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.
đ What Youâll Need
đ Stock Permission
If you cannot access the Stock module, ask someone with Manager permissions to update your access.
What Youâll Learn
How do you want to Receive Order Invoices?
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. Weâll 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 | |
Yes | |
Yes | |
No |
Get Invoices to Loaded via Email or Upload
Email â Invoices land in Incoming Invoices when suppliers (or you) send invoices to your unique Loaded email address
Upload â 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.
đ I order via Loaded and receive from the Outstanding Orders Page.
Go to Stock â Ordering â Outstanding Orders
Click Receive on the relevant purchase order to match the PO and Invoice
If invoices are emailed â select from the Invoice Number dropdown
If uploading manually â click the file icon and upload the invoice
Jump to Review Invoice Details
đ I order via Loaded and receive from the Incoming Invoices Page.
Go to Stock â Invoices â 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
Jump to Review Invoice Details
đ I donât order through Loaded but want to receive my invoices with AI Invoice Processing
No worries, this is easy as!
Go to Stock â Invoices â 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 â If itâs marked blue select a supplier from the dropdown or create a new supplier by clicking âMoreâ if needed. If itâs grey already, this is mapped and youâre good to go!
Received Date â Update this to the date the stock was delivered to site - if you do this process infrequently youâll want to make sure you backdate this so it doesnât cause issues for your Stock on Hand figures.
Invoice Number, Date, and Total â These fields should match whatâs 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
Youâll see a blue line with a âNEWâ 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 âOriginalâ 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 doesnât exist yet, click âMoreâ 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, hereâs 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 youâll receive of what you originally ordered will be â0.00â
The quantity youâll receive of the substitute thatâs 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 âReceive Goodsâ
For example, you can see weâve ordered Stock Item BUT-004 but received the substitution BUT001. While theyâre both the same product, weâll 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 donât have to change any recipes or reporting.
Key Invoice Fields to Check
Code: Loaded will grab this code from the invoice, or leave as âNot Setâ if there isnât 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 âReceive Goodsâ. You can review this later in Invoice History.
Your Cost of Goods and Gross Profit reports will automatically be updated based on the stock levels and pricing of the goods received.
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, youâll get a prompt asking you if youâd like to update the default.
If you update the default stock item variant for the supplier to the variant youâre receiving on this invoice, the next time you order that stock item from that supplier, Loaded will automatically select the new default.
Letâs say a âBlack Pepperâ stock item is added to a purchase order. In Loaded, there is no stock code for âBlack Pepperâ. Once the invoice is received, Loaded recognizes the stock code PEPPER-123 is a variant for the âBlack Pepperâ stock item. The order and invoice lines wonât 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 âBlack Pepperâ 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, youâll 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:
Enter the total discount (incl. tax)
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 âAdd Itemâ then search âFreightâ. Enter the freight cost in the Unit Cost field. Freight is not categorised as food or beverage and is exported to Xero as itâs own category.
AI Invoice Processing FAQs
Q: How do I delete an invoice?
A: From the Incoming Invoices page, click âReceiveâ next to the invoice you want to delete, then on the Receive Invoice page click âDeleteâ.
Q: What do I do if an invoice is âNot Recognisedâ and thereâs a âDeleteâ button instead of a âReceiveâ button?
A: This means Loaded hasnât recognised the document youâve emailed or uploaded as an invoice. You can let us know this has happened by sending a copy of the invoice to support@loadedhub.com so we can update our AI Model to categorise the invoice correctly. In the meantime, double check your invoice file is a PDF or JPEG no larger than 10MB. You can also manually create an invoice by clicking âUploadâ on the Incoming Invoices page and then checking the box âCreate invoice manually without uploadingâ.
Q: Where do I add a freight or delivery charge?
A: At the bottom of the invoice lines, click âAdd Itemâ then type Freight and select the Freight item. Then enter the cost of the freight or delivery fee in the Total Cost for that line.
Q: What happens if the Invoice total is Loaded is slightly different (no more than a few cents) to the total on the actual invoice?
A: This is usually due to Loaded rounding differently to the supplierâs calculation on the invoice. Loaded will automatically round the invoice if itâs within 10 cents of the âInvoice Totalâ field. If the difference is more than 10 cents, check the Unit Cost and Total Cost of each line item and make adjustments if needed. If you need to make a bigger adjustment, you can select âAdd Itemâ and create a stock item called âRoundingâ, then enter the amount needed for the invoice to match.
Q: Why do I need to match the Supplier field before some of the line items match (i.e. turn white)?
A: Loaded needs the Supplier to match the correct stock item variant (theoretically you could have two stock item variants that have the same stock code, but different supplier).
Q: Can I upload and receive a Credit Note?
A: You can send or upload a credit note to Loaded in the same way as you send or upload an invoice. A few things to note:
Enter the stock item and make sure the Quantity Received value is negative, to account for any received stock that is being credited.
Enter the dollar value fields (make sure these arenât negative). You may need to do this manually while Loaded learns how to read credit notes correctly.
The dollar value of the credit note will update your Gross Profit and Purchases reports.
You can reconcile Credit Notes with Supplier Statements, and export them to Xero from the Received Invoices report.
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Q: How do I apply a discount the Supplier has provided on the invoice?
A: Enter the Discount in the Discount incl Tax field at the bottom of the invoice. Loaded will automatically update the line item costs, and you can use the toggle that appears to see the line items including or not including the discount.
Q: I received an email saying âWe couldn't process your invoiceâ email
A: If you receive this email from Loaded, check you sent a JPG, PNG or PDF file format. If you think the invoice format is correct, please send a copy of it to support@loadedhub.com explaining what you did and the message you got.
Q: How do I set up auto-forwarding my invoices to Loaded from a Gmail account?
A: Find out out how auto-forward invoices to Loaded from Gmail here: Auto-forwarding invoices to Loaded from Gmail
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Q: How shall I handle keg deposits that are included in my invoice line item price?
A: If your invoice line items include a keg deposit, we recommend creating a âKeg Depositsâ stock item and adding that as a separate line item on the invoice. Then youâll need to calculate the correct Unit cost and Total price for each line item.
Known Constraints
Issue Summary | Description | Workaround |
Quantity Received and Unit Cost donât automatically update if Unit is changed | If you need to manually match or create a new unit for a line item, the Quantity Received and Unit Cost fields won't automatically update. | Manually update the Qty Received field. Then calculate Total Cost / Qty Received = Unit Cost |
GST in Australia | Currently Loaded does not automatically categorise food items as GST-free or taxable based on Australian GST rules. | Update the Tax Value for the Stock Item to set whether or not it includes GST. In the Receive Invoice page you can manually select the correct tax type per line item in the Tax column. |
Multiple Invoices in one PDF from Supplier | If a Supplier sends you multiple invoices in one PDF document, Loaded cannot currently process those as separate invoices. Loaded can only process one invoice per file. | Ask Supplier to send each invoice as a separate PDF/file. |
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 youâll want to make sure you backdate this so it doesnât cause issues for your Stock on Hand figures.
Blue line items & âNEWâ 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 thereâs 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 donât 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 youâre receiving to be the default for future orders.
What's Next?
Once invoices are received, you can:
Reconcile supplier statements
Review Live COGS reporting