Availability: AI booking is currently available in a closed beta.
Introduction
Zenvoices offers several ways to create a transaction proposal for invoices and receipts. AI booking is the newest one.
You don’t need to set anything up in advance. With AI booking, Zenvoices determines for itself how an invoice can best be booked. To do this, AI booking looks at what is on the invoice, how previous invoices from the same supplier were booked and which VAT rules apply.
This gives you a proposal for the ledger account, the VAT code and the description, among other things, even for new suppliers and for invoices that differ each time. For every proposal, you can see what it is based on and how certain Zenvoices is about it.
Do you want something to be booked in a specific way? Then you describe this in plain language with an instruction, for example: ‘Always book invoices from this supplier on the Rent account.’ AI booking takes your instructions into account in every following proposal.
This article covers the following topics:
How does AI booking work?
Where do you set up AI booking?
When do you choose AI booking?
What AI booking does (not yet) do
1. How does AI booking work?
AI booking works in four steps.
Recognise. Zenvoices reads the invoice using the existing invoice recognition. Does the standard recognition miss a detail, such as a reference, a description or an amount from the line item recognition? Then you can specify this in your instruction. All recognised fields are shown under the recognised data, so you can check what has been recognised.
Propose. AI booking proposes a value for the transaction fields invoice number, date, description, ledger account and VAT code.
Check. Zenvoices uses fixed rules to check whether the transaction is correct, for example whether the transaction is in balance and the amounts match.
Review. You see the proposal in the transaction screen with a certainty score. Fields with a low score are shown straight away and you can click through to them directly. This is useful for invoices with many lines. With a high score, you can book the transaction directly or have it booked automatically.
What does AI booking base its proposal on?
For each transaction field, AI booking looks at the following sources:
Legislation: the standard tax rules of the country of the company. The legislation of the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom is currently built in.
Instructions: the agreements you set out yourself in plain language. An instruction takes priority over the standard legislation.
The document: what is on the invoice or receipt, such as amounts, descriptions or the delivery address.
History: how you have previously booked invoices from the same account.
If AI booking cannot reach a conclusion with these sources, it makes its own estimate. These transaction proposals get a low certainty score, so you know you need to check the field.
Tip: set the correct SBI code for your company. Without an SBI code, AI booking assumes, for example, that the company is not a hospitality business. You set the SBI code via Manage / Organisation / Company. Click the pencil icon next to the company and go to ‘Properties’. Enter the code in the ‘Business classification code’ field.
Why does AI booking propose this value?
For every field that AI booking fills in, you can see what the proposal is based on, for example the history or an instruction, along with a short explanation. This way you can always trace how a transaction proposal came about. The explanation is shown in the language set for your organisation.
You can set this via Manage / Organisation / Settings / General. The transaction timeline also shows that AI booking has been applied.
The certainty score
The former recognition score is now called the certainty score. The certainty score combines how certain Zenvoices is about the recognition and about the transaction proposal. The lowest score counts: if one field is uncertain, the entire transaction goes to review.
In the transaction screen, the indicators change colour according to the certainty level:
Grey: good.
Orange: doubt, please take a look.
Red: low certainty, check this field.
The notification at the top of the transaction screen states which fields are causing the low score. This can also be a recognised detail, such as the total amount.
AI booking learns from your transactions
AI booking learns from every transaction you approve. If you book an invoice without making corrections, AI booking will use your previous transaction and the cost type as the starting point for the next invoice from the same account.
Does the cost type differ from previous transactions for that account? Then AI booking looks at what fits the cost type rather than at what fits the previous transaction. Do you want an account to always be booked in a specific way, even if the cost type differs? Then set this out in the instruction.
Do you have a one-off or unusual transaction that should not serve as an example? Then tick ‘Do not use as an example for new transactions’ in the transaction screen. AI booking will then not use this transaction for future transaction proposals for that account.
2. Where do you set up AI booking?
Choosing the AI proposal strategy
First, you enable AI booking for a company. At the same time, you choose which accounts switch to the AI proposal strategy. After that, you can adjust the proposal strategy per account if needed.
Step 1. Enable AI booking for your companies
Go to Manage / Organisation / Companies.
Tick the companies for which you want to use AI booking and choose ‘Bulk action’ / ‘Enable AI booking’.
Under ‘Select companies’, check that the correct companies are selected and click ‘Next’.
Under ‘Select accounts’, choose which accounts you want to switch to AI booking. Accounts set to ‘Master data’ and accounts set to ‘Last transaction with VAT or line item recognition’ are recommended. Accounts with a financial transaction template are best left as they are. That way they keep the logic from their template, such as cost centers and projects. Click ‘Next’.
Under ‘Confirm’, check what will change and click ‘Enable AI booking’.
The switch takes place in the background. You will receive a notification when it is done.
After enabling, the following applies:
If no account is found, AI booking creates the transaction proposal.
New accounts always get AI booking as their proposal strategy.
The accounts you selected switch to AI booking. The other accounts keep their current proposal strategy.
Tip: want to switch back? Choose ‘Bulk action’ / ‘Disable AI booking’ or turn it off in the company. The previous proposal strategy of each account is saved.
Please note: if you add a new company during the beta, AI booking will not yet be enabled for it. Enable it yourself using the steps above.
Step 2. Adjust the proposal strategy per account if needed
Do you still want to switch an individual account to AI booking, or exclude it? Go to Manage / Company / Master data / Edit account / ‘Transaction proposals’ tab. Choose AI or another proposal strategy there.
