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Receive Invoices and Credits (& Let AI Do All The Heavy Lifting)

Written by Sophie Rattray
Updated this week

Invoice processing is one of the most important parts of your inwards goods workflow. In Loaded, AI Invoice Processing is used to automatically update your stock on hand, pricing, and cost of goods sold (COGS).

As you receive invoices, Loaded matches them to your stock items, flags price changes, and tracks stock item variants. Once processed, invoices can be reconciled to a statement and exported to Xero, keeping your stock and accounting systems perfectly aligned.

🔐 What You’ll Need

🔑 Stock Permission

If you cannot access the Stock module, ask someone with Manager permissions to update your access.

What You’ll Learn

Understanding your Receiving Workflow

Receiving invoices may look different depending on your venue and workflow. The key is choosing a process that works consistently for your team. We’ll walk you through four separate scenarios to show how Loaded can work in multiple ways.

Do you order through Loaded?

How do you want to Receive Order Invoices?

Yes

🚀 Via Outstanding Orders Page

Yes

🔗 Via Incoming Invoices Page

Yes

🏆 Manually Receive Invoices Without AI (Click Here!)

No

🍎 Via Incoming Invoices Page

Get Invoices to Loaded via Email or Upload

  • Email → Invoices land in Incoming Invoices when suppliers (or you) send invoices to your unique Loaded email address

  • Upload → Upload a PDF or photo of the invoice when goods arrive

You can use a mix of both email and upload methods depending on how your team operates, and how suppliers send their invoices.

🚀 I order via Loaded and receive from the Outstanding Orders Page.

  • Go to Stock → Ordering → Outstanding Orders

  • Click Receive on the relevant purchase order to match the PO and Invoice

    • If invoices are emailed → select from the Invoice Number dropdown

    • If uploading manually → click the file icon and upload the invoice

🔗 I order via Loaded and receive from the Incoming Invoices Page.

  • Go to Stock → Invoices → Incoming Invoices

  • Click Receive on the relevant invoice

  • If the original Purchase Order number (generated by Loaded at the time of ordering) has been quoted on the invoice, this should be read and pre-populated by AI in the Purchase Order Number field. If this was missed off the supplier invoice you can search for an outstanding purchase order from here

🍎 I don’t order through Loaded but want to receive my invoices with AI Invoice Processing

No worries, this is easy as!

Go to Stock → Invoices → Incoming Invoices

  • Click Receive on the relevant invoice & follow the steps below

Review Invoice Details

Confirm you're happy with the following fields, update them if needed.

Any blue fields mean the supplier or stock item has not automatically matched with an already existing supplier or stock item in Loaded so we either need to create mapping to our existing details (which will be remembered for next time) or we need to create a new supplier or stock item.

  • Supplier → If it’s marked blue select a supplier from the dropdown or create a new supplier by clicking “More” if needed. If it’s grey already, this is mapped and you’re good to go!

  • Received Date → Update this to the date the stock was delivered to site - if you do this process infrequently you’ll want to make sure you backdate this so it doesn’t cause issues for your Stock on Hand figures.

  • Invoice Number, Date, and Total → These fields should match what’s on the supplier invoice already.

Match Invoice Lines to Stock Items

Loaded will automatically match invoice lines where possible (this is done by checking if a variant with a matching stock code or item description already existing on your stock item profile

  • When a Match is Found,

    • The line will be white with the Stock Item, Unit, and Brand matched to the details already in Loaded for that stock item variant

  • When a Match is NOT Found

    • You’ll see a blue line with a ‘NEW’ tag. This means you do not have a stock item variant matching the supplier invoice details saved in Loaded.

To resolve:

  • Click the Stock Item Description

  • Search and select an existing item - if it exists already, click on it and a new variant will be created

    • Items listed as “Original” are items do not yet exist in Loaded

    • Items listed under a Loaded category are stock items that do exist in Loaded

    • Example in GIF below - Pepper

  • If it doesn’t exist yet, click ‘More’ to create a new one

    • Example in GIF below - Sea Salt

Once matched, the row turns white and you can carry on!

