Handling missing or invalid amounts

If an amount field cannot be found or the field value is invalid, during extraction or when drawing a field on the document, you can choose the default field value to be displayed in AP Essentials Office. Depending on your situation, you may want to use a zero amount (0.00), or you may want an empty value (no value at all). For example, when dealing with tax-exempt invoices, there can be a difference between zero tax and no tax, so you might want an empty value, rather than a zero amount. In contrast, a missing discount amount could be the same as zero. No matter what your situation is, you can determine the default behavior on a field-by-field basis in the Field view (Extraction service settings) using these settings:

  • Zero amount by default - When an amount field cannot be found or the field value is invalid, the value is automatically set to a zero amount (0.00). If the default value is not changed during verification, a zero amount is sent to the target system.

  • Empty value by default - When an amount field cannot be found or the field value is invalid, the value is automatically set to an empty value. If the default value is not changed during verification, an empty amount is sent to the target system.

The default behavior you choose also determines which value can be sent to the target system.

Empty value by default

Assume you have Empty value by default selected for an amount field, and an AP Essentials Office user clears the field because he cannot find it on the invoice. In this case, the user is warned that the value is empty, but he is allowed to override the warning, and the empty value is sent to the target system.

Zero amount by default

Assume you have Zero amount by default selected for an amount field, and an AP Essentials Office user clears the field because he cannot find it on the invoice. In this case, the empty value is not sent to the target system. Instead, the empty value is automatically changed to a zero amount (0.00) when the user moves to another field, and the zero amount is sent to the target system.

Interactions with validation rules

There are many validations for amount fields. In most cases, empty values are treated as zero, when it comes to calculating validations which involve amount fields. For example, assume you have the Total amount validation enabled and you have the tax field set to Empty value by default. If a user leaves the tax field empty, the field value remains empty and is sent to the target system empty. However, for the purpose of calculating the total amount validation, the tax value will be treated as zero.

Interactions with integrations

Some integrations require amount fields in a specific format, while other integrations accept amounts in any format. If you accidentally choose a setting that conflicts with your integration, you can receive an error when documents are exported to the target system. This table shows some common fields for each integration and tells you whether the field must be a number. In other words, if the target system requires a numeric value for a specific field, avoid using the Empty value by default setting on that field.

Field Target system requires a numeric value
Oracle Financials Cloud

InvoiceAmount

Yes

LineAmount

Yes

Quantity

No

UnitPrice

No

Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations

LineAmount

No

Quantity

No

UnitPrice

No

Coupa

InvoiceAmount

No

LineAmount

No

Quantity

No

UnitPrice

No

Tax

No

ShippingAmount

No

NetSuite

TotalVatIncludedAmount (Header)

No

TotalVatExcludedAmount (Header)

No

TotalVatAmount (Header)

No

NetAmount (Line)

Yes

Either GrossAmount or NetAmount must be specified. If TotalVatIncludedAmount is not specified, it is calculated from the sum of TotalVatExcludedAmount and TotalVatAmount. If GrossAmount is not specified, it is calculated from the sum of TaxAmount and NetAmount.

Quantity (Line)

No

UnitPrice (Line)

No

TaxAmount (Line)

No

GrossAmount (Line)

Yes

Either GrossAmount or NetAmount must be specified. If TotalVatIncludedAmount is not specified, it is calculated from the sum of TotalVatExcludedAmount and TotalVatAmount. If GrossAmount is not specified, it is calculated from the sum of TaxAmount and NetAmount.

Amount (AccountingRow)

No

E-conomic

GrossAmount (Header)

Yes

NetAmount (Header)

Yes

VatRate (Header)

No

SAP S/4HANA Cloud ES

InvoiceGrossAmount(Header)

No

SupplierInvoiceItemAmount (Line)

No

Quantity (Line)

No

QuantityInPurchaseOrderUnit (Line)

No