the Process Automatically button at the bottom of the screen.

Once selected, you will receive a pop-up to validate you would like to process the document. Select Yes if this is the case. Document Automation will then process the document; you can tell once the document has been processed by the Document Status changing from Live to Complete.

This means the Sales Order has been created successfully. If you now go into Sales Order Processing (SOP) > Sales Order List, you will be able to see the Sales Order that Document Automation has created.

4. Customer Remittance

4.1. What is Customer Remittance

The Customer Remittance functionality enables you to process remittance documents received from customers, allowing you to automatically link invoices to receipts and allocate funds to invoices to close off an order.

Key Benefits

• Automated document linking: Connect invoices to corresponding receipts.
• Streamlined allocation: Allocate documents and funds directly within Sage.
• Centralised management: Track and manage remittance documents from Document Automation
• Receipt status tracking: Monitor whether receipts have been processed.

Prerequisites

To use this functionality effectively, you should be familiar with these Sage modules:

• Sales Ledger: For customer account management.
• Invoicing: For invoice processing and tracking.
• Cash Book: For payment and receipt management.

4.2. Creating Invoices

To be able to use this functionality, you need to:

1. Have a posted invoice within Sage 200 for the desired Sales Ledger Account
2. Have a registered receipt of funds with the correct reference added on the remittance.

This section will go through one way where you are able to achieve it, please skip to Uploading a Remittance Document if you’re familiar with this process.

4.2.1. Creating an Invoice in Sage

We will use Sage 200’s Invoicing module which you can find on the left-hand menu. This module will allow you to post invoices which is needed to process remittances within Document Automation.

1. Firstly, create an invoice by going into Invoice > Invoices > Enter New Invoice

2. The Enter New Invoice screen will open where you can enter a new invoice into Sage 200. I am going to create an invoice for a company called Quantum Notations whom I’m charging for consultancy services. So, I am going to:

1. Account Section – Enter their SL account reference inside of Sage.
2. Invoice Detail – Enter the invoice date.
3. Line Items – Add the relevant line items, in this example for simplicity, I will use a Free Text line.

You can see the example I have made below:

3. Repeat this process for all the invoices you require.

Please note – Invoices can be made through the Sales Ledger as well.

4.2.2. Creating a credit note in Sage

The remittance process also works for credit notes that have been processed from within the invoicing module as well. To do this by:

1. Go to Invoice > Credit Notes > New Credit Note.

2. The Enter New Credit Note screen will open. In similar fashion to invoices input the required information. More information can be found in the Creating an invoice in Sage.

3. Repeat this process for all the credit notes you require.

4.3. Uploading a Remittance Document

4.3.1. Uploading Remittance

Upon receiving remittance advice confirming that a payment has been sent, the document can be uploaded into Sicon Documents. preventing you manually input the figures into Sage. To do this:

1. Go to Sicon Documents > Document Automation > Customer Remittance

2. A new processing screen will load for managing remittance documents.

3. Select the New button on the bottom left-hand side of the screen.

4. The Document Drop screen will appear. You can either:

a. Select the Customer Remittance button and navigate to the file using File Explorer.

or

b. Drag and drop your file directly onto the upload area.

5. Once selected/dropped in, the system will then add the document to the Remittance process screen.

4.3.2. Recognising the Customer

Document Automation will attempt to recognise the Customer based on specific information read from the Remittance Document. When the document is uploaded, it’s sent to Azure where it is read and matched to specific fields found the Sales Ledger account to identify the customer. These fields are:

1. VAT Number
2. Website
3. IBAN
4. Sort Code
5. Account Number
6. Email

If you have uploaded the documents and the system hasn’t found the relevant account, please refer to the FAQ section below.

4.3.3. Training the Remittance Document

Now the document has been uploaded and linked to a customer, you can now train the document using the same functionality used in invoice and credit notes.

To train the document:

1. On the Customer Remittance Processing screen, select the remittance document you would like to train and then go to the right-hand side of the screen, then select the Training document inside the Document tab.

2. When the training screen shows, you will need to use the 2 Click Process:

a. Firstly, click the value(s) on the document you want to input into a specific header or line field.

b. Select the field on the right hand (header) column or bottom/bottom right-hand table to paste the information in there.

Repeat these steps to then fill all the available information. Not all information is required.

3. When training the line, there are options for both credits and debits in the situation where you have credit notes and invoices in the same remittance. In this case, map as shown below:

4. Once you have trained all the fields, select the Save & Train button at the bottom of the screen. This will create a model for the account inside of Azure.

5. Once trained, this will retain the model inside of Azure. This process does not use a bundle.

4.4. Receipting invoices

Receipting can be done in multiple different ways, either through the Cash Book or through Document Automation directly. We have made it easy to create receipts for payments after uploading the remittance document.

Please note: If you receipt through Sage, Document Automation uses the Remittance Number to match the payment receipt to the Remittance.

1. On the Customer Remittance document, right click the document and select Receipt > Post Receipt.

2. Once selected, the Enter Customer Receipt screen will open, by default it will enter the Remittance Document number into the Reference field and the Total Value into the Cheque value. You will just need to add the payment method into the Payment Method.

Please note: If you change the reference, the system will not be able to reconcile the payment.

3. When you select the Save button, the receipt will be saved into the Cash book.

4.5. Processing the Remittance

Once you are ready to process a remittance, if it’s been marked valid or not, you can use the Process Automatically button or the Process Manually button to post the remittance.

4.5.1. Processing the Remittance automatically

Once the Receipt has been processed and the document has been marked as valid, the document is ready to be processed automatically.

1. Select the document(s) you would like to process and select the Process Automatically button on the bottom left-hand side of the processing screen.

2. When you select the button, it will attempt to post the transaction to the ledger. Once the document has been processed, you can identify if it’s been posted by the Document Status change from Live to Complete.

4.5.2. Processing the Remittance manually

There may be times where you are unable to process remittance documents automatically or you want to see the values that are being posted to the ledger. To process the document manually:

1. Select the document you are looking to process and press the Process Manually button at the bottom left-hand corner of the screen.

2. Once pressed, the Customer Allocation screen will appear. This will break down the credits and debits related to this transaction. This allows you to see what Document Automation will be allocating to the receipt.

1. Customer Details/Allocation Details – Sales Ledger account information and allocation dates.
2. Credits – Funds received from customer through payments
3. Debits – Funds the customer owes you from Invoices.

3. Once you have checked all the values and invoices, select the Save This will then submit the document to the ledger.

4.6. Transaction Enquiry and Allocations

4.6.1. Transaction Enquiry

The document and the receipt can be found against the Sales Ledger account’s Transaction Enquiry once posted. Meaning you won’t need to manually process the transactions and upload the remittance onto Sage. To find this, you can:

1. Go to Sales Ledger > Customer List

2. Search for the desired Customer account and single click the line. Find the arrow pointing down on Enquiries and select Transaction Enquiry.

