Capture a supplier invoice from a photo or PDF

Instead of typing up every supplier invoice, upload it as a photo or PDF. Univents reads the supplier, invoice number, dates and amounts automatically. You check the values, assign the invoice to a budget envelope and book it — it only counts as a cost once you click Book.

The video shows the whole path from the upload to the “Paid” tick in about two minutes.

Play video2:03

You’ll find the individual steps written out below as well. Everything about correcting and cancelling invoices and about permissions is covered in Event Finances: Revenue, Costs & Margin per Event.

Where to upload supplier invoices

• Invoice for an event: Open the event and switch to the Finance tab. You’ll find the Supplier invoices section there.
• Invoice without an event (for example insurance, rent, vehicles): Open Finance Documents in the sidebar, click Supplier invoices in the top right and scroll down to the Without an event section.

The Supplier invoices page also lists every invoice in your workspace, across all events. Supplier invoices are available from the Core plan.

Step 1: Upload the invoice

1. In the Supplier invoices section, click Upload invoices.
2. Drag one or more files into the window or click Select files. PDFs, photos in JPEG, PNG or WebP format and e-invoice files with the .xml extension are accepted, up to 30 files at once. On your phone you can photograph the receipt directly.
3. Click Upload.

Univents can’t read photos in HEIC format, the iPhone camera’s default. On your iPhone, go to Settings → Camera → Formats and choose “Most Compatible”, or upload a JPEG or PNG instead.

Step 2: Let Univents read it

After the upload the invoice shows Waiting. Univents reads waiting invoices automatically every few minutes — you don’t have to do anything. If you don’t want to wait, click Process now and reading starts immediately.

As soon as the status says Ready to review, the values are in. If it says Reading failed, Univents couldn’t read the receipt — check that the photo is sharp and complete, and upload it again if needed. If the document doesn’t look like an invoice, for example because it’s a supplier quote, a note under the row says so and points you to the Supplier quote button in your quote (Adopt a supplier quote); otherwise the note tells you that you can enter the values by hand via Review & book.

Reading supplier invoices is not deducted from your AI credits.

E-invoices: XRechnung and ZUGFeRD

More and more suppliers no longer send a scanned invoice but an e-invoice: an XRechnung as an XML file, or a ZUGFeRD PDF with the invoice data embedded in machine-readable form. Univents reads both straight from the file.

• XML file — upload it like a PDF (.xml extension). Instead of the receipt, the preview shows a note with Open in new tab; XML can’t be displayed as a page in the browser.
• ZUGFeRD PDF — upload it as usual. Univents takes the embedded invoice data instead of interpreting the printed text.

Because an e-invoice’s details aren’t guessed but read out, they are exact — supplier, invoice number, dates, due date and amounts alike. Reading therefore takes only seconds and runs no AI call.

Credit notes and prepayment invoices (type 381 and 386) are not supplier invoices. If Univents recognises one, it fills in no values — the row stays on Reading failed. Booking a credit note as a supplier invoice would raise your costs instead of lowering them; that’s why Univents deliberately writes nothing here.

Partial invoices (type 326), corrected invoices (type 384) and invoices under the self-billing procedure (type 389) are ordinary supplier invoices: they are read and booked like any other invoice.

Step 3: Review and choose a budget envelope

1. Click Review & book on the invoice. The Review & book invoice window opens.
2. At the top you see a preview of the receipt. Open in new tab shows it at full size.
3. Below, compare Supplier, Invoice number, Invoice date, Due date, Net, Gross and VAT with the receipt and correct anything that’s off. If the window says Read with low confidence — please review., take a particularly close look. An empty field is one Univents couldn’t read reliably — fill it in by hand. Underneath it shows the Supplier VAT ID. It is only filled for e-invoices (where it sits in the file in machine-readable form) and you can overwrite or clear it at any time. It changes nothing about amounts or booking — it’s there for your bookkeeping.
4. Under Supplier (contact) you can optionally link the invoice to a contact from your address book. Univents suggests matching contacts but never picks one on its own.
5. Choose the right envelope under Budget envelope. If there isn’t one yet, click + New envelope, enter Envelope name and Budget net, and confirm with Create. An envelope is a pot with a fixed net budget, for example “Tech” or “Drinks”.

Step 3b: Reconcile it against the order (optional)

If you have an order from that supplier in the system, you can link the invoice to it. The window then shows at a glance whether the invoice matches the order.

1. Pick the matching order under Order. Univents suggests orders from the same supplier for the same event first, then the supplier’s other orders. Nothing is preselected — you decide. Orders without an event are listed as well.

2. Below that you get three rows with numbers and a label:

   • Ordered — quantity and net total from the order.
   • Delivered (goods receipt) — what actually arrived according to the goods receipt.
   • Invoiced — the invoice’s net amount.

   Each row is labelled matches, deviates (with amount and percentage, for example “€40.00 (8%)”) or not comparable.

3. Not comparable means the basis for comparing is missing — an agreed price, an extracted invoice amount or a booked goods receipt, for example. That is not an error, and it is explicitly not “matches”.

4. If something deviates, the hint Deviation from order appears. When you click Book, Univents asks once (“Book despite the deviation?”). Confirm if the deviation is intended, for instance a partial delivery or a price adjustment. A deviation never stops you — it just makes sure you have seen it.

The link is optional, you can remove it at any time (option No order), and it changes nothing about the amounts, the booking or the budget envelope. You book without an order exactly as before. On the Supplier invoices list, linked invoices carry the Order linked chip, plus Deviation from order if something deviates.

Step 4: Book

Click Book. The invoice now shows Booked:

• In the event’s Finance tab, its net amount counts as an expense.
• In the Budget envelopes section you can see how much of the envelope has been spent and how much remains.

If you picked the wrong envelope, change it later with Change envelope. To correct amounts on a booked invoice, use the pencil icon.

Step 5: Keep an eye on due dates and mark as paid

Every invoice shows its due date:

• Overdue — the due date has passed and the invoice hasn’t been paid yet.
• Due soon — it falls due within the next seven days.
• No due date — no date could be read. Add it via the pencil icon under Due date.

Univents highlights these invoices in the list; it does not send an email or notification reminder for them. On the Supplier invoices page, By due date sorts everything by urgency.

Once the invoice has been transferred, tick Paid on the booked invoice. A second click removes the tick again. The tick doesn’t change your costs or the budget envelope — booked means “counts as a cost”, paid means “the money has gone out”.

Frequently asked questions

Does every invoice have to belong to an event? No. Capture overheads in the Without an event section on the Supplier invoices page and book them against a general envelope.

Can I delete a booked invoice? Yes, via the bin icon. A booked invoice is cancelled and taken back out of its envelope; the uploaded file stays stored as a receipt. Details in Event Finances: Revenue, Costs & Margin per Event.

Do I have to book a goods receipt before I can book the invoice? No. A goods receipt is not a precondition. If nothing has been booked as delivered for an order, the Delivered row shows 0 and the label not comparable — you can still book the invoice.

I have a quote from a supplier, not an invoice. There’s a separate path for that, which pulls the line items including your markup into your own document: Adopt a supplier quote into your own quote — with a markup.

My supplier sends an e-invoice as an XML file. Can I upload that? Yes. Univents reads XRechnung (XML) and ZUGFeRD PDFs straight from the file — see E-invoices: XRechnung and ZUGFeRD above.