Accounts Payable | Bill Capture & OCR

Bills land. Captured, classified, ready for approval.

Email forwards, PDF uploads, vendor portal pushes and WhatsApp captures all flow into one queue. OCR reads header fields at 95 to 98% accuracy and line items at 88 to 92% on Indian B2B layouts. Vendor matched on PAN + GSTIN. PO and GRN linked. TDS classified per line. The bill arrives at the approver already worked, not waiting.

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How bills enter the books today

Capture is where the AP cycle quietly loses its days.

Bills arrive in twelve different ways. The vendor email, the accountant forward, the SAP B1 push, the WhatsApp PDF from the procurement officer's phone. Then the AP team takes over:

Header fields are keyed in by hand from a printed copy.
Line items typed into the GL one row at a time, GST splits done in a calculator.
Vendor master searched by name (which doesn't match the invoice's spelling), then by GSTIN (which the vendor sometimes types wrong).
PO and GRN matched by opening three tabs and eyeballing the numbers.

Three minutes a bill, twelve hundred bills a month. Multiply that out before approvals start, and capture has cost the team a week.

How it works

From inbox to approval-ready, in under a minute.

Step 01

Bills land, however they arrive

Email forwards land in a dedicated inbox per entity. Vendor portal uploads, drag-and-drop PDFs, WhatsApp captures and ERP pushes all post into the same queue.

Step 02

OCR reads header and lines

Header fields lifted at 95 to 98% accuracy on Indian B2B layouts (Tally print, Marg, Busy, Zoho, SAP B1 and custom formats). Line items at 88 to 92%. Confidence shown per field.

Step 03

Vendor matched on PAN and GSTIN

Match runs against the vendor master with PAN as the anchor and GSTIN as the state-level disambiguator. Handles vendors operating across multiple states without creating duplicates.

Step 04

PO and GRN linked

Open POs and posted GRNs surfaced for the matched vendor. Three-way match status (full, partial or no PO) attached to the bill before approval routing starts.

Step 05

TDS section + rate per line

Each line resolved to its TDS section (194C, 194J, 194Q, 194O) and rate, with vendor PAN status and FY threshold cross-checked. The bill is approval-ready by the time it reaches the approver.

What the system does

Capability, input, output.

Capability	Input	Output
Email-to-bill ingest	Forwarded email + attachments	OCR-staged bill in capture queue
Format coverage	Native PDF, scanned PDF, photo, embedded image	Same extraction pipeline for all
Indian layout training	Tally, Marg, Busy, Zoho, SAP B1, custom	Header 95 to 98%, lines 88 to 92%
Vendor matching	Invoice PAN + GSTIN + name	Single matched record across multi-state GSTINs
Live GSTIN status	Captured GSTIN	Active, cancelled or suspended status from CBIC
PO + GRN linkage	Vendor + amount + date window	3-way status (full, partial, no-PO)
TDS line classification	Line description + GL + vendor type	Section + rate + threshold flag per line
Duplicate detection	PAN + GSTIN + invoice no + date	Flag with link to the original posting

Email-to-bill ingest

Input

Forwarded email + attachments

Output

OCR-staged bill in capture queue
Format coverage

Input

Native PDF, scanned PDF, photo, embedded image

Output

Same extraction pipeline for all
Indian layout training

Input

Tally, Marg, Busy, Zoho, SAP B1, custom

Output

Header 95 to 98%, lines 88 to 92%
Vendor matching

Input

Invoice PAN + GSTIN + name

Output

Single matched record across multi-state GSTINs
Live GSTIN status

Input

Captured GSTIN

Output

Active, cancelled or suspended status from CBIC
PO + GRN linkage

Input

Vendor + amount + date window

Output

3-way status (full, partial, no-PO)
TDS line classification

Input

Line description + GL + vendor type

Output

Section + rate + threshold flag per line
Duplicate detection

Input

PAN + GSTIN + invoice no + date

Output

Flag with link to the original posting

Compliance + integrations

Capture isn't an island.

Every bill that enters the system resolves to a vendor, a tax position and a 3-way match status before it moves on. The capture step is treated as a tracked event with the same audit-trail rigour that applies to a posted journal entry.

Regulations we work within

Section 16, CGST Act

ITC eligibility tagged at capture, not at filing time.
Section 31 + Rule 46

Mandatory invoice fields validated at capture; missing fields surface for vendor follow-up.
Rule 36(4)

2B match status linked to the captured bill; ITC at risk visible before approval.
Sections 194C, 194J, 194Q, 206C(1H)

Section, rate and FY threshold resolved per line at capture.
Rule 11(g), Companies Act

Captured bill stored with append-only edit trail.
IT Act 2000, Section 4

Digital invoices retain the same legal weight as paper originals.

Connects to

Email gateway Forward-to-capture per entity
Vendor portal Self-service invoice upload
Tally Prime Bidirectional sync
Zoho Books Native connector
SAP Business One Native connector
NetSuite Native connector

Bill Capture & OCR FAQ

What buyers ask.

Will OCR handle a vendor who sends a JPG of the invoice from his phone?

Yes. Photographed bills, embedded image emails, scanned PDFs and native PDFs all run through the same pipeline. Confidence drops from 95 to 98% on a clean PDF to 88 to 94% on a phone photo, with line items at 80 to 88%. Confidence is shown per field, so the team reviews only what isn't certain.

What if the vendor's invoice doesn't have a GSTIN?

Vendors below the GST registration threshold don't have GSTINs. The capture flow tags those as 'composition or unregistered' and routes the bill to the RCM (reverse charge) workflow where applicable, or to the ineligible-ITC bucket otherwise. PAN remains the anchor.

Can we capture into a non-default cost-centre or project?

Yes. The OCR can lift cost-centre, project or department from custom fields if the vendor's invoice carries them. If not, the AP team or approver can set them inline. Rule-based defaults by vendor are also supported.

How does this compare to Tally's or Zoho's built-in invoice import?

Tally Prime and Zoho Books read structured CSV or XML imports cleanly, but they struggle with unstructured PDFs from long-tail vendors who don't use standardised software. OneFinOps capture is built for that. The captured bill syncs back to the ERP, so the books in Tally or Zoho can stay the system of record where the team prefers.

Our existing AP team is used to the Tally Voucher screen. Will they accept this?

The capture review screen mirrors the voucher pattern (header at top, lines in the middle, GL coding on the right). Same mental model, fewer keystrokes. Tally hotkeys are mapped where they make sense. Adoption typically lands inside the first month.

Related features

Forward your next bill. We'll do the rest.

Set up a capture inbox in 10 minutes. Forward one bill. Header, lines, vendor match and TDS classification all done before you've finished your morning email.