3. When the new Transaction Enquiry screen opens, select the Show outstanding only tick box to show the transaction posted by Document Automation.

4. Select the Receipt line and at the bottom centre of the screen will be a View Docs button with a number (representing the number of documents attached). Press the button, and the document will then show.

4.6.2. Allocations

Once you have processed the document, it will then allocate the receipt to the appropriate invoices and credit notes. It will also attach the document to the transaction within the Transaction Enquiry. There are several different ways where you can see this, however we will use the Sales Ledger to check this:

1. Go to Sales Ledger > Adjust Transactions > Amend Allocations.

2. Select the Sales Ledger using the drop down in the Customer Details section that you process the Remittance for.

3. You will then see the Invoices/Credit Notes and the Receipts you have processed; you can then select the relevant line and select the Edit button to get more information.

4. A new screen will then appear; this will show you the different Credits and Debits that make up the Receipt. This is the same screen shown when you process a remittance manually.

5. Settings

The settings used by Document Automation v2 are all available via the Sicon Documents\Document Automation\Automation Settings menu option. A further button gives access to Automation Models.

There are also supplier/customer specific settings available on the Sicon tab against the supplier/customer record accessed via the normal Sage Amend Account Details screen.

5.1. Automation Settings

This settings screen is made up of eight tabs.

5.1.1. Licence & Api Key

This tab shows your Document Automation enable string, as well as the Document Automation Api Key. The Usage section shows your bundle, as well as how many bundle credits have been used.

The numbers that matter on here are the Bundles, and the Bundles Used. So, in the example above, we have a bundle of 600 credits and have used 130 of them.

5.1.2. General Settings

Trader Identification – You can define the minimum number of matching fields required for the system to associate a document with a single sales ledger account. For example, setting this to 1 means the document must have at least one field that matches a record in the Purchase Ledger. For more information, see the section on Supplier Identification.

Tax Rates – Specify your Sage 200 tax codes to the corresponding field, to allow Document Automation to reconcile correctly.

Export To Third Party System – Allow Documents within Document Automation can exported using CSV.

VAT code recognition – You can also enable which formats of VAT Numbers that Document Automation should be looking for when trying to identify the supplier\customer from a document. So, you will need to activate matching on VAT Numbers from Ireland separately to VAT Numbers from the UK, or elsewhere in the EU. The EU options are initially hidden and can be displayed via the little arrow icon on the right-hand side.

Please note – If you are missing a region, you need the VAT code for, please get your business partner to raise a request for change.

5.1.3. E-Mail Integration

This is where you can configure the Document Automation to connect into Exchange or Gmail mailboxes accounts allowing Document Automation to pull documents received into a specific mailbox. This works by checking a defined mailbox and extracting the invoice that is attached to the mailbox.

Currently, Document Automation only supports Exchange Online or Gmail.

General Settings

The General Settings section allows you to customize how Document Automation processes email integrations. Here, you can select your email provider and configure specific behaviours to optimize the handling and management of your emails.

Email Provider: Select the relevant email provider, this will activate the relevant tab to ensure you are configuring the correct option.

Enable Automated E-Mail Inbox Processing via Web Api Services: Valid documents received within your configured mailbox will be processed automatically through the WebAPI.

Enable Manual E-Mail Inbox Processing via Automation Document Processing Screens: Documents received in your configured mailbox will be displayed in the ‘Process Invoices & Credit Notes’ screen for reconciliation rather than processing automatically.

Server & Database Identity: This allows you to specify which database and server instance is your live version, so if a document is received within your configured mailbox the two instances don’t battle to process the same document.

Please Note – If you have a demo instance or need to send your data for investigation, please ensure this has been configured.

Exchange 365

The Exchange 365 tab allows you to connect Exchange 365 to Document Automation. You can do this automatically using the Auto Configuration button or if required use the specific identification information.

There are two ways you can configure Exchange; you can do this automatically using the Auto Configure button that will input the required information. Alternatively, you can manually get the Directory ID from Azure and email address. This is good in the situation you do not have access to an admin account but have the directory information.

Auto Configure – Log into Exchange 365 and then sign into an account with sufficient permissions. We recommend your Exchange System Administrator is present for this step to ensure that the correct authentication details are entered.

Please note – The Auto Configuration requires you to have an account with global administration privileges to setup this functionality. If this isn’t available, then please use the Directory ID and Exchange URL.

Directory (tenant) ID – You can find the tenant ID from Azure, Microsoft documentation can be found here – How to find your tenant ID – Microsoft Entra | Microsoft Learn.

Exchange 365 URL – URL used to identify your Exchange 365 account.

Email Address for Testing – Desired email address to test the configuration is correct.

Processing options allow you to determine if Document Automation reads both read and unread emails. You can decide the actions used by Document Automation by checking this box.

Gmail (Google Workspace)

The Gmail tab allows you to configure you Document Automation to receive emails including documents. All settings are done through your Google workspace; you will need to have:

1. A Google Workspace full configured with active mailboxes.
2. A super user who can grant permissions to grant access.

You will need to use the ClientID, 104006624967522630209 that will connect your domain to Document Automation and setup Domain Wide Delegation to allow Document Automation to access the domain. You can do this by:

1. Log in to https://admin.google.com with a super admin account.
2. Navigate to Security > Access and Data Control > API Controls
3. Click ‘Domain Wide Delegation’
4. Click ‘Add New’
5. Enter the ‘Client Id’(104006624967522630209)
6. Add the following scopes:
   1. https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.email
   2. https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.labels
   3. https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.modify
   4. https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.insert
   5. https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.readonly
7. Click ‘Save’

Now Document Automation is ready to connect to your Google Workspace, use the email addresses tab to enter the mail address you would like to use.

Inbox Polling Interval in minutes (requires web api service restart) – How often Document Automation will check the inbox for new documents.  

E-Mail Address for Testing – Once all the setup has been completed, then you can specify an Email address in your Exchange organisation that you wish to test. You can do this by selecting the Test button and all being well Document Automation will return a success message.

E-Mail Addresses

Here you can specify the email addresses in your Exchange organisation that will be receiving the documents for the different entities, which are currently just Purchase Invoice, Purchase Credit and Sales Order. So, you need to specify the email address that is receiving Purchase Invoices, and the email address that is receiving Purchase Credits so that Document Automation knows which mailboxes to scan. You can use the same mailbox for both if desired and just prefix it with a plus and either “invoices” or “credits”.

For example, you have a mailbox setup within your organisation called documentautomation@yourdomain.co.uk.

You do not want to have separate mailboxes for invoices and credits. Instead you can use the same mailbox by using the following address format for the two entities:

Documentautomation+invoices@yourdomain.co.uk

Documentautomation+credits@yourdomain.co.uk

Documentautomation+credits@yourdomain.co.uk

You would enter these two email addresses into the Inbox Email Address field for the relevant entity row. Then, these are the email addresses that would be used for whoever is sending the documents into that mailbox for automatic reading by Document Automation. Note that Document Automation would only be looking for emails sent specifically to one of these two addresses, i.e. not ones addressed to documentautomation@yourdomain.co.uk.

