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Spend & ActualsInvoice Automation

Invoice Automation

The Upload Invoices dialog with three PDF invoices selected and the Upload 3 Files button

Invoice Automation reads your PDF invoices and records them as expenses on your line items. Etropo extracts the amount, date and description from each PDF. You check the details, choose the line item, and the invoice becomes an expense. The month’s actual is the sum of its expenses, so every invoice stays visible behind the number it adds to. See Expenses.

Open Invoice Automation in the Budget section of the sidebar. The page has three tabs: Manual Upload, Email Invoices and Setup. Uploaded invoices apply as soon as you save them. Emailed invoices wait for your review.

Upload invoices

  1. Go to Invoice Automation in the sidebar and open the Manual Upload tab.
  2. Click Upload Invoices, select your PDF files and click Upload & Process. Etropo opens each invoice in the Edit Invoice dialog.
  3. Check the amount, select the line item and the month, then click Save & Apply to Actuals.

The Edit Invoice dialog after an upload, with the amount, expense type, matched line item and actual month, and two more invoices waiting

The invoice becomes an expense on the line item at once. Uploaded invoices are not matched to a line item automatically. You select the line item yourself, and your selection carries over to the next invoice in the batch.

For an invoice that covers several months, set Expense Type to Yearly and pick the first and last month. Etropo splits the amount evenly across them.

Upload from a line item

You can also attach an invoice from the line item itself. The line item is then selected for you.

  1. In the budget editor, click the line item name and open the Expenses tab.
  2. Click Add Expense, then Attach invoice, and select your PDF files.
  3. Check the details and click Save & Apply to Actuals.

Email invoices

Most invoices arrive by email, so let them come to Etropo directly. Your organization gets its own invoice email address. Give it to vendors and agencies as the billing address, add a forwarding rule in your accounts payable inbox, or forward an invoice yourself when it lands in your mailbox. Etropo reads each PDF, matches it to a line item in your active budget, and holds it in a review queue. Nothing changes in your actuals until you confirm.

This is also how a teammate without an Etropo account can send you invoices. They forward the PDF, you confirm it.

Set up the invoice email address

Only organization administrators can generate or delete the address. Other members cannot open the Setup tab.

  1. Go to Invoice Automation in the sidebar and open the Setup tab.
  2. Click Generate Email Address, then copy the address.

The Setup tab with the organization's invoice email address, a copy button and a Delete row

Share the address only with the people and vendors who send your invoices. To stop receiving invoices, click Delete. Emails sent to a deleted address are not processed.

Send invoices

Send or forward an email with one or more PDF invoices attached to your invoice address. Each PDF becomes a separate invoice.

The sender receives an Invoice Received email at once. If Etropo cannot read a PDF, or the email has no PDF attached, the sender receives an Unable to Process Invoice email. If no line item matches, the invoice still waits for review, and the sender receives an Invoice Needs Manual Review email.

Review and confirm

The Email Invoices tab with three invoices waiting for review, one without a matched line item

  1. Go to Invoice Automation in the sidebar and open the Email Invoices tab.
  2. Check the amount, the month and the line item. To change them, click the invoice, edit, and click Save Changes.
  3. Click the check mark to Confirm, or the cross to Reject.

Confirm records the invoice as an expense on the line item and updates that month’s actual. The sender receives an Invoice Confirmed email.

Reject removes the invoice from the queue without recording an expense. The sender receives an Invoice Could Not Be Processed email.

Confirmed invoices appear on the line item’s Expenses tab with an Invoice badge.

Rules and limits

  • PDF only. Images, Word documents and spreadsheets are not supported.
  • Uploads: up to 10 files per upload, 10 MB per file.
  • Months must be inside the budget period.
  • Line items synced from an ad platform cannot receive invoices and are left out of automatic matching. Their actuals come from the daily sync.
  • Access: you can confirm or reject an invoice only when you have access to the category of its matched line item. See Access Control.

Troubleshooting

The sender received “Unable to Process Invoice”. The attachment was not a PDF, or the PDF had no readable text. Ask for a text-based PDF and send it again.

The invoice has no line item. Automatic matching found no close line item name. Click the invoice, select the Matched Line Item and click Save Changes. You can then confirm it.

A line item is missing from the picker. The line item is mapped to an ad platform integration, or it is not in the active budget.

Nothing appears on the Email Invoices tab. Check that the invoice went to the address shown on the Setup tab.

For additional help you can reach out to our support team at: help@etropo.com

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ExpensesEmail Notifications