What's new

This topic chronicles new features in Kofax AP Essentials.

February 26, 2024

New features are deployed to the US on Monday, February 26. New features are deployed to Asia and Australia on Tuesday, February 27. New features are deployed to Europe on Wednesday, February 28.

  • Kofax is now Tungsten Automation. The choice to embrace Tungsten Automation as our new name reflects the growth of our company and the need for a brand that more closely aligns with our present identity and future aspirations. This transformation highlights our expanded capabilities and robust solutions, and our dedication to excellence, adaptability, and growth. It signifies our commitment to customers and partners, assuring them that we will endure as a trusted partner, offering unwavering support throughout their transformation journeys.

    To reflect this new change, the default AP Essentials branding now features the Tungsten Automation logo.

  • It is now possible to determine which attachment formats are accepted when receiving documents via email input. This is helpful, for example, if you only want to process certain file types.

  • When drawing line-item amount fields, you can capture partial text that is split by a slash. This feature is available on a private preview basis.

  • Currency field extraction has been improved with greater confidence when processing documents from suppliers/customers that send documents in multiple currencies.

  • Supplier identification improvements using master data are now generally available for all customers.

  • A new document type for German purchase orders is available for accounts receivable processes. This document type is currently available on a preview basis.

  • The Coupa AP integration has been improved with several new features.

    • All target system settings containing lists now use semicolons to separate list items. Previously, some settings used commas, while others used semicolons.

    • The integration can now import supplier sites by creating a supplier in AP Essentials for each supplier site in Coupa. You enable this feature in the target system settings, where you can also choose to exclude inactive supplier sites.

    • You can now specify which purchase orders and purchase order lines to import based on their statuses.

    • Coupa clients that integrate with multiple ERP systems simultaneously can now use PO prefix templates to avoid issues with PO matching.

    • When delta synchronization is enabled, and you change the email of a user in Coupa, a new user is created in AP Essentials. However, the old user remains. To periodically remove the unused users, you can perform a full synchronization using the Days between full synchronization setting.

  • It is now possible to automatically pause and resume customer accounts when the service plan volume and/or subscription period reaches its limit.

January 29, 2024

New features are deployed to the US on Monday, January 29. New features are deployed to Europe, Asia, and Australia on Tuesday, January 30.

  • When drawing line-item description fields that span multiple rows, it is now possible to specify the maximum number of rows you want to capture. Specifying the maximum number of rows improves the interpretation of description fields that span multiple rows. This feature is available on a private preview basis.

  • The interpretation of line-item quantity (LIT_DeliveredQuantity, LIT_PO_OrderedQuantity) and unit price (LIT_UnitPriceAmount, LIT_PO_UnitPriceAmount) fields has been greatly improved. Previously, AP Essentials expected quantity and unit price fields to have the same number of decimal places across rows, and if they did not, the fields were marked as uncertain. For example, AP Essentials expected the line-item quantity to have the same number of decimal places on all rows. However, now AP Essentials recognizes that the number of decimal places can differ across rows for these fields. The result is increased confidence rates, which translates to an increase in automation and less manual verification.

  • A new privilege is available for Office users that determines whether user interactions affect online learning during verification. The new privilege is called Update online learning and is enabled on users by default. Administrators can disable this privilege to prevent new or inexperienced users from having a detrimental effect on documents that have high identification and extraction rates.

  • The NetSuite integration now supports the mapping of custom coding fields to expense records in NetSuite. This feature opens new workflow possibilities for NetSuite users. The new target system setting is called Custom expense field mapping for accounts. Note also that the Custom expense field mapping setting has been renamed to Custom expense field mapping for line items.

  • It is now possible to pause customer groups. When you pause a customer group, all customer accounts within the group are automatically paused. When an account is paused, users can continue working normally. However, no output is sent to the target system. After you resume a group that was paused, you must resume each individual customer account manually.

