Scanning / Uploading Invoices

How to scan an invoice in the mobile app, or upload an invoice on the web to auto-populate a draft invoice for review

Nick Neale avatar
Written by Nick Neale
Updated over a week ago

Overview

Introduction

To help save time when receiving orders you didn’t generate in WISK, you can scan invoices using the mobile app or upload images / PDFs of the invoices on the web.

The data from the scanned / uploaded invoice is extracted using character recognition software and placed into a draft invoice on the WISK Web Portal.

Note: This was designed for and works best with invoices. If you upload a receipt it will still pull data but may require some adjustments.

Depending on your subscription plan, you can either review and approve the invoice yourself, or have the WISK Invoicing team take care of it for you.

Note: The Professional plan includes 100 invoices / month processed by our team. The Elite plan includes 300 processed invoices / month. The typical turnaround time to process an invoice is between 24 - 48 hours.

When the invoice is approved, the items on it are added to your stock, and any item costs are updated.

Important Note About Invoices

Depending on the method you choose to scan / upload invoices, make sure you read the corresponding section of this article for tips on how to do this.

If you don't follow the steps you may upload a number of files that should be treated as separate invoices together as one, that can't be processed properly.

Here are some quick links for uploading:

When to Use Invoice Scanning / Uploading

This feature is best used when:

  • adding items during the initial setup of a Food venue

  • you receive a delivery or purchase product and didn’t generate the order in WISK and you don’t have the time to Add a Manual Invoice.

If you generated the order in WISK, it's easier to convert the purchase order to an invoice when it's received. For more information, please see:

Scanning an Invoice

WISK App

When scanning invoices in the app, make sure to only submit one invoice at a time.

If you have multiple invoices to scan, submit each invoice separately.

Do not take photos of all of your invoices and submit them as one.

Note: If multiple invoices are submitted as one, you will have to split them before they can be processed correctly. Please see:

To scan an invoice in the mobile app:

  1. Tap “Orders” on the bottom menu bar

    An arrow points to the "Orders" button on the bottom menu bar on the Home screen of the mobile app.

  2. Tap “Scan invoice”

    The "Scan Invoice" button is highlighted.

    Note: If you don't see the "Scan invoice" button, please contact WISK Support and they will activate the feature in your account.

  3. Scroll through your distributors or use the search bar to find the distributor the invoice is from. Tap the distributor.

    All of the distributors for your venue display. Tap the one the invoice is from.

    Note: If you need to add the distributor to your venue, tap the 3 dots on the top right of the screen.

  4. Tap the “Scan” button to open the camera on your device

    An arrow points to the "Scan" button.

    Note: If you have already taken photos of the invoice on your device, tap "Select" instead and proceed to Step 9.

  5. Follow the prompt on the screen to position your camera so that the invoice page is in the frame

    The camera opens in the app. An onscreen prompt directs you to position the invoice within the frame.

  6. You’ll see a visual indicator when the camera detects an invoice page. Hold the camera still and it will take a picture automatically

    When the invoice is detected, it is highlighted in blue, and scans the highlighted area.

  7. When the photo is taken, it appears as a thumbnail on the bottom left. Tap the thumbnail to review it and make sure it isn't blurry

  8. If the image appears blurry, you can tap “Retake” on the top-right corner to take another photo. If it looks good, tap “Done”

    A scanned invoice page.

    Note: Poor quality uploads impact the accuracy of the character recognition software's output.

  9. If the invoice has multiple pages, scan each of them. When finished, tap “Save”

    An arrow points to the "Save" button.

  10. You’ll see a summary of all the photos you’ve taken. You can tap a photo to view it, or delete it by swiping it to the left and tapping “Delete”. When you are done, tap “Submit”

    The invoice photo review screen where you can view or delete photos. The "Submit" button is highlighted.

Note: As a reminder, if you have multiple invoices to scan, submit each invoice separately. Do not take photos of all of your invoices and submit them as one.

Android Devices

If you don't have access to an iOS device, there are a number of apps available on Android that you can use to scan your invoices.

We recommend Genius Scan, but there are lots of options available to you.

Once the invoice is scanned, you can then either upload it on the WISK Web Portal, or send it to your venue's unique email address. Find out more in the "Uploading an Invoice" section below.

Note: If using a third-party scanner make sure that if emailing the invoice the actual file is attached and not a link to where it's hosted. It won't upload otherwise.