That’s all you need to set up. AI booking decides for itself whether to book at VAT level or at line level.
Setting up instructions
You set up instructions at the level they should apply to:
Level | Use it for | Example |
Organisation | Office policy that applies to all companies | “For receipts from a petrol station, always use the account name and the invoice date as the description.” |
Company | Agreements for one company | “Always use the journal’s preferred VAT codes in the transaction lines.” |
Journal | Agreements for one journal | “Always book sales on revenue with VAT code 2.” |
Account | Agreements for one supplier | “Include the contract number from the invoice in the description.” |
Assign proposal strategy rule | Agreements for the transactions the rule applies to | “Book the line with subscription costs on ledger account 4310 and the line with one-off connection costs on ledger account 4320.” |
Level | Where to set it up |
Organisation | Manage / Organisation / Settings / AI booking |
Company | Manage / Organisation / Company / pencil icon / Preferences, under the heading ‘AI booking’ |
Journal | Manage / Organisation / Company / pencil icon / Journals / pencil icon / Transaction proposals, under the heading ‘AI booking’ |
Account | Manage / Company / Master data / Accounts / pencil icon / Transaction proposals. Or from the transaction via the pencil icon next to the account / Transaction proposals |
Assign proposal strategy rule | Manage / Organisation or Company / Automation / Assign proposal strategy rules |
Instructions from different levels complement each other. If they contradict each other, the most specific instruction takes priority. An instruction for an account therefore takes priority over an instruction at company level.
Please note: if an assign proposal strategy rule without AI booking has been applied, that rule replaces the account’s instructions.
For each level, the instructions are shown in a clear list (see the image below). You can turn instructions on and off and search through them. Starting points with example sentences help you write a good instruction quickly. An instruction can be up to 1,000 characters long, and a counter shows how many characters you have used.
Looking for examples? Take a look at the article Example instructions for AI booking.
Adjusting the proposal in the transaction screen
Is the transaction proposal from AI booking not quite right? Then you can adjust it in the transaction screen for this transaction.
This is also how you test a new instruction before saving it.
Open the invoice in the transaction screen via the pencil icon and review the transaction proposal from AI booking.
Don’t want to use the transaction’s instructions? Then click ‘Rebook with AI’. Here you can turn different instructions on and off or add new ones. The transaction’s instructions are kept during your session.
Want to use an instruction for this transaction only? Then click ‘Rebook with AI’. Type an additional instruction that only applies to this transaction, for example: ‘Book at line level and book the shipping costs on a separate line on the Shipping costs account.’
Click ‘Rebook with AI’. AI booking creates a new transaction proposal based on your instruction.
Check the new proposal. If it is still not right, adjust your instruction and click ‘Rebook with AI’ again.
Once the proposal is correct, process the transaction as you normally would.
Should future invoices from this supplier be booked the same way? Then save the instruction for the account by ticking ‘Save the instructions for <account name>‘.
Please note: an additional instruction in the transaction screen only applies to that one transaction. If you don’t save it, AI booking will book the next invoice using the existing instructions again.
Permissions
Permissions determine who can add, change or turn off instructions for AI booking. The permission you need depends on the level at which the instruction has been set up:
Level of the instruction | You can edit the instruction if you have |
Organisation | Manage / Organisation / Settings |
Company | Manage / Organisation / Company / Edit company |
Journal | Manage / Organisation / Company / Edit company |
Account | Pages / Manage / Company / Master data / Accounts / Edit accounts |
Assign proposal strategy rule | Pages / Manage / Company / Automation or Organisation / Automation |
For instructions at company, journal and account level, you also need access to the company itself. This means you can only edit instructions in companies you have access to.
Can’t edit an instruction? Then you probably don’t have the right permissions. Contact the administrator of your Zenvoices organisation. They can adjust your role or permissions via Manage / Organisation / Users.
3. When do you choose AI booking?
AI booking and the existing proposal strategies each have their own strengths. You can also combine them.
Choose booking rules or financial transaction templates if you want to be 100% sure how an invoice will be booked. The outcome is always the same, but you do need to set up more.
Choose AI booking if you want to set up as little as possible and want Zenvoices to think along with you. AI booking handles new suppliers and varying invoices smartly. The certainty score shows when you need to take a look.
Combine both by setting out fixed agreements in booking rules and using AI booking as a safety net. If no booking rule or template applies, Zenvoices falls back on the standard proposal strategy. If that is set to AI, AI booking creates the proposal.
Booking automatically
AI booking creates the transaction proposal. Whether a transaction is then processed automatically is determined, as always, by automation rules. Use the certainty score as a condition in these rules, so that only transactions with high certainty are processed automatically.
4. What AI booking does (not yet) do
AI booking is under active development. The following applies to the first version:
Supported transaction fields: AI booking only fills in the invoice number, the date, the description, the ledger account and the VAT code. Fields such as cost center, cost unit, project and period will follow later.
Account matching: as always, Zenvoices determines which creditor belongs to an invoice using automatic account recognition. Instructions have no influence on this.
Recognition: AI booking currently uses the existing invoice recognition. If something on the invoice is not recognised correctly, AI booking cannot base a good proposal on it either.
Learning from transactions in the accounting system: in the future, AI booking will also learn from transactions that are already in your accounting system, so a new company doesn’t start from scratch.
Learning from corrections made afterwards in the accounting system: in the future, AI booking will also learn from corrections you make afterwards in your accounting system.
This help article will be updated as soon as there are new updates, so it always reflects the current situation.
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