The Admin Email Address is optional and is only used with the Notify Admin checkboxes that follow towards the end of each row.

Notify Sender of Receipt: Check this if you want the sender of the email to receive a receipt email when sending documents through to the specified mailbox.

Notify Sender of Invalid: Check this if you want the sender of the email to receive an email when Document Automation can’t read any of the attachments on a scanned email.

Notify Admin of Receipt: Check this to send a receipt email to the Admin Email Address when a document is read from the relevant mailbox(es).

Notify Admin of Invalid: Check this to send a notification email to the Admin Email Address when Document Automation can’t read any of the attachments on a scanned email

Notify Admin of Error: Check this to send a notification email to the Admin Email Address when a more serious error has occurred when Document Automation was reading the attachments on a scanned email.

5.1.4. PDF Options

The PDF options allow you to convert PDF files into alternative formations such as PDF4Net and to an Image. Using these options means you don’t need to use the Options when uploading a document.

Image Upscale Factor – Allows the system to determine the size of the document when converted to a picture.

5.1.5. Purchase Invoice & Credits

These settings apply to both purchase invoices and credit notes, but the text of the settings mainly refers to invoices and orders for screen clarity.

Validation

Validate Invoice Age: Enable validation on the Invoice Age and set the number of days i.e. Flag as Needing Attention any Invoices that are dated more than 60 Days old.

Validate Invoices have a Second Reference: If this option is enabled, then all invoices will be validated to ensure they have a second reference field identified. Any that don’t will be flagged as Needing Attention. This can be overridden for individual suppliers via the Supplier Settings.

Validate Purchase Orders have valid GRN: Available if order number matching is enabled.  Will validate that the Purchase Order has been GRN’d in Sage, and flag them as invalid but they could still be processed. This can be overridden for individual suppliers via the Supplier Settings.

Validate Invoices have an Order Number: This will attempt to match the Invoice against an existing order within Sage.  The order number must appear on the Invoice or it will be flagged as Needing Attention. This can be overridden for individual suppliers via the Supplier Settings.

Trim Non-Numeric Characters from PO numbers: Tick this box if you would like the data matched as the PO number to only pass through the numerical digits.

Validate Credit Notes have a Return Number: This will allow you to train a return number on a credit note to your return number inside of Sage.

Validate Invoices have a Project: This will attempt to match the Invoice against an existing Sicon Project within Sage.  The Project number must appear on the Invoice. Any that don’t will be flagged as Needing Attention. This can be overridden for individual suppliers via the Supplier Settings.

Order Line Analysis Code for Stock Item: This enables you to specify an analysis code on a purchase order line that Document Automation will use to match the invoice line to the PO line.

Order Analysis Code for Order No: This enables you to specify an analysis code on a purchase order that Document Automation will use to match the order number to.

Variance

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 valid. Any that don’t will be flagged as Needing Attention.

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.  Any that don’t will be flagged as Needing Attention.

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. This setting is designed to be used as a simpler alternative to using invoice lines validation.

Nominal Account for Variance: This enables you to specify a nominal account where any variance should be posted to. So, if you receive an invoice that differs from a purchase order by a value that falls within the acceptable options above, then you will see an extra nominal line when the invoice is posted using the nominal code set here for the variance.

Processing

Vat Code for Zero Tax Invoices: Invoices would ordinarily have the default tax rate from the supplier account applied to them. If the invoice is found to have zero VAT, then the tax code specified here would be used instead, to enable to you to select Exempt or Zero Rated (or another similar tax code). This can be overridden for individual suppliers via the Supplier Settings.

Validate against existing transactions and file images only: With this setting enabled, then no transactions would be created from Document Automation. Instead, the scanned invoices are matched to transactions already posted into Sage. So, you are using Document Automation just to add the images to the already posted transactions. This can be overridden for individual suppliers via the Suppler Settings.

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

Disable Processing of Orders with no GRN: Prevent the posting of invoices that match to order lines that are missing their GRN details.

Send Invoices & Credits to Sicon Approvals for Approval: All documents that are processed through Document Automation will be sent through your approval route setup in Sicon Approvals.

Add Stock for Purchase Ledger Invoices: If you do not use Purchase Order Processing but would like to add stock when you process an invoice enable this setting. When processing an invoice, a stock screen will appear allowing you to add the quantity to the stock item.

Default Line Quantity to 1.00 where there is no line quantity specified: If no line item is trained and this is enabled, Document Automation will set the line quantity to be 1. Although, if you want to use the line gross value without the quantity, uncheck this box.

Default Warehouse: The default warehouse stock will be added into when processing an invoice.

Default Bin: The default bin stock will be allocated to when processing an invoice.

5.1.6. Purchase Orders & Returns

Enable Call-off Orders: Enabling this will activate a tick box on purchase orders, where you can then indicate that they will be call off orders. Ticking this on a purchase order will then flip the quantity and line value the other way around. This is useful when you are raising a free text purchase order with a value that will be invoiced in multiple invoices. This will then mean that partial receipts against that purchase order are not considered invalid when matching invoices to them. The expectation for all off orders is that there will only be a single line item and it will be free text. This means that any invoices matched to a call off order with more than one line will always register as Needing Attention once validated.

5.1.7. Sales Order

These settings apply to Purchase Orders being made into Sales Orders. There are two tabs available to allow customisability.

Validation Tab

1. Treat no free Stock as invalid when processing Purchase Orders to Sales Orders: If checked and the purchase order is for a stock item that has no free stock, then flag the Purchase Order as Needing Attention.
2. Treat no Price Book price as invalid when processing Purchase Orders to Sales Orders: If this is ticked and the purchase order is for a stock item that has no price setup in Price Book, then flag the Purchase Order as Needing Attention.

Processing Tab

1. Always use Price Book prices: If this is ticked, then Document Automation will always use the prices read from Price Book instead of the prices quoted by the customer on their purchase order.

5.1.8. Preview Features

This tab allows you to toggle functionality that has recently been added into Document Automation. Currently, if you want to use the Rules Based Section, as mentioned in section 5.1, then please ensure this is activated.

5.2. Automation Models

This button opens the Automation Models screen which displays all of the models that have been created for the different suppliers.

From here you can train, edit or delete any of the existing models.

Editing the model opens the Model Maintenance screen. See the previous section on Models for further details.

5.3. Supplier Settings

There are supplier specific settings that can be configured per supplier account if desired.

These can be found on the Sicon tab within the standard Sage Amend Supplier Details screen. If you have multiple Sicon addons enabled, then you need to click the Automation screen on the left-hand side.

The first check box enables you to disable Document Automation for this supplier. This would result in them not being included in searches during the supplier identification step of adding a new document. Note that this defaults to unchecked for all suppliers, so they are all included by default in Document Automation v2.