When your Invoice & Purchase Orders are linked, you may need to account for supplier substitutions, here’s how:

  • If you receive a substitution, or different variant to what you ordered, your invoice might show with duplicate lines for the same stock item

  • All you need to do is check the Quantity Received is correct for each line

    • The quantity you’ll receive of what you originally ordered will be ‘0.00’

    • The quantity you’ll receive of the substitute that’s been delivered will show on the blue invoice line

  • Both lines (or stock item variants) need to be matched to the same stock item description so none of your Recipe costing or COGs will be impacted by receiving the new variant

  • If you want to use the new variant provided for future orders, set it as the Default Stock Item variant in the dialog prompt after clicking “Receive Goods”

For example, you can see we’ve ordered Stock Item BUT-004 but received the substitution BUT001. While they’re both the same product, we’ll want to map the new variant (BUT001) to the existing Stock Item in Loaded (Butter Premium - Lightly Salted). This will add BUT001 as a variant so you don’t have to change any recipes or reporting.

Key Invoice Fields to Check

  • Code: Loaded will grab this code from the invoice, or leave as ‘Not Set’ if there isn’t one.

  • Stock Item Description: Match to an existing item where possible to avoid duplicates.

    • Use Stock Item Variants to receive different version of the same item that may have different brands, suppliers or units

  • Unit: Must match your Count/Order unit type (weight, volume, count) used across recipes and stock.

  • Quantity Received: Ensure this aligns with the unit selected.

  • Costs (Unit / Total / Tax): Updating one will automatically update the others.

Once everything is matched and confirmed, click “Receive Goods”. You can review this later in Invoice History.

Loaded will automatically update stock on hand, recipe costs and COGS reporting.

AI Invoice Processing Features

1.Default Stock Item Variants

If you receive a stock item variant that is not set as the default for that supplier, you’ll get a prompt asking you if you’d like to update the default.

  • If you update the default stock item variant for the supplier to the variant you’re receiving on this invoice, the next time you order that stock item from that supplier, Loaded will automatically select the new default.

Let’s say a ‘Black Pepper’ stock item is added to a purchase order. In Loaded, there is no stock code for ‘Black Pepper’. Once the invoice is received, Loaded recognizes the stock code PEPPER-123 is a variant for the ‘Black Pepper” stock item. The order and invoice lines won’t match at first because the codes are different, but if you follow the prompts and choose to set the PEPPER-123 variant as the default, Loaded will automatically use this code next time you order ‘Black Pepper’ from this supplier.

2. Price Change Alerts

Loaded highlights price changes directly on the invoice:

  • Red arrow = price increase

  • Green arrow = price decrease

Hover to see the previous price and the link to the most recent invoice.

3. Price Impact Summary

After receiving, you’ll see a summary showing:

  • Stock items with price changes

  • $ and % change

  • Recent price history

  • Recipes impacted by cost changes

This helps you quickly understand how supplier pricing affects your margins.

4. Discounts

If your invoice includes a discount:

  1. Enter the total discount (incl. tax)

  2. Toggle Show discounted item costs if needed

Loaded will use discounted values for price comparisons and COGS calculations.

5. Freight

If your invoice has a freight cost, click “Add Item” then search ‘Freight’. Enter the freight cost in the Unit Cost field. Freight is not categorised as food or beverage and is exported to Xero as it’s own category.

Tips & Tricks

  • Receiving a Credit follows the exact same process, just make sure the quantity received is a negative value.

  • Received Date should always be the date the stock was delivered to site - if you do this process infrequently you’ll want to make sure you backdate this so it doesn’t cause issues for your Stock on Hand figures.

  • Blue line items & ‘NEW’ labels on an invoice mean the item is not matched to an already existing Stock Item in Loaded

    • Select the correct existing item or create a new one

  • If there’s a variant mismatch between the order and the invoice, duplicate lines (black + blue) will show.

    • The black line is what was on the purchase order, and the blue line is what is on the invoice.

    • You don’t need to delete any of the lines. Just ensure Quantity Received is correct, for each line then receive goods

    • Update the default variant when prompted if you want the variant you’re receiving to be the default for future orders.

What's Next?

Once invoices are received, you can:

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