December 18, 2023

New features are deployed to the US on Monday, December 18. New features are deployed to Europe, Asia, and Australia on Tuesday, December 19.

  • It is now possible to lock online learning to prevent verification changes from having a detrimental effect on accounts receivable documents that already have high identification and extraction rates. Previously, this feature was only available for accounts payable documents.

  • Images of successfully processed documents are now visible in Admin Center and Office. Previously, you could not view the image of a document after it was successfully processed, even though it remained in the system for up to three months.

  • It is now possible to define usage warning notifications on the customer group level, providing more flexibility and control over AP Essentials usage monitoring by letting you send usage notifications to customer group users.

  • AP Essentials Connect has been updated to version 10.6.6.7798.

November 20, 2023

New features are deployed to the US on Monday, November 20 and to Europe on Tuesday, November 21. New features are deployed to Asia and Australia on Wednesday, November 22.

  • When specifying the field format of purchase order fields, it is now possible to adjust the extracted value using regular expressions. This is helpful, for example, if you want to exclude certain characters from extracted purchase order numbers.

  • When using buyer or seller classification, there is a new setting which lets you grant users access to unclassified documents while still controlling which buyers/sellers users can access and assign documents to. The new setting is called Allow access to unclassified documents, and it is available to users and user groups.

  • History variables in data templates have been improved with new parameters in several integrations. If a history variable has multiple records associated with it, you can now append history variables with additional parameters to specify whether you want the first record, last record, or all records. For example, if a document is approved by multiple users, the history variable returns the last approver by default. However, by specifying an additional parameter, you can get the first approver instead. This feature is currently only available for the Coupa AP integration.

  • Supplier identification has been improved for the XML document type by ignoring special characters and spaces in extracted values and master data.

  • The Bulgarian document type is now generally available for all customers.

October 23, 2023

New features are deployed to the US, Asia, and Australia on Monday, October 23. New features are deployed to Europe on Tuesday, October 24.

  • The Coupa AP integration has been updated with several new features.

    • You can now filter master data import according to content groups.

    • It is now possible to automatically submit documents to Coupa after being successfully posted in the draft state.

    • It is now possible to specify whether credit note amounts are exported as positive or negative amounts. It is also possible to let Office users determine the sign during verification. You can specify this setting on the customer account level or buyer level.

    • The Enforce line-level taxation and Calculate missing tax rates settings now have buyer-specific settings. This is beneficial because it lets you configure different settings for each buyer.

    • You can save space in Coupa by linking to invoice images in Kofax AP Essentials storage instead of sending invoice images to Coupa. When viewing invoice information in Coupa, you can click a link to open the invoice image in your web browser. This feature is only available if the Storage service is enabled in Kofax AP Essentials.

    The Coupa AP integration is currently only available for select customers on a preview basis.

  • The Line-item total amount validation for remittance advices is improved with a new setting that lets you set a margin of error.

  • When processing FatturaPA documents, AP Essentials now maps line-item order number and delivery note fields.

September 25, 2023

New features are deployed to the US, Asia, and Australia on Monday, September 25. New features are deployed to Europe on Tuesday, September 26.

  • Accounts receivable features are now generally available to all customers. Accounts receivable features let you processes incoming purchase orders and remittance advices on behalf of sellers.

  • It is now possible to improve supplier identification using master data for XML documents. This feature is currently only available for select customers on a public preview basis.

  • Extraction of the invoice order number field (InvoiceOrderNumber) has been improved when used in combination with field format settings. Administrators can adjust these settings in the Field view.

August 29, 2023

New features are deployed to the US, Asia, and Australia on Tuesday, August 29. New features are deployed to Europe on Monday, September 4.

  • The Coupa AP integration now supports user synchronization. This feature automatically imports users from Coupa which you can use as field suggestions to easily specify requesters during verification. You enable this feature in the target system settings.

    The Coupa AP integration is currently only available for select customers on a preview basis.

  • The NetSuite integration is now certified to support NetSuite version 2023.2.

