AP document capture: a setup checklist

Most capture projects that disappoint do not fail on the software. They fail on decisions nobody made: which mailbox invoices go to, what happens when the total is unreadable, what the files are called, who checks the exceptions on Friday. This checklist makes those decisions explicit. Tick them off and write the answers down; the written answers become your process document.

1. Before you start

• List every way AP documents arrive today

  Postal mail, a shared AP email address, individual inboxes, vendor portals, documents handed in by other departments.

• Count a normal week and a busy week

  Pages, not just invoices. Month-end and year-end volumes decide scanner and staffing needs.

• List the document types that come with invoices

  Typically credit memos, statements, purchase orders, remittance advice and W-9s. Decide which ones you capture and which you only file.

• Write down what happens to an invoice today, step by step

  Who opens it, who codes it, who approves it, where the paper ends up. You are replacing the typing and filing, not the approvals.

• Agree what “done” means for one invoice

  For example: data in the accounting system, PDF filed under the vendor, original paper in a dated box for a set period.

2. Intake: one front door per channel

• Give paper one landing spot

  A tray by the scanner. Date-stamp on arrival if your process relies on received dates.

• Ask vendors to email one shared AP address

  Not a person’s inbox. Save attachments from that mailbox into a single intake folder each day, or upload them to your capture service.

• Decide who empties each channel, and how often

  Daily is the usual answer. A channel without an owner becomes a pile.

• Keep non-AP mail out of the AP stack

  Marketing mail and checks should be pulled before scanning. Capture software can classify documents, but it should not be your mail sorter.

3. Scanner settings

Set these once, save them as the scanner profile for AP, and do not let them drift.

CapturePoint 6 asks TWAIN scanners for 300 dpi and double-sided scanning where the scanner supports it, so most scanners start in a sensible place. Test thermal paper, carbon copies and small receipts on your scanner before go-live; they are the usual troublemakers. For more on file types, see searchable PDF vs PDF/A.

4. Separating documents

A scanner produces a stream of pages. Something has to decide where one invoice ends and the next begins. You have four practical choices:

CapturePoint 6 covers the last three in one setting: automatically, at matching barcodes, automatic plus matching barcodes, or only at its separator sheets (which work with every option and can be printed from the app).

5. Document types and fields

• Pick the fields per document type, and keep the list short

  For invoices: vendor, invoice number, invoice date, due date, PO number, total, and line items only if you use them. The invoice OCR guide explains each one.

• Mark required fields

  A missing required field always goes to review. Usually vendor, invoice number, date and total.

• Set the shape of each field

  Date, money, number or text. A total that is not a valid amount should never pass.

• Load your vendor list

  Checking the vendor against your own list catches misreads and new vendors in one step.

• Decide on line items deliberately

  They are valuable and the hardest part to get right. See invoice line item extraction.

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6. Exceptions and review

Decide in advance which situations stop an invoice for a person, who that person is, and how quickly they get to it. A sensible starting set:

• A required field is missing or below the confidence bar

• Line items do not add up

  Quantity times unit price differs from the line amount.

• The vendor is not on your vendor list

• The invoice number has been seen before for this vendor

  Duplicate checks usually live in your accounting system or document system; Content Central can catch duplicates with field checks.

• The document type is uncertain

  A statement treated as an invoice can be paid twice.

• Someone owns the review queue every working day, with a named backup

7. Naming and filing

Agree on one naming pattern and one folder structure, and let the software apply it. A pattern that works for most AP teams: Document type › Vendor › YYYY-MM-DD_Invoice number.pdf.

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• Put the date first and in year-month-day order

  Files then sort in date order everywhere.

• Use captured values, not typed ones

  Vendor and invoice number come from the extraction, so names match the data.

• Decide the wording for a missing value

  For example “No PO”, so a gap is visible instead of producing a broken name.

• Keep folders shallow

  Two or three levels. Deep trees make people save in the wrong place.

• Never overwrite

  Two files with the same name should both be kept (CapturePoint 6 adds -2, -3).

• Keep private values such as tax IDs or bank account numbers out of file names

8. Where documents go

• Choose the home for the filed PDF

  A network folder, a document management system, or a cloud library your team already uses.

• Choose how the data reaches accounting

  An import file, a connector, or a person keying from the review screen. Test it with your accounting system early.

• Decide when documents leave

  As soon as they are ready, once a day, or only when someone presses export.

• Decide how long to keep the paper and the files

  Ask your accountant for your retention periods; our retention schedules are a starting point.

With CapturePoint 6, each document can arrive in a folder as a searchable PDF (optionally PDF/A), a data file with every captured value and a text file; or go into Content Central. A job can also send each finished PDF, with its values embedded, to SharePoint or OneDrive (Microsoft 365 work or school accounts), Google Drive, Dropbox or Nucleus One. A backup copy can be kept on the PC for a period you choose.

9. Roles

Name a backup for every role. Capture that stops when one person is on vacation is not a process.

10. Rollout plan

1. 01

   Try it on sample documents

   Learn the screens before your own invoices are involved. CapturePoint 6 includes a ready-made accounts payable sample job.
2. 02

   Build the job from your own documents

   A folder of recent invoices from your top vendors plus a handful of oddities.
3. 03

   Pilot with a slice of real work

   Two weeks, your top ten vendors or one location. Keep the old process running in parallel.
4. 04

   Measure

   How many invoices went through without review, how many waited and why, and any value that was wrong but not flagged.
5. 05

   Adjust, then expand

   Tune fields, thresholds and naming. Add vendors and channels in steps.
6. 06

   Write it down

   The answers to this checklist, one page, kept next to the scanner.

Common mistakes

• Capturing every field on the page “because we can”, then drowning in review.
• Scanning at the highest resolution in color by default, and running out of space with no accuracy gain.
• Letting each person name files their own way during the pilot.
• No owner for the review queue, so invoices wait and vendors call.
• Judging accuracy on a demo stack instead of your own invoices.
• Going live at month-end.

Want help setting it up? Step-by-step articles are in the CapturePoint help library, and we run free live demos with your own documents.