5.3.1. Fine Tuning

Enabling this setting will activate this section. This enables you to specify values for VAT Number, Sort Code, (Bank) Account Number, IBAN and Website for this supplier so that they match the ones that the supplier has on their documents.

You only need to do this if you do not want to change these details on the purchase ledger account itself. If you change them there, then those details would be used for supplier identification. Alternatively, you might want to blank out one or more of these fields on this tab to prevent them causing this account to be matched, if you have multiple accounts for the same supplier for example.

But if, as an example, for some reason you don’t want to change the bank details on the account, and they are different to the ones on the invoice, then follow these steps:

• Enable fine tuning for this supplier
• Click the Copy From Supplier button to populate the activated fields initially
• Click Yes on the prompt displayed
• Then make manual amendments to the bank account number and sort code here
• Going forward, the details on the Fine Tuning tab would be used for supplier identification when new documents are added. Changing the fields elsewhere on the account will have no effect on the supplier identification, unless you untick the Enable Fine Tuning checkbox for this supplier.

Custom Fine Tuning

This feature enables you to add additional fine-tuning options to assist with supplier identification. An example of this could be where you have multiple accounts for the same supplier, but they have some kind of value on their invoices which lets you know which account the invoice should be posted to. Each custom fine-tuning option added to a supplier is worth a score of 1 when matched, so might not be enough on its own depending upon the setting for Minimum Score for Trader Identification.

With fine tuning enabled, click the New button to add an additional option. The Custom Fine Tuning window opens:

Enter a description in the top field, then from the Type dropdown you can select either Word, Line or Cell. If the value you are looking for is a single field on the document that doesn’t contain any spaces, then you would select Word. Line would be appropriate for text containing spaces, or multiple words. Cell means that what you are looking for is contained within a table.

If you are unsure which of these options you should select, view the document in the Process Invoices & Credit Notes screen. On the Document tab, click the Hide/Show Tables button to highlight what text on the invoice is contained within tables. Click the Hide/Show Lines button to highlight which text is contained within single lines and lastly click the Hide/Show Words button to highlight which text is considered a separate word.

If you custom fine-tuning entry is based in either Word or Line, then select that in the dropdown, and then enter the text in the Content field.

If your custom fine-tuning entry is based on Cell, then you will need to identify the necessary values for the Table, Column and Row fields. These can be obtained by viewing the document in the Process Invoice and Credit Note screen, clicking the Hide/Show Tables button and then hovering over the field. The pop-up text will give you the Table, Column and Row values. You would then select Cell as the Type in the dropdown in the Custom Fine-Tuning screen and enter them in the fields in the Cell Options section. Finally, you would enter the text of the value itself in the Content field.

The Exact Match checkbox means match only the text in the Content field in its entirety. If you don’t check this, then you are doing a ‘contains’ search for the text. i.e. Searching for 123 would match on a read word of ABC123. Checking the box only searches for 123 being read as its own full value.

So as an example, you have four accounts for the same supplier, let’s call then ABC001, ABC002, ABC003 and ABC004. In the purchase ledger, they all have the same values for VAT number and the same bank details. But they quote an account number of either A – 001, A – 002, A – 003 or A – 004 on their invoices, and this is what can be used to decide which of the accounts are correct. These values are not held in a table, just as text somewhere on the invoice.

On each of the four supplier accounts, you will need to enable fine tuning for that supplier. When you do this, you will then need to click the Copy From Supplier button, as with the fine tuning option enabled, Document Automation is now only using the details on this tab instead of reading the fields from the other tabs on the supplier account.

Then on each of the accounts, you will need to add a custom fine-tuning entry. This will need to be set to type Line, as it can’t be a single Word due to the presence of spaces within it. The text entered into each Description field can be whatever text you like, the important entries are selecting Line as the Type, and then entering the relevant text (A – 001 etc.) into the Content field for each of the four accounts.

When future documents are added for this supplier, the matching of the standard fields (VAT number, Bank details etc) will lead it to these four accounts. But if Document Automation finds a line entry of A – 003 (as an example), then the custom fine-tuning entry will lead it to account ABC003.

5.3.2. Field Extraction

On this tab, you can create Field Extraction rules for this supplier. These would be required where you need to extract multiple fields from a single item of text on their invoice. For example, they quote a reference number of 1234/6789 where the bit before the slash is the invoice number, and the bit after the slash is the order number.

Click the New button to display the Module, Entity and Document Type Selection screen.

Currently Document Automation only supports Purchase Invoices, Credit Notes and Sales Orders. So, the relevant Module selection for Invoices/Credit Notes is Purchase Ledger. From here you can select either Purchase Invoice or Purchase Credit as the Entity. Then choose the relevant Document Type for that Entity, so Invoice for Purchase Invoices or Credit Note for Purchase Credits.

Once you have populated these selections and click OK, then you are presented with the Field Extraction Maintenance screen.

In the Input Field Name, select the field that has been matched to the text that needs to be split. This matching will have happened as part of the training of the model for this supplier. Three custom fields are available to be selected, as it would make most sense that you would train a field that needs splitting into one of these.

The Field relates to document lines checkbox will change the fields available in the Input Field Name dropdown. Each field on a document is either classified as being a Header field (the default list displayed), or a Line field. So, tick the checkbox if the field that needs to be split is categorised as being a line field.

The Split Regex field is where you enter the character(s) that are where the value splits. Typically, this would be a hyphen or a slash.

Click the Add button to add the Output Fields, as many times as there are fields to be extracted.

So, for example, you have matched a field to the Custom 1 field in the training screen. This is some text with a hyphen in the middle, and the text before the hyphen is the invoice number, and the text after the hyphen is the order number. You would add two lines using the Add button, the first would have the Output Field set to Invoice Number and the second would be set to Order Number. You can then enter some example test matching this pattern into the Testing field and click the Test button. The results are displayed as follows:

Click Save to save your extraction rules for this supplier. You can have as many different extraction rules for the same supplier as required.

These field extraction options are applied when a document for this supplier is analysed – which happens automatically when you add a new document to the system. If you wish to redo the field extraction on a document, such as when you have updated the field extraction rules since adding the document to the system, then use the right click option of Local Field Extraction on the document itself in the Purchase Invoice and Credit Note Processing screen. This will avoid incurring the bundle cost of running the analyse operation again on the document.

5.3.3. Culture & Formats

If the supplier is from a different country, then if necessary you can populate this tab with details of their location. Choose the relevant culture from the dropdown, in this example we have selected that they are from the USA.

5.3.4. Purchase Invoices & Credits

These options act as overrides for this supplier account for the settings specified in the Automation Settings, on the Purchase Invoices & Credits tab found there.

There are three possibilities for each setting with a checkbox:

1. Filled square – use the system default specified in Automation Settings.
2. Empty square – do not validate the element specified in the setting (or don’t receive the invoice image only).
3. Ticked square – validate the element specified in the setting (or receive the invoice image only).

