Invoice data transformation logic

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 5 minutes to read
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    Summary of Invoice data transformation logic

    This document outlines the transformation logic used by the Accounts Payable Operations integration with Document Intelligence to convert invoice and invoice line data into formats compatible with the processing system. It covers how key fields such as invoice type, dates, currency, unit price, decimals, and reference fields are derived and converted to ensure accurate and consistent data handling within ServiceNow.

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    Invoice Type Derivation

    • If the purchase order (PO) value is present, the invoice is classified as a PO invoice.
    • If the PO value is absent, the invoice is classified as a Non-PO invoice.

    Date Conversion

    • Dates are converted to the ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD), considering MM-DD-YYYY formats for conversion.
    • Dates in DD-MM-YYYY format where the day is less than 12 are not converted to avoid ambiguity.
    • Multiple date formats such as "2nd Sep, 2022" and "09-02-2022" are standardized to ISO format.

    Currency Conversion

    • Supports US, European, and Indian number formats with different thousand and decimal separators.
    • Converts various currency formats from the invoice, including amounts with currency codes or symbols, with or without spaces.
    • Currency codes are validated against the active unique codes in the Currency [fxcurrency] table.
    • For ambiguous or missing currency codes/symbols, currency defaults based on invoice type:
      • PO invoices use the purchase order currency or system currency if unavailable.
      • Non-PO invoices use the legal entity’s local currency or system currency if unavailable.

    Unit Price Conversion

    • Handles multiple locale-specific number formats similar to currency conversion.
    • Converts unit price values with or without currency symbols/codes to a standardized numeric format.

    Decimal Conversion

    • Supports locale-specific decimal and thousand separators, including European, US, and Indian formats.
    • Determines grouping and decimal separators based on user system locale settings.
    • Converts invoice and invoice line decimal values accordingly, with empty values set if ambiguous decimal separators are detected.

    Reference Field Value Fetching Logic

    • Legal Entity: Derived by checking bill to company, street, city, state, country, and zip in order.
    • Purchase Order: Strips prefixes from PO values to match unique ERP purchase orders.
    • Supplier: Matches supplier names fully or partially with address context to find unique supplier records.
    • Country: Uses invoice country value or defaults to ISO country codes if missing.
    • Subtotal, Tax amount, Other charges: Numeric values are normalized based on decimal separator patterns; ambiguous formats result in empty field values to avoid errors.

    Practical Impact for ServiceNow Customers

    This transformation logic ensures that invoice data from diverse formats and locales is accurately normalized and integrated into ServiceNow’s Accounts Payable system. Customers can expect reliable classification of invoices, consistent date and currency formatting, and precise matching of reference data such as suppliers and purchase orders. This leads to improved data quality, streamlined invoice processing, and reduced manual intervention when handling invoices from multiple sources and regions.

    Accounts Payable Operations integration with Document Intelligence converts the invoice and invoice line field values from the invoice document to a format supported by the system that processes the invoice.

    Type deriving logic

    The application includes the following logic for deriving the type field on the invoice.

    • Considers the purchase order value in the invoice stage record
    • If the purchase order value isn’t empty, then the invoice type is set to PO type.
    • If the purchase order value is empty, then the invoice type is set to Non- PO type.

    Date conversion logic

    The application includes the following logic for converting date formats mentioned in the invoice document:
    • Considers YYY-MM-DD as the ISO format and the system format for date conversion.
    • Considers dates only in MM-DD-YYYY format for conversion.
    • Doesn’t consider dates in DD-MM-YYYY format if DD is less than 12.
    Date format in the incoming invoice Converted date format
    2nd Sep, 2022 2022-09-02
    3rd September, 2022 2022-09-02
    02-Sep-2022 2022-09-02
    02-Sept-2022 2022-09-02
    Sept-02-2022 2022-09-02
    Sep-02-2022 2022-09-02
    09-02-2022 2022-09-02
    02-09-2022 2022-02-09
    09/02/2022 2022-09-02
    02/09/2022 2022-02-09

    Currency conversion logic

    The application supports different locale such as US, European and Indian number systems. For example, "X,XXX.XXX", "X.XXX,XX", "XX,XX.XXX" where X is a single-digit positive number.