Scanner Printers

Alternatively, your venue may have access to a built-in scanner as part of a printer.

When scanning invoices, please make sure that the glass scanning surface is clean and nothing is obscuring or obstructing the invoice. Otherwise, this will interfere with the character recognition software when uploading it.

Once the invoice is scanned, you can then either upload it on the WISK Web Portal, or send it to your venue's unique email address. Find out more in the "Uploading an Invoice" section below.

Uploading an Invoice

You can upload invoice PDFs or images on the WISK Web Portal. You can also send an email to your venue's unique upload email address.

Tip: For the best results, make sure that the images or PDFs are in focus and that none of the line items are obstructed. A poor quality upload will impact the accuracy of the character recognition software's output.

WISK Web Portal

On the WISK Web Portal, you can upload multiple images or PDFs at the same time, and choose whether:

  • they are processed together as a single invoice (only if all files are images)

  • or create separate invoices for each file

To upload invoice images or PDFs on the WISK Web Portal:

  1. Click “Draft Invoices” under “Orders”

    The "Draft Invoices" menu button is highlighted for emphasis.

  2. Click “Upload invoice”

    An arrow points to the "Upload Invoice" button.

    Note: If you don't see the "Upload Invoice" button, please contact WISK Support and they will activate the feature in your account.

  3. Click the drop-down menu to select the distributor the invoice(s) are from. You can upload multiple invoices at a time for a specific distributor. If you have invoices from multiple distributors, please upload them separately

    An arrow points to the distributor to select from the drop-down list

  4. Follow the on-screen directions to upload any PDFs or images (any file type)

    The Upload Invoice screen where you can use the file finder or drag and drop files

    ❗Important: If uploading PDFs, each PDF should only contain one invoice. If you have multiple invoices in a single PDF file, it won't process correctly. A PDF with multiple pages is okay as long as they're all part of the same invoice. If you upload a PDF with multiple invoices, you'll need to split them. Please see:

  5. Depending on the file types you're uploading, you may need to select the "Upload Mode". If uploading multiple images, each file can be processed as separate invoices, or all together as a single invoice. If uploading PDFs, each PDF is processed as a separate invoice

    2 images have been uploaded, and they can be processed as individual invoices, or as 1.

    Note: If you're only uploading one file you don't have to choose an Upload Mode. If you've selected both PDFs and images to upload, they'll be processed as separate invoices.

  6. After making your selection, click "Save"

    "Process as multiple invoices" has been selected and the "Save" button is highlighted for emphasis.

    Note: As a reminder, if uploading PDFs, they have to be processed separately. The option to process them together as a single invoice is unavailble.

Email

You can also email invoice images or PDFs to your venue’s unique email address (provided by WISK) and it will upload automatically.

This address is visible on the Draft invoices page.

Note: This email is only for sending invoice files. It is not monitored. If you have any questions please contact [email protected] or your account representative.

The message that shows your unique email address for uploading invoices is highlighted for emphasis.

Tips for emailing invoices:

Emailing invoices functions differently than uploading them in the WISK Web Portal. Please see these tips to make sure emailed invoices are processed correctly:

  1. You can attach multiple images in an email, but they will all be considered part of the same invoice. If you have images of more than one invoice, send a separate email for each with the corresponding images attached.

  2. If sending PDFs, you can attach each invoice as a separate PDF in the same email. Each PDF creates a separate draft invoice in your account. Don't put multiple invoices in the same PDF however, because it will only create one draft invoice. If you put multiple invoices in one PDF, you'll need to split them:

  3. If you attach an image and a PDF in the same email, they're processed as separate invoices.

  4. Files must be attachments. If you link to another site where the files are hosted, they will not be uploaded (Google Drive etc.)

Viewing Draft Invoices

After scanning or uploading an invoice, a draft invoice version of it appears in your venue's account.

You can view your draft invoices on:

  1. the WISK Web Portal by going to Orders > Draft Invoices

  2. the mobile app by tapping "Orders" > "Draft invoices history"

Reviewing & Converting the Draft Invoice

The draft must be reviewed and converted into an invoice before stock is added to your venue and item costs update. At this time you can only review and convert on the WISK Web Portal.

If you're on the Professional or Elite plan, the WISK Invoicing team can take care of this for you.

You can learn more about this in the "Reviewing & Converting a Draft Invoice" article.

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