July 31, 2023

New features are deployed to the US, Asia, and Australia on Monday, July 31. New features are deployed to Europe on Tuesday, August 1.

  • It is now possible to add custom fields to purchase order document types in accounts receivable processes.

  • The SFTP target system service now supports additional encryption algorithms.

  • When processing FatturaPA documents, AP Essentials now maps these additional fields:

    • ChargeAmount1, ChargeAmount2

    • DeliveryCost

    • DiscountAmount1, DiscountAmount2

    • InvoiceTaxCode1, InvoiceTaxCode2, InvoiceTaxCode3, InvoiceTaxCode4

    • InvoiceTaxDescription1, InvoiceTaxDescription2, InvoiceTaxDescription3, InvoiceTaxDescription4

    • InvoiceTaxType1, InvoiceTaxType2, InvoiceTaxType3, InvoiceTaxType4

    • LIT_DiscountPercent

    • LIT_DiscountAmount

    • LIT_DeliveryCost

    • LIT_VATCode

  • When processing ESXML documents, AP Essentials now maps these additional fields:

    • ContractNumber

    • Projectnumber

    • InvoiceObject

    • DeliveryAddressName, DeliveryAddressStreet, DeliveryAddressCity, DeliveryAddressCountry, DeliveryAddressZIP

    • AdditionalReference1, AdditionalReference2

    • SupplierBankDetails1

    • InvoiceTaxCode1, InvoiceTaxCode2, InvoiceTaxCode3, InvoiceTaxCode4

    • InvoiceTaxDescription1, InvoiceTaxDescription2, InvoiceTaxDescription3, InvoiceTaxDescription4

    • LIT_UniqueArticleNumber

    • LIT_UnitPriceBasis

    • LIT_DeliveryDate1, LIT_DeliveryDate2

    • LIT_DeliveryNote

    • LIT_ArticleTraceNo

    • LIT_ArticleRegNo

    • LIT_ArticleSerialNo

    • LIT_ArticleManufactureDate

    • LIT_VATCode

    • LIT_VATDescription

June 26, 2023

New features are deployed to the US, Asia, and Australia on Monday, June 26. New features are deployed to Europe on Tuesday, June 27.

  • A new Coupa integration is available on a preview basis. The new integration is called the Coupa AP integration, and it utilizes the latest Coupa API.

  • The Prevent total amount of zero validation rule is now available for remittance advices in accounts receivable processes.

  • Many new fields are available for British, Swedish, and US purchase order document types in accounts receivable processes. If you use any of these document types, check the Extraction service settings to review the new fields.

  • A new document type for Dutch (Netherlands) purchase orders is available for accounts receivable processes. This document type is currently available on a preview basis.

  • Credit note classification has been improved for the Czech Republic and Netherlands document types.

  • The NetSuite integration is now certified to support NetSuite version 2023.1.

May 9, 2023

New features are deployed to the US, Asia, and Australia on Tuesday, May 9. New features are deployed to Europe on Wednesday, May 10.

  • During extraction of accounts-payable documents, it is now possible to ignore order-number field suggestions that do not match the format you specify. This feature can improve automatic document type classification and prevent incorrect fields from being captured. The new setting, Only accept extracted values that match the format, is available for header and line-item order number fields in supplier invoice document types.

  • The Indian document type now interprets Indian QR codes and extracts relevant information to document fields.

  • Analytics reports are now available for accounts receivable customers. Many improvements have been made to Analytics reports relating to accounts receivable processes.

    • Analytics reports now filters out accounts receivable organizations from reports that are specific to accounts payable processes. This improvement affects accrual, workload by due date, workload by user, and workflow queue reports.

    • The Workload overview report now contains detailed document information for AR documents. When a partner user clicks the Documents button, the view that appears is now organized into two tabs, one for AP documents and one for AR documents.

    • Labels in the Billing report have been updated to account for accounts receivable processes. For example, the "Buyer" column has been changed to "Suborganization" because it can now include buyers or sellers.

