Automatic coding suggestions

When you code invoices, Kofax AP Essentials can make your job easier by suggesting accounting codes, coding dimensions, and amounts. Each time you code an invoice, Kofax AP Essentials remembers the accounts and coding dimensions you select and the percentages of the amounts on each accounting line. Then, the next time you code an invoice from the same supplier, Kofax AP Essentials automatically suggests the account codes, coding dimensions and amounts based on the choices you made previously.

Example

Assume you enabled automatic coding suggestions and code an invoice on account "456" with 100% of the amount in the debit column and zero in the credit column. You also specify "1044" as the cost center and "003" as the project.

Then you click OK to complete the approval process and send the invoice to the target system.

The next time you code an invoice from the same supplier, the coding row is automatically filled in for you. In this example, 100% of the invoice amount is in the debit column. Likewise, the account, cost center and project are the same as the previous coding.

How it works

Kofax AP Essentials creates an accounts-payable coding history for each supplier. For each invoice that has been completely processed through the system, a coding template is created from the coding data. The templates from the last ten invoices are used to determine which account codes and amounts to suggest during coding. The template that has been used most often in the coding history is used as the coding suggestion. If all ten coding templates are unique, the most recent template is used as the coding suggestion.

Each coding template is characterized by:

The number of lines it contains. Each template can contain up to 100 coding lines.
Which accounts are specified.
The order the lines occur, using the account as an index.
The coding dimension values.
The amounts as a calculated percentage of the total amount.

If any of the characteristics above differ from one template to another, they are considered unique. Consider the following example which represents a chronological coding history from one supplier with the most recent template at the top of the table and the oldest at the bottom. After a document has been completely processed, its coding template is added to the first position at the top of the coding history, and the oldest coding template is removed from the bottom of the list. In this manner, the coding history always consists of the most recent ten coding templates.

Invoice	Template	Account	Percentage	Coding dimensions
1	A	Debit 1234 Credit 5678	100 100
2	A	Debit 1234 Credit 5678	100 100
3	B	Debit 1234 Credit 5678	100 100	Special 20
4	C	Debit 1234 Debit 1234 Credit 5678	50 50 100
5	A	Debit 1234 Credit 5678	100 100
6	D	Debit 1234 Debit 1234 Credit 5678	98.9 1.1 100	Special 15
7	E	Debit 1234 Debit 1234 Credit 5678	98.9 1.1 100
8	E	Debit 1234 Debit 1234 Credit 5678	98.9 1.1 100
9	E	Debit 1234 Debit 1234 Credit 5678	98.9 1.1 100
10	F	Debit 1234 Debit 1234 Debit 1234 Debit 1234 Credit 5678	25 25 25 25 100	Special 10

In the example above, invoice 1, 2 and 3 have the exact same coding template (template A). It is the most popular and most recent template. Therefore, it will be used as the automatic coding suggestion on the next new invoice from this supplier. Examples 7, 8 and 9 (template E) are also exactly the same. However, they lose the popularity contest because instances of template A appear more recently in the coding history. If the coding on the next invoice is manually changed to match template E, template E would become the most popular template, with four entries in the coding history.

The coding history can be shared on different levels: partner, customer and buyer. The level determines how coding suggestions are shared. For example:

If you share the coding history on the partner level, all customers of the partner account contribute to and use the same coding suggestions. This can be useful if the customers use the same account codes and have many invoices from the same suppliers.
If you share coding history on the customer level, the code-suggestions stay within the customer and is only shared amongst the buyers of the customer (if the customer has multiple buyers).
If you share coding history on the buyer level, the code-suggestions stay within the buyer.
The coding history is only shared behind the scenes. There is no way for one customer to see the coding data of another customer.

For automatic coding suggestions to work, at lease one of these fields must be specified in the supplier master-data (ordered below from highest to lowest priority):

Organization number.
Tax registration number.
Supplier number.

These special characters are not allowed in the organization number, VAT registration number and supplier number fields:

Forward slash (/).
Backslash (\).
Number sign (#).
Question mark (?).
Control characters from U+007F to U+009F.
Control characters from U+0000 to U+001F, including:
- Tab (\t).
- Linefeed (\n).
- Carriage return (\r).

When are coding suggestions applied?

The application of coding suggestions is dependent on two settings and whether the settings are enabled () or disabled ():

Perform registration step	Allow account coding during verification	Result
		No coding rows are added automatically; however, you can click Refresh () during approval to get coding suggestions.
		Coding suggestions are applied during registration and displayed during approval.
		Coding suggestions are applied during extraction and displayed during verification.
		Coding suggestions are applied during extraction and displayed during verification.

Refreshing coding suggestions

Sometimes you make changes which require you to refresh () coding suggestions. Kofax AP Essentials prompts you to refresh your coding suggestions when the:

Buyer is changed.
Supplier is changed.
Invoice/Credit field is changed.
Net/Gross amount is changed.

In addition to the points above, if you use line items as your coding-suggestion source, Kofax AP Essentials also prompts you to refresh your coding suggestions when:

Line items are added or removed.
The line-item table is redrawn.
A line-item amount is changed.