Overview

Not every vendor document is a standard invoice requesting payment. Vendors also send credit notes that reduce what you owe, memos that clarify or supplement an existing invoice, and amended bills that correct earlier charges. This article covers how Spendflo handles these advanced document types and the additional capabilities available in the Invoice Inbox beyond basic invoice processing.

? Coming Soon — Full credit note and memo management is planned for an upcoming P2P release. This article documents the behaviour currently in scope and flags what is roadmapped.

Who Is This For?

Key Concepts

How Spendflo Classifies Incoming Documents

When a document arrives in the Invoice Inbox — via email, upload, or cloud storage — Spendflo's AI classifies it before extracting any data. The classification determines how the document is routed.

Handling Credit Notes

A credit note is a vendor document that reduces what you owe. Common scenarios:

• Vendor overcharged you on a previous invoice and is issuing a credit

• You returned goods and the vendor is crediting the value

• A negotiated discount is being applied post-invoice

Current Behaviour

When Spendflo detects an incoming document as a credit note:

1. It is processed through the extraction pipeline (vendor identification, field extraction)

2. It is routed to Needs Review with a Credit Note flag

3. A Finance Executive reviews and takes one of two actions:

   • Confirm — the credit note is recorded against the vendor for future reconciliation

   • Reject — the document is rejected (e.g. if it was received in error)

? Coming Soon — Automated credit note matching against existing bills and automatic balance reduction against the vendor's outstanding payables are planned for a future release.

What to Do with a Credit Note Today

Until full automated credit note processing is available:

1. Confirm the credit note in Spendflo to record it as received

2. Note the credit amount and reference the original invoice number

3. Apply the credit manually when processing the next payment to this vendor — enter the net amount (original bill amount minus credit) when marking the bill payment as paid

Invoice Amendments

When a vendor sends a corrected version of an invoice they already sent:

1. The revised invoice arrives in the inbox

2. Spendflo's duplicate detection may flag it as a potential duplicate (same vendor and invoice number, different amount or date)

3. It appears in Needs Review with a "Potential duplicate" indicator and the conflicting field highlighted

4. A Finance Executive reviews:

   • If the original invoice has not been confirmed yet → Confirm the amended version; reject the original

   • If the original invoice has been confirmed and a bill created → Reject the amended document and handle the correction as a bill amendment (void the original bill, create a new bill with the corrected values)

Statements of Account

Vendors sometimes send periodic statements listing all outstanding invoices, payments, and balances. These are reference documents - not actionable invoices — and should not create bills.

How Spendflo handles them:

• Spendflo identifies statements of account as non-invoices during the triage stage

• They are not shown in the invoice list

• They are accessible in the Document Store for reference

• If a statement is accidentally uploaded directly via the invoice upload UI, Spendflo shows an inline message: "This file does not appear to be an invoice. Please upload a valid invoice." — and the file is not added to the invoice list.

Handling Vendor Disputes from Spendflo

If an invoice has a discrepancy — wrong amount, incorrect line items, incorrect payment terms — you can contact the vendor directly from the Bill Detail page without leaving Spendflo.

Sending a Vendor Email from a Bill

1. Open the bill from the Bills listing

2. Click Contact Vendor on the bill detail page

3. An email composer opens, pre-populated with:

   • Vendor's contact email address

   • Bill number and vendor name

   • Your organisation's AP email as the sender

4. Add your message explaining the discrepancy or request

5. Send — the email thread is linked to the bill record for audit purposes

All vendor correspondence is kept on the bill, so the full communication history is visible to any Finance Executive or Admin reviewing that bill.

Advanced Invoice Search & Filtering

Beyond the standard filters, the Invoice Inbox supports fine-grained filtering for complex AP workflows.

Filtering by Rejection Reason

When filtering by Rejected status, an additional Rejection Reason filter becomes available:

This filter helps Finance teams quickly find and investigate specific rejection categories — for example, regularly reviewing "Manually rejected" items for patterns that might indicate a process issue.

Filtering for Potential Duplicates

When filtering for Needs Review invoices, a Potential Duplicate filter lets you quickly find all invoices where Spendflo has flagged a match against an existing record.

Audit Trail for Invoice Processing

Every action taken on an invoice — by a human or by the AI — is recorded in the invoice's audit trail. This is accessible from the Invoice Detail page.

FAQs

Q: A vendor sent both a credit note and an invoice in the same email. How does Spendflo handle this? Spendflo processes each attachment independently. The invoice proceeds through normal extraction and routing. The credit note is identified separately and routed to Needs Review with a Credit Note flag.

Q: Should I reject a credit note if we have not yet confirmed the original invoice? No — confirm the credit note as received. Once you have reconciled it with the original invoice, apply the credit when marking the payment.

Q: A vendor sent a corrected invoice but the original was already paid. What do I do? If the correction is for an underpayment, process the difference as a new invoice/bill. If it is for an overpayment, treat the correction as a credit note and apply it against the next payment to this vendor.

Q: Can Finance Executives re-open a rejected invoice? Rejected invoices cannot be re-processed automatically. If an invoice was incorrectly rejected, upload the document again via direct upload and it will enter the pipeline as a new invoice.

Troubleshooting & Common Issues