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Enter many purchase bills by scanning (Bulk OCR)
Upload up to 20 supplier bills at once, let Arthlekha read them, check the details, skip duplicates and save them all as purchases.
Bulk OCR reads your supplier bills (photos or PDFs) and turns them into purchase entries. Nothing goes into your books until you check the list and click the save button.
Before you start
- Bulk OCR Purchase appears in the menu only when invoice scanning (OCR) is included in your plan. If it is not, the screen shows OCR is not enabled for your plan. Upgrade to Pro to use invoice scanning.
- Keep the bills ready as PDF, JPG, PNG or WebP files. Each file must be 10 MB or less. One file should hold one bill.
- You do not need to create the suppliers or products first. Missing ones are created for you when you save (see "What is saved" below).
Steps
- Open Transactions > Bulk OCR Purchase.
- Drag your bill files onto the box that says Drag files here, or click to browse, or click the box and pick the files. You can add up to 20 files in total.
- Check the list. Click the bin icon at the end of a row to remove a file you added by mistake.
- Click Scan (the button shows how many files are waiting, for example Scan 5 file(s)). Three files are read at a time. Each row shows Scanning… and then a result.
- When scanning ends, Arthlekha checks each bill against the purchases already in your books. A bill with the same supplier GSTIN and invoice number is marked Duplicate.
- Check every Ready row. Correct the Supplier, GSTIN, Invoice No and Date if they were read wrongly. Click in the cell and type.
- Click Create Purchase(s) (the button shows the number of Ready rows, for example Create 4 Purchase(s)). The bills are saved one by one. Each row changes to Saved, or to Failed if it could not be saved.
- Click View Purchase Register to see the new purchases.
Row status
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Queued | Added, not scanned yet. |
| Scanning… | The file is being read. |
| Ready | Read successfully. It will be saved when you click Create Purchase(s). |
| Duplicate | This supplier GSTIN and invoice number already exist in your books. The row shows Already exists (#...). It is not saved. |
| Failed | The file could not be read or saved. Point at the red text under the status to see the full reason. |
| Saved | The purchase has been created. |
The counters at the right of the button bar (Ready, Dupes, Failed, Saved) show how many rows are in each state.
What is saved
- Supplier: if the scan found a matching supplier, or a supplier with the same GSTIN exists, that supplier is used. Otherwise a new supplier is created from the name, GSTIN and address on the bill. Two bills from the same new supplier in one batch create only one supplier.
- Items: each goods line is matched to an existing product by name or HSN. If no product matches, a new product is created with the HSN, unit, GST rate and purchase rate from the bill.
- Bills with no goods lines (for example a pure service bill) are saved as an accounting purchase with one line for the taxable value.
- Freight, other charges and reverse charge are not filled in. The note on each purchase reads "Bulk OCR:" and the file name.
- Taxable and Total on this screen are shown only for checking. They cannot be changed here.
Always open the saved purchases in the Purchase Register and check the items, rates and GST. Fix anything that is wrong by editing the purchase.
Common problems
- A Duplicate bill is really a new bill — rows marked Duplicate are never saved from this screen, even if you edit them. Enter that bill on the normal purchase entry screen.
- Duplicate check failed — you can still proceed. — the check against your books did not run. Search the Purchase Register for those invoice numbers before saving, so you do not enter a bill twice.
- Only ... more file(s) allowed (cap of 20). — you tried to add more than 20 files. Save this batch, then click away and come back to start a new one.
- "file name" skipped — over 10 MB. — make the file smaller (scan at a lower resolution) and add it again.
- Unsupported file type or File content does not match an allowed type — the file is not a real image or PDF. Save it again as PDF or JPG.
- Unit of Measurement (UOM) is required for line ... Please update the product. — a matched product has no unit. Set the unit in Products, then enter that bill on the purchase entry screen.
- A bill was saved with fewer items than the paper bill — a line could not be matched or created as a product, so it was left out. Edit the purchase and add the missing line.
- Supplier saved as "Unknown Supplier" — the name could not be read and the Supplier cell was empty. Rename the supplier in Suppliers.
Related
More in Purchase
Record a purchase billEnter a supplier's bill for goods or services, with GST, reverse charge, TDS and charges, so stock and accounts update together.Purchase ordersRaise a purchase order to a supplier, print it, and convert it into a purchase bill when the goods arrive.Purchase RegisterFind, filter and export your purchase bills, and edit, duplicate, copy to a sale, share or delete any of them.Make a debit noteRecord goods returned to a supplier, or raise an extra charge on a customer, with a debit note linked to the original invoice.Credit Note and Debit Note registersFind, filter, print, share and export your credit notes and debit notes, and edit, duplicate, cancel or delete them.