5.4. Customer Settings

There are customer specific settings that can be configured per customer account if desired.

These can be found on the Sicon tab within the standard Sage Amend Customer Details screen. You will need to click the Automation screen on the left-hand side.

The first check box enables you to disable Document Automation for this customer. This would result in them not being included in searches during the customer identification step of adding a new purchase order. Note that this defaults to unchecked for all customers, so they are all included by default.

5.4.1. Fine Tuning

Enabling this setting will activate this section. This enables you to specify values for VAT Number, Website and E-Mail Address for this customer so that they match the ones that the customer has on their documents.

You only need to do this if you do not want to change these details on the sales ledger account itself. If you change them there, then those details would be used for customer identification. Alternatively, you might want to blank out one or more of these fields on this tab to prevent them causing this account to be matched, if you have multiple accounts for the same customer for example.

But if, as an example, for some reason you don’t want to change the E-mail Address on the account, and they are different to the ones on the invoice, then follow these steps:

• Enable fine tuning for this customer
• Click the Copy From Customer button to populate the activated fields initially
• Click Yes on the prompt displayed
• Then make manual amendments to the E-Mail Address here
• Going forward, the details on the Fine Tuning tab would be used for customer identification when new purchase orders are added. Changing the fields elsewhere on the account will have no effect on the customer identification, unless you untick the Enable Fine Tuning checkbox for this customer.

5.4.2. Custom Fine Tuning

This feature enables you to add additional fine-tuning options to assist with customer identification. An example of this could be where you have multiple accounts for the same customer, but they have some kind of value on their purchase orders which lets you know which account the sales order should be created for. Each custom fine-tuning option added to a customer is worth a score of 1 when matched, so might not be enough on its own depending upon the setting for Minimum Score for Trader Identification.

With fine tuning enabled, click the New button to add an additional option. The Custom Fine Tuning window opens:

Enter a description in the top field, then from the Type dropdown you can select either Word, Line or Cell. If the value you are looking for is a single field on the document that doesn’t contain any spaces, then you would select Word. Line would be appropriate for text containing spaces, or multiple words. Cell means that what you are looking for is contained within a table.

If you are unsure which of these options you should select, view the document in the Purchase Order to Sales Order Processing screen. On the Document tab, click the Hide/Show Tables button to highlight what text on the purchase order is contained within tables. Click the Hide/Show Lines button to highlight which text is contained within single lines and lastly click the Hide/Show Words button to highlight which text is considered a separate word.

If you custom fine-tuning entry is based in either Word or Line, then select that in the dropdown, and then enter the text in the Content field.

If your custom fine-tuning entry is based on Cell, then you will need to identify the necessary values for the Table, Column and Row fields. These can be obtained by viewing the document in the Purchase Order to Sales Order Processing screen, clicking the Hide/Show Tables button and then hovering over the field. The pop-up text will give you the Table, Column and Row values. You would then select Cell as the Type in the dropdown in the Custom Fine-Tuning screen and enter them in the fields in the Cell Options section. Finally, you would enter the text of the value itself in the Content field.

The Exact Match checkbox means match only the text in the Content field in its entirety. If you don’t check this, then you are doing a ‘contains’ search for the text. i.e. Searching for 123 would match on a read word of ABC123. Checking the box only searches for 123 being read as its own full value.

So as an example, you have four accounts for the same customer, let’s call then ABC001, ABC002, ABC003 and ABC004. In the sales ledger, they all have the same values for VAT number and the same website and e-mail address. But they quote an account number of either A – 001, A – 002, A – 003 or A – 004 on their purchase orders, and this is what can be used to decide which of the accounts are correct. These values are not held in a table, just as text somewhere on the invoice.

On each of the four customer accounts, you will need to enable fine tuning for that customer. When you do this, you will then need to click the Copy From Customer button, as with the fine tuning option enabled, Document Automation is now only using the details on this tab instead of reading the fields from the other tabs on the customer account.

Then on each of the accounts, you will need to add a custom fine-tuning entry. This will need to be set to type Line, as it can’t be a single Word due to the presence of spaces within it. The text entered into each Description field can be whatever text you like, the important entries are selecting Line as the Type, and then entering the relevant text (A – 001 etc.) into the Content field for each of the four accounts.

When future documents are added for this customer, the matching of the standard fields (VAT number, Website etc) will lead it to these four accounts. But if Document Automation finds a line entry of A – 003 (as an example), then the custom fine-tuning entry will lead it to account ABC003.

5.4.3. Field Extraction

On this tab, you can create Field Extraction rules for this customer. These would be required where you need to extract multiple fields from a single item of text on their purchase order. For example, they quote a reference number of 1234/6789 where the bit before the slash is the purchase order number, and the bit after the slash is the project number.

Click the New button to display the Module, Entity and Document Type Selection screen.

Currently Document Automation only supports Purchase Invoices, Credit Notes and Sales Orders. So, the relevant Module selection for Sales Orders is Sales Order Processing. From here you select Sales Order as the Entity. Then choose the relevant Document Type for that Entity which is Order.

Once you have populated these selections and click OK, then you are presented with the Field Extraction Maintenance screen.

6. Features and Optimisation

6.1. Rules Based Engine

The rules engine allows you to set invoice rules that can dictate what happens when documents are uploaded into the system. This can be at the header and line level to give you the greatest amount of flexibility. This can be done on Sales Ledger and Purchase Ledger records. This will allow the user to:

1. Assigning an invoice that doesn’t have a PO to a nominal (E.g. Office365)
2. Split an invoice line against multiple different nominals.
3. Split an invoice across various cost centres.
4. Depending on the contents of an invoice.
5. Change the field information to match Sage information.

6.1.1. Enabling the feature

To enable this new feature, within Sage 200 you will need to go to Sicon Documents > Document Automation > Automation Settings. Once the settings pop-up shows, go to Preview Features and select the Enable Rules Engine.

Please Note – This is a beta feature, so you may experience some teething issues. Please log these with service@sicon.co.uk, and we will investigate the issue for you.

6.1.2. Setting up the rules

Rules are done at the supplier level, meaning you cannot have a rule across the board. Once enabled, go into a Sales Ledger/Purchase Ledger record and select the Sicon tab. Go to the Document Automation section and there will be a Rules tab. Here, you can manage, create, or change the priority of rules.

The buttons do the following:

1. New – Opens the dialogue to create a new rule.
2. Edit – Allows you to amend an existing rule.
3. Delete – Allows you to remove a rule.
4. Increase/Decrease Priority – Allows you to move rules depending on when you would like it to be actioned.

6.1.3. Creating a new rule

When selecting New, a pop-up will appear for you to create rules that used once an invoice has been uploaded into DAv2.

Options

There are two types of rules:

1. Header level rules – Rules will be actioned based on the information within the document itself rather than the item lines.
2. Line level rules – Rules will be actioned based on the information within the information lines of the document.

