Processing supplier invoices without retyping: a complete guide

A supplier invoice arrives as a PDF by email, as a photo in a chat, or as a printed page in a binder. Either way, its data has to reach the same place: a sheet, your accounting software, or a check against an order. This guide covers what an Israeli tax invoice contains