    • Several reports now include data from accounts receivable processes. For example, the Volume by supplier report, is now the Volume by sender report and includes accounts-receivable data. Other reports that now include accounts-receivable information are Process time by sender, Verification time by sender, and Verification touch rate.

  • Credit note classification has been improved for the German document type.

  • The Hungarian document type is now generally available for all customers.

  • To keep data manageable and relevant, some audit trail entries are now retained for only one year from the time of creation.

  • Mobile Approval performance has been improved.

  • AP Essentials Connect has been updated to version 10.5.13.7759.

April 11, 2023

New features are deployed to the US, Asia, and Australia on Tuesday, April 11. New features are deployed to Europe on Wednesday, April 12.

  • AP Essentials can use purchase order information to automatically route problem documents to purchase order creators or requisitioners for correction.

  • AP Essentials now supports barcode interpretation for custom fields. New barcode formats are also supported for page separation. AP Essentials supports these barcode formats for page separation and field extraction:

    • Code 128

    • EAN-8

    • EAN-13

  • New validation rules are available for purchase order documents in accounts receivable processes.

    • Line-item total amount

    • Line items cannot be empty

  • The Admin Center user interface has been updated to improve usability and performance.

  • The Master-data import app for Microsoft Excel now supports several new fields for purchase order data. Purchase order data supports two new fields, RequisitionedBy and CreatedBy. Purchase order line data supports these new fields: VatAmount, DeliveryNoteNumber, DeliveryDate1, DeliveryDate2, UniqueArticleNumber.

  • A new document type for Swedish purchase orders is available for accounts receivable processes. This document type is currently available on a preview basis.

  • The E-conomic integration has been updated to utilize E-conomic's latest integration framework (REST API).

March 15, 2023

New features are deployed to the US on Wednesday, March 15. New features are deployed to Europe, Asia, and Australia on Thursday, March 16.

February 13, 2023

New features are deployed to the US on Monday, February 13. New features are deployed to Europe on Tuesday, February 14. New features are deployed to Asia and Australia on Monday, February 20.

  • The Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations integration has a new target system setting that lets you choose whether to add a default line to documents with no line items and no PO number. Previously, a default line was always added to documents with no line items. The new setting is enabled by default for backwards compatibility.

  • Several new line-item and header fields are available for purchase order data (for accounts payable PO invoices). You can use the new fields to filter the Purchase orders view in Admin Center and the Search purchase orders and Search purchase order lines dialogs in AP Essentials Office. These are the new fields:

    • Requisitioned by (header field)

    • Created by (header field)

    • VAT amount (line-item field)

    • Delivery note number (line-item field)

    • Delivery date 1 (line-item field)

    • Delivery date 2 (line-item field)

    • Unique article number (line-item field)

    Currently, none of the new fields are used for line pairing. They are only available in the list views and dialogs to help you identify purchase orders.

  • A new validation, Maximum total amount, is now available for purchase order documents in accounts receivable processes.

  • It is now possible to capture and extract document data from Greece using the new Greek document type. Purchase order invoices, expense invoices and credit notes are supported.

    This document type is currently only available on a preview basis.
  • It is now possible to create user groups on the customer group level. It is also possible to assign these groups to steps in workflows.

  • Credit note classification has been improved for Australian and Spanish document types.

  • Document types for Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Taiwan are now generally available for all customers.

  • AP Essentials Connect has been updated to version 10.5.10.7745.

January 16, 2023

New features are deployed to the US on Monday, January 16. New features are deployed to Europe, Asia, and Australia on Tuesday, January 17.

  • AP Essentials now supports Open Fixed-layout Document (OFD) input.

  • The Total amount validation is now available for purchase order documents in accounts receivable processes.

  • Credit note classification has been improved for Danish document types.

  • AP Essentials Connect has been updated to version 10.5.9.7732.

What's old

Looking for older news? See the archives for release notes dating back to October 25, 2011.