Please note – When creating a header rule, this will remove any information that is trained from the line. Document Automation will use this line to input the rules onto the invoice.

Selecting the relevant option will change how the values are matched to the rule. At the top of the page there are several inputs:

1. Rule Type – Select which type of rule you want to use.
2. Input Field And/Or – Show the document meet one (OR) or all rules (AND)
3. Description – A name to identify the rule.

Input settings

Now you need to set up your input rules. The system will use these rules to determine whether a document meets the specified criteria during processing. To setup a rule:

1. Select the Add
2. A line will appear; this is where you setup a rule:
   1. Field name – The field on the invoice that will be the rule input.
   2. Equality operator – The operator used to deduce and outcome.
   3. Field value – A value or field you want to use to compare the invoice to.

Output Split

Note: This will only be available for header-level rules, not line-level.

Determine the split you would like to achieve. For example, if half the invoice is covered by 1 nominal and the other half is covered by another. To implement this into the system, you need to:

1. Select the Add
2. A new line will appear; you will need to amend the figure to the desired action. This must add to 100.

Output Values

The output will be the action you would like the system to do if the input fields are true. This will mainly be used to assign a nominal value to the invoice. However, there are multiple action that Document Automation will allow you to set.

1. Select the Add
2. Once selected, this will add a new line.
3. Use the following fields to set the output:
   1. Field Name – Desired field being changed within the Sales Ledger.
   2. Value Type – Fixed Value (input the value) or Header Value (from the document).
   3. Field Value – Select or input the desired value.

Once you have finished, select the Save button, and this will then create the rule for you. Now, when you upload an invoice for that supplier, it will pass the invoice through the rule and output the desired outcome.

6.1.4. Example

Example

Let’s use a real scenario now, for example, an Office 365 invoice. This invoice will be one that is not tracked against a purchase order; however, it would need to be tracked against a nominal code inside of Sage.

For this, we will create a line level rule that will look for “Office 365” and will post it to the nominal 44100/ret/adm.

1. Options
   1. Rule Type = Line – We want to look for a value inside the line items.
   2. Input Field And/Or – This doesn’t matter for this example as we only have 1 field we are looking for.
   3. Description = Office 365 – Makes it easier for us to find.
2. Input Fields
   1. Fields Name = Line Description – We want to find something inside the Line Description
   2. Equality Operator = Like – Value inside of Field Value exists in the documents line description.
   3. Field Value = Office 365 – We are looking for Office 365 invoice we want to process.
3. Output Values
   1. Field Name = Line Nominal Account – We want these to go to a specific nominal account.
   2. Fixed Value – We will define the value here
   3. Field Value = 44100/ret/adm – Desire nominal.

Once created, this will now look for Office365 invoices and add the cost to the nominal code.

6.2. Sub suppliers

Sub Suppliers are used for suppliers who may have multiple VAT codes or departments that need to be processed under the same Purchase Ledger account. This feature prevents you from having multiple Purchase Ledger accounts for the same company, reducing the records in Sage 200.

If you notice an invoice that has another type that includes different VAT number for example, you will need to create a sub supplier. The fictional company, Gwatkin Computer Parts, has a department in Northern Ireland that trades a different VAT number. Firstly, go to the Process Invoices or Credit Notes page and Uploading a Document section to upload the document.

The invoice will upload and not find a supplier, as in this case there isn’t a matching VAT number.

To then create the Sub supplier, select the Account button on the top of the Document tab on the right-hand side of the screen. Once the Supplier Recognition Result Details form appear, select the Options button and New Sub Supplier inside the Context Menu.

The Sub Supplier Maintenance screen will then appear where you can create your sub supplier. There are 3 sections which you will need to fill in:

1. Supplier – Add the Purchase Ledger account information you would like to link the account too. You can select from the list or enter the first 3 characters and select the Tab button to search.
2. Sub Supplier – Add sub supplier information such as their name and a unique code.
3. Document Automation Settings – This section allows you to be able to enable other document automation features to enable you optimise the automation process. This includes:
   1. Fine Tuning – More on this below.
   2. Field Extraction
   3. Culture and Formatting
   4. Purchase Invoice & Credit Notes
   5. Rules

Once you have created this select the Save button.

Once saved, this will take you back to the processing screen. Select the document line and select the Account button again and the sub supplier will then be recognised.

Following this, you can then train and process the invoice in the same way. Sub suppliers will have individual models so this will not affect the original Purchase Ledger accounts existing model.

7. Technical Information

Sicon Document Automation v2 uses Azure Cognitive Services to perform the scanning of documents and training of templates (referred to as models) in the cloud. All documents are stored locally within the Sage network environment, but there are a couple of points at which documents are temporarily uploaded, and then removed again when the relevant process completes.

This document will address when these moments happen, and how the process flows, and the communication methods used.

The communication happening between the Sage client and all the elements in the cloud is happening through a site’s regular internet connection. This connection is using HTTPS so that the information being sent and received is encrypted and secure. In terms of what ports need to be open for the client to access these, it’s using the standard port 443 for this communication so this port needs to be open. The expectation is that if a site can browse web pages on the internet, then this port is open. If specific URLs need to be permitted in the firewall, then these are the addresses that need to be accessed:

• azurewebsites.net
• sicon.co.uk

It is not currently configurable to access these via an HTTP proxy.

The servers hosting all the processes in the cloud are based in the UK. The models are all stored in Form Recognizer within Azure Cognitive Services. A SQL database in Azure is used to store all site API keys, bundle information and usage. All the communication between the elements in the cloud is also using HTTPS.

A copy of Microsoft’s Service Level Agreement for their Azure Cognitive Services can be found at:

https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/docs/view/Service-Level-Agreements-SLA-for-Online-Services?lang=1

The live service status from them can be found here: https://azure.status.microsoft/en-gb/status

Note: Document Automation works with multiple document types. For ease of reading, the term trader is used in this document to refer to either customer or supplier. When the term Ledger is used, this would be Sales Ledger for customer documents and Purchase Ledger for supplier documents.

7.1. The Document Process

Adding documents into the Document Automation processing screen can be done by one of two methods:

1. Via the Automation Document Drop Form
2. Via being emailed to a configured mailbox and being read as an attachment in there. This mailbox is within the end user’s own Exchange Online organization

If you were using the second of these two options, and there was an issue with the status of the Microsoft azure services, then the emails would remain unread in the mailbox until the service was back up and running again.

The outcome of either of these options is that the document is now stored in a subfolder of the company attachments folder, as specified in Sage 200 System Administration.

At this stage, the document needs to be read by Azure Cognitive Services to identify the potential fields that can be used to match it to a trader. A copy of the document is sent from the Sage client to the Sicon Document Automation Web API in the cloud. This has a security step where the Azure SQL database is checked to ensure that they have a valid API key and that their usage does not exceed their purchased bundles.