    Scenario Currency format in the incoming invoice Converted currency format
    Amount followed by a space and the currency code 76 EUR 76 EUR
    Amount followed by a space and the currency symbol 76 € 76 EUR
    Currency code followed by multiple spaces and the amount EUR 76 76 EUR
    Currency symbol followed by multiple spaces and the amount € 76 76 EUR
    Amount without a currency code or symbol 76 76 (followed by the purchase order currency or the session currency)
    Amount separated by comma, dot or any other grouping or decimal separator followed by a space and the currency code 7.123.456,99 EUR 7123456.99 EUR
    Amount followed by the currency code without any space 76EUR 76 EUR
    Amount followed by the currency symbol without any space 76€ 76 EUR
    Currency code followed by the amount without any space EUR76 76 EUR
    Currency symbol followed by the amount without any space €76 76 EUR
    The application first looks for the active unique currency code in the Currency [fx_currency] table when an incoming invoice amount has a currency symbol or code. If multiple currency matches are found or the incoming invoice amount has no currency code or symbol, then the application runs the defaulting currency logic depending on the invoice type as follows.
    • PO invoice - Searches for purchase order and related currency, and sets the invoice currency to purchase order currency. In case of missing purchase order or related currency, the invoice currency is set to system currency.
    • Non- PO invoice - Searches for legal entity and local currency, and sets the invoice currency to the legal entity's local currency. In the case of missing legal entity and local currency, the invoice currency is set to system currency.

    Unit Price conversion logic

    The application supports different locale such as US, European and Indian number format locale. For example, "X,XXX.XXX", "X.XXX,XX", "XX,XX.XXX" where X is a single-digit positive number.

    If the incoming invoice unit price consists of currency symbol or code present in Currency [fx_currency] table, then the unit price is converted. For example, $ XX,XXX,XXX.XX or USD XX,XX,XXX.X, where X is a single-digit positive number.

    Unit price mentioned in the incoming invoice Converted unit price
    1,000,25.10 100025.10
    1,00,025.10 100025.10
    $1,000,25.10 100025.10
    1,000,25.10 $ 100025.10
    USD1,00,025.10 100025.10
    1,00,025.10 USD 100025.10

    Decimal conversion logic

    The application supports different locale such as US, European and Indian decimal format locale. For example, "X,XXX.XXX", "X.XXX,XX", "XX,XX.XXX" where X is a single-digit positive number.

    Currency groupings on invoice and invoice lines are determined based on the user system locale settings. European currencies consider comma as a decimal separator and dot as a thousand separators. In some cases, various characters can also be used as grouping separator. The incoming invoice and invoice lines present in [sn_ap_ic_invoice_stage] and [sn_ap_ic_invoice_line_stage] tables are converted based on the positioning of decimal and thousand separators.
    Note:
    During conversion, for numbers such as 100,251 and 100.251, the system checks for other decimal separators mentioned in the invoice, and converts it to the appropriate decimal format. If the invoice contains fields with single decimal separator, then conversion does not apply for the invoice, and the value is set to empty as shown in the table below.
    For more information on currency conversion, see Currency administration.
    Decimal format mentioned in the incoming invoice Converted decimal format
    1,000,25.10 100025.10
    1,00,025.10 100025.10
    100,251 100,251
    10.102,510 10102.51
    10.10.102,510 1010102.51
    100,251
    100.251

    Logic to fetch reference field values

    Reference Field Logic to fetch the field value
    Legal Entity The system fetches the value by checking the following values in the order listed:
    1. Bill to company
    2. Street, City, State, Country, Zip
    3. City, State, Country, Zip
    4. State, Country, Zip
    5. Country, Zip
    6. Country
    7. Zip
    Purchase Order The system does the following:
    • The system considers the purchase order value mentioned in the invoice stage
    • If the purchase order value is prefixed with special characters, alphabets or zeroes, then the application ignores the prefixes and matches the remaining purchase order value with the ERP number from the purchase order table
    • If a unique purchase order is found then the application populates the purchase order in the invoice
    Supplier The system does one of the following:
    • The system considers the value mentioned in the invoice and does a complete match with supplier in Supplier table.
    • If the invoice contains a purchase order associated with the supplier, the application matches with the supplier name mentioned in the invoice with the supplier name of purchase order and populates the supplier.
    • If the invoice document contains supplier name with more than two words, the application performs partial name match against the supplier details in the supplier table along with street address or city. Example. If the invoice document contains supplier name as XX Corp, and the supplier name in the supplier table is XX Ltd, the application matches XX in supplier table along with the address and populates the invoice document with the corresponding supplier.
    If a unique supplier record is found in any of the above, then the application populates the supplier in the invoice.
    Country The system does one of the following:
    • Considers the value mentioned in the invoice
    • If this value isn’t mentioned in the invoice, it populates the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) short country name or the ISO long country name
    Subtotal, Tax amount, Other charges The system does the following:
    • If the invoice contains XX.XXX,XXX the application groups the numeric to four digits after decimal separator.
    • If the invoice contains three numeric digits after the separator, the application sets the invoice fields to empty.
    • If the invoice contains a combination of decimal and thousand separators in a form, the application defaults to the numeric value to the decimal separator.