Hospitality invoices are rarely clean or simple. Vendors cross out items, drivers scribble notes, totals are circled, quantities are changed by hand, and pages often arrive out of order or incomplete. Traditional OCR systems fail in these real-world conditions — not because the text isn’t there, but because meaning is written visually.
Our system is designed for that reality. By combining AI, handwriting recognition, intelligent parsing, and human-in-the-loop workflows, we process invoices the way a human would — only faster, more consistently, and at scale.
Video Overview
How To Submit Invoice Files
You can submit invoice files for AI processing by:
- Selecting +New Invoice on the Vendor Invoices page
- Add Image while receiving a placed order
- Upload directly on the Image Vault
- Email as an attachment to your store's designated email address
Check out the article titled "Uploading Invoice Images for Electronic Invoicing" for a deep dive on these methods.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You should not submit more than ONE invoice per file. If you submit multiple invoices for different vendors in the same PDF file, the system will combine those invoices together.
Submitting Multi-Page Invoices Specifically
Best Practice: When submitting multi-page invoices for the same vendor, you should ensure that all pages of the invoice are grouped together and submitted in one file. If pages are missing the invoice may generate with only some of the lines having been processed.
Did you accidentally forget a page in the original upload? No worries!
AI Invoice also has the ability to detect missing pages and amend existing invoices still in the mapping phase. For example, if you upload an invoice with only 3 of 4 pages one day, you can upload the missing fourth page at a different time, and our system will detect and auto-match it to the correct invoice.
- System checks are in place to ensure that items are only added if they improve reconciliation of the existing invoice.
- The system will also match SKU & item name semantics in order to prevent any duplication.
- If the system is not confident enough to know what invoice a page should map to, it will route to an AI Issues submenu within the Invoices section:
- From here, you are able to review ungrouped pages and tell the system what to do with them.
Can’t find the missing page anywhere?
If you don’t have the missing page to submit you can manually recreate the missing lines of the invoice by using the "+Add Vendor Item" button.
Best Practice: To guarantee the highest chance for the item to map properly to your Craftable inventory item, make sure you enter the item as it appears on the invoice itself.
Editing AI Invoice Data
Invoice AI allows for easy edits on an invoice, and what you are allowed to edit is indicated by the purple wand icon after each data field or line item.
Examples of data fields you can edit from invoice line items - Item Name, UPC, SKU, Pack, Size, Quantity, and Amount. When clicking the purple wand, you'll see a window that allows you to make the needed changes. Be sure to click the blue Update button when you're done!
Note, that if quantity and amount are grayed out, it is likely due to being set up for Director mapping:
Examples of data fields you can edit at the top of an invoice: Invoice Number, Invoice Date, Due Date, and Total Invoice Amount.
Clicking the purple wand next to any of those data fields will bring up a window similar to below, where you can make the changes you need. As before, ensure you click the blue Update Details button when complete.
It is very important that all invoice corrections are done with the purple magic wand, whenever possible. Edits done in this manner are reviewed by the AI engine daily for improvements to future processings, and it will help ensure future invoices processed by AI Invoice for that vendor follow similar methods.
Meaning, if you delete an invoice processed by AI and manually recreate it, those changes do not feed back into the AI engine.
How the Data is Read
Invoice AI has the capability to understand human corrections on invoices. This includes the following:
- Crossed out incorrect line items
- Handwritten quantity or price changes
- Item substitutions (e.g. “Roma tomatoes instead”)
In doing so, crossed out items will be detected, yet excluded from totals (i.e. they will appear on the invoice already crossed out). Handwritten corrections will be read and applied to the processed invoice.
Handwritten Notes Tip: Please try to ensure that the original text is still visible under the crossed out data to ensure the original and handwritten notes can be processed correctly.
AI Invoice also handles complex item parsing with ease
Complex item parsing includes catch-weight items, complex pack sizes, nested item structures, promotional pricing, unit conversions, and split/partial items.
The AI engine improves upon itself daily, learning vendor-specific rules over time and using past historical data to guide its future parsing capabilities.
FAQs
How will I know if the invoice was processed via AI?
You will see a banner at the top of the invoice that says "Auto-Generated by Craftable AI".
What should I do if one of my invoices fails to process?
In the Image Vault, you will see a Failed message in the AI Status column along with a red X if processing does not complete. After clicking on the info button, a message will appear similar to below:
Simply click the Retry AI Processing button to begin the process once more. You no longer need to delete and re-upload the image! After clicking the button, you'll be prompted one additional time to ensure you want to retry processing:
After clicking Yes, Retry - the process will begin once more so you can follow it to completion.
How do I get Invoice AI activated for my account?
We're in the process of migrating existing customers over to this functionality. We want to ensure accuracy while minimizing the need to remap items that customers had previously mapped. If you have interest in turning on this feature ahead of the rollout, you can reach out to your Customer Success Manager or Craftable Support.