This then communicates with Azure Cognitive Services to read the document fields. When this process is complete, then the fields that have been read are returned to the Sage client in the form of encrypted JSON values. At this point, the uploaded document is deleted by the Sicon Document Automation Web API.

Back in the Sage client, the JSON information is used to either identify the trader from matching details in the Ledger, or else flag it as not identified. If this was the case, then the user can use features of Document Automation in Sage to assess the details that have been read and update the relevant trader account with the missing details, to re-check the read trader details for the trader to now be identified. Note that all the trader information being used to match to a Ledger account is happening locally, i.e. the matching is not happening in the cloud.

With the trader identified for the document, the document now needs to be re-analysed to match it to a model, if one exists previously for that trader. This requires the document to be again uploaded to the Sicon Document Automation Web API, for further communication with Azure Cognitive Services. Once again, the Azure SQL database information about the site comes into play to ensure that they have a valid API key and have not exceeded their purchased bundle. The model for the trader is stored in Form Recognizer and is used to extract named fields from the content of the document. These are then returned to the Sage client, and the document is again deleted in the cloud by the Sicon Document Automation Web API.

This information retrieved to the Sage client will then trigger a validation of the document in Sage. This will result in a validation status of ‘Ready to Process’ or ‘Needs Attention’ or similar. Unless the document is re-analysed at this point, or used to train the model further, it will not be sent up into the cloud again.

7.2. The Model Training Process

Once a document has had the trader identified, it can be used to either create a new model, or else update an existing one if desired. This is triggered via the Training option in the Process screen, and once fields are matched in that Document Labeller screen, then the users can click a button marked ‘Save and Train Model’.

A model in Sicon Document Automation can have multiple documents associated with it, as each document that is used to train the model is linked to it. If a model doesn’t exist, then the first document for a trader that is used to train the model will be stored against it. There is one model stored per trader per document type, e.g. separate models for purchase invoices and purchase credit notes for the same supplier.

If training a model for the first time, then that document will be uploaded. If updating an existing model, then all documents linked to the model will be uploaded at the same time (there is a maximum limit of 100 documents against a model). If updating an existing model, then that model in Form Recognizer is deleted, and a new one is created.

When all the documents are uploaded, the Azure SQL database is checked again to ensure that their API key is valid and that they have not exceeded their purchased bundles.

Once the model has been created in the cloud, then the documents are deleted from the cloud. The new model details are returned to the local Sage client, where we maintain a link between the trader and its model for that document type.

This means that there are very few trader details held in the cloud. We only really hold the trader account number and their name in the Azure SQL database against the site id number to enable monitoring of how many models have been created to ensure that we maintain enough resources in the cloud services.

7.3. Exchange 365 Integration

Exchange 365 integration is handled by the windows service component of the Sicon Web API Platform. The service must be configured to run as a user account that is a member of the ‘Sage 200 Users’ group, and a member of the ‘Local Administrators’ group of the server its installed on.

The user account must be a member of the Sage 200 Users group as this is a requirement of the Sage 200 SDK and controls access to the companies in Sage 200 System Administrator. When E-Mails are processed from Exchange 365 the data is written back into the specified Sage 200 Company for Processing.

The user account must be a member of the Local Administrators group in order for the runtime log data to be written to the ‘Sicon’ event log in event viewer. This is useful for monitoring and troubleshooting.

In addition to the above groups. Its important the user account is in a group that has internet access. Without internet access, the service is unable to connect to the Sicon Document Automation App Service in Azure, or the Exchange 365 Api.

7.4. Security

The exchange integration is performed via the ‘Sicon Addons’ Enterprise application that registered in your Microsoft Entra tenant by creating an instance of a service principal by performing the auto configuration via the Document Automation settings.

As the application is running as a service and authenticating via OAuth with ‘app-only’ auth the ‘full_access_as_app’ scope is required (as opposed to delegated auth).

This scope by default will give access to all mailboxes in Exchange 365 that are then subsequently set up in Sage 200.

7.5. Configuring ApplicationAccessPolicy to limit mailbox access for Document Automation

Administrators who want to limit app access to specific mailboxes can create an application access policy by using the New-ApplicationAccessPolicy PowerShell cmdlet. This document covers the basic steps to configure access control. These steps are specific to Exchange Online resources and do not apply to other Microsoft Graph workloads.

Document Automation accesses Exchange 365 using its own identity and not on behalf of a user. This is common to background servers or deamon apps that run on the server without the presence of a signed-in user. Document automation uses OAuth 2.0 client credentials grant flow to authenticate and by default is granted access to all mailboxes on Exchange Online.

There are scenarios where administrators may want to limit an app to only specific mailboxes and not all Exchange Online mailboxes in the organization. Administrators can identify the set of mailboxes to permit access by putting them in a mail-enabled security group. Administrators can then limit third-party app access to only that set of mailboxes by creating an application access policy for access to that group.

7.5.1. Manage mail-enabled security groups in Exchange Online

A mail-enabled security group can be used to distribute messages and to grant access permissions to resources in Active Directory.

For more information visit: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/recipients-in-exchange-online/manage-mail-enabled-security-groups

We would recommend creating a mail-enabled security group to limit access to mailboxes as its easier to manage adding and removing users from the group, than to maintain access policies for individual mailboxes.

7.5.2. Use the Exchange Admin Centre to create a mail-enabled security group

1. In the Exchange Admin Centre, click Recipients > Groups > Mail-enabled security.
2. Click Add a group and follow the instructions in the details pane.
   1. In the Choose a group type section, click Mail-enabled security and click Next.
   2. In the Set up the basics section, enter the details and click Next.
3. In the Assign owners section, click + Assign owners, select the group owner from the list, and click Next.
4. Click Add members > + Add members, select the group members from the list, and click Next. The members are the list of Inboxes you would like Document Automation to have access to.
5. In the Edit settings section, enter the group email address, configure the following and then click Next:
   1. Privacy: Set it to either public or private.
   2. Add Microsoft Teams to your group: Select this to create a Team for your group.
6. In the Review and finish adding group section, verify all the details, click Create group, and then click Close.
7. Take a note of the email address used for the mail-enabled security group. For this example the email address used is dasecuritygroup@domain.co.uk

7.5.3. Configuring Application Access Policy

Application Access Policies can currently only be configured from a cloud shell.

The cloud shell can be accessed by logging into the Microsoft 365 Admin Centre and clicking the button to open a cloud shell.

1. Open a cloud shell
2. Connect to Exchange Online Powershell

Input the following commands into the cloud shell to connect to Exchange Online Powershell

a. Install-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement

b. Import-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement

c. Connect-ExchangeOnline

3. Create a New Application Access Policy

The ‘Application ID’ of the Sicon Addons Enterprise Application in Microsoft Entra is:

9ff16b33-d848-4a5c-af6d-1d9613c6d218

This can be verified by logging into Microsoft Entra Admin Centre, and finding the Sicon Addons application in the ‘All Applications’ section within ‘Enterprise Applications’

Input the following command into the cloud shell

a. New-ApplicationAccessPolicy -AppId 9ff16b33-d848-4a5c-af6d-1d9613c6d218 -PolicyScopeGroupId dasecuritygroup@domain.co.uk -AccessRight RestrictAccess -Description “Restrict Sicon Addons to members of the Document Automation Security Group”

Please Note: Replace ‘dasecuritygroup@domain.co.uk’ with the email address of the security group you created earlier. The ‘Description’ can be amended to anything that helps identify what the security group is used for.

7.5.4. Testing the Application Access Policy

The access policy can be tested via the cloud shell by passing the Application ID, and an email address to check access for.

1. Test a an email address that the application should be allowed to access

Input the following into the cloud shell

1. Test-ApplicationAccessPolicy -AppId 9ff16b33-d848-4a5c-af6d-1d9613c6d218 -Identity validemail@domain.co.uk

Replace ‘validemail@domain.co.uk’ with a valid email address for a member of the mail-enabled security group.

You should see an output containing:

AccessCheckResult : Granted

1. Test-ApplicationAccessPolicy -AppId 9ff16b33-d848-4a5c-af6d-1d9613c6d218 -Identity invalidemail@domain.co.uk

Replace ‘invalidemail@domain.co.uk’ with an email address that is not a member of the mail-enabled security group

You should see an output containing:

AccessCheckResult : Denied

7.5.5. Listing Application Access Policies

To list all currently configured Application Access Policies input the following command into cloud shell.

Get-ApplicationAccessPolicy | Format-Table -Auto

7.5.6. Removing Application Access Policies

To remove an Application Access Policy, first execute the command to list Application Access Policies. This will output a table containing the current policies. Take notes of the value in the  ‘Identity’ column, this will be required to remove the policy in this step

To remove the policy input the following command into a cloud shell

Remove-ApplicationAccessPolicy -Identity “Access Policy Identity”

Replacing Access Policy Identity with the identity obtained when listing Application Access Policies.

7.5.7. Important Information

Although testing the application access policies gives immediate results. The policy can take an hour or more to propagate over to Exchange 365. Once the changes have propagated across, if Document Automation is configured to access a mailbox that is not in the mail-enabled security group, the Exchange Web Services will start returning an http 403 error (Forbidden).

If new mail boxes are created in future for use with Document Automation. They will need to be added to the mail-enabled security group and may take an hour before they can be accessed by Document Automation.

8. FAQs

This section will go through frequently asked questions we have received from users.

8.1. Unable Find Supplier or Customer after uploading a document

Sometimes Document Automation is unable to link a document to a Trader’s account in either the Purchase Ledger or Sales Ledger. If this occurs, we recommend reviewing the Scanning Process section to ensure you’re following our workflow. If the issue continues to persist, here are some common causes and solutions:

1. Not selecting the Account button.

When uploading a document, if the routine is interrupted or stops, it may not be able to find the related to the trader’s account. To re-run the identification process, select the Account button that is found on the Documents tab on the right-hand side of the screen.

While the Recognition Screen is loading, the identification routine will rerun. In the example I have amended an account to include the identification fields present on the document. When the screen appears, you can see I mapped the value to the supplier which is shown as Yes in the Is Match column:

When the screen is closed, the Documents table will refresh and show the Trader’s account.

2. Incorrect data on the Trader account.

If the account identification is unable been able to match the information on a document to a trader account, you will need to add additional detail from the document.

On the Document, right click and select Supplier or Customer (depending on which function you are using) and Amend.

This will load the Amend Account screen. Document Automation uses the following fields to identify the invoice:

• VAT Number
• Bank Sort Code
• Bank Account Number
• IBAN
• Email Address
• Website

Use the information above to update the Trader’s account so that Document Automation can link the document to the account.

Once finished, save the changes and return to Document Automation. Follow the instructions in point 1, select the Account button to re-identify the supplier account.

Please note: If you have activated Fine Tuning, then any information added into the Sage account will be ignored. Either disable Fine Tuning or select the copy information button.

3. Fine tuning active but not setup.

Sometimes, documents may not have information that Document Automation requires to match the documents to the Trader account. In this situation, you will need to use Fine Tuning.

On the Document, right click and select Supplier or Customer (depending on which function you are using) and Amend (refer to section 2 for more information).

Locate the Sicon Tab, select Document Automation and select the Fine Tuning tab. Check the box that says Enable fine tuning for the identification to activate the functionality.

Information can be pulled from the Trader account using the Copy from Supplier button. Alternatively, add the information to the fields or/and add a custom field on a unique piece of information.

Now go back onto Document Automation and select the Account button and this will now have more matched.

4. Minimum Score for Trader Identification too high

Within the Document Automaton settings, there is a setting called Minimum Score for Trader Information (Navigate to the General Settings section in the settings of the HUG). If this is set too high, this could mean the document cannot be matched to the supplier.

9. Help & User Guide Archive

9.1. Sicon Document Automation v22.1

Document Automation Help and User Guide

10. Roadmaps

The Sicon Product Roadmaps include product Improvements that we’re currently looking at developing and those that are under consideration for future releases.

Our Current Release Plan contains development that has been approved and is either currently underway or due to be added to the next release cycle.
The Future Release Considerations includes internal development plans and RFC’s to be considered for a future release cycle.

Please note, the Sicon Product Roadmaps content is not a committed plan and is subject to change.

How to navigate the Sicon Product Roadmaps

1. Select the Product Type you are looking for from the left side menu; Sicon Financials, Sicon Commercials, Sicon Manufacturing, Sicon Approvals.
2. Select the Product you would like to view.
3. Select the relevant Product Improvement from the dropdown list.
4. You can vote for your favourite ideas by simply clicking the thumbs up or thumbs down icons within each Product Improvement article, we will then use this to help determine development priorities.
5. If an improvement is scheduled to go into a specific Sicon release version, a tag will appear at the bottom of the page, if you select this tag you will be able to view all planned development for that particular release.
6. Alternatively, if you know what you’re looking for, you can search using the bar at the top of the page.

11. Release Notes

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

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.

12. Known Issues

What is a Known Issue?
Known Issues are issues that have previously been reported and may require development to resolve, but have minimal impact on the software or user process. Generally they are either a cosmetic issue or have a suitable workaround available, which is detailed on each known issue entry. As such, they are not prioritised for a resolution and any linked Support Case will be given a link to this website and the case will be closed.

Sicon will review the current Known Issues and other development priorities ahead of each major release. This allows our finite development resource to be predominantly focused on high-impact issues and development. There is a voting button at the bottom of each Known Issue which can be used to indicate the priority of the issue to your site (1 = low priority, 5 = high priority).

This then updates the overall vote at the top of the page, which Sicon will then use to help determine priorities.

Once an issue is resolved in a major release, the website will be updated to reflect which version the update has been applied to; the Sicon Release Notes will also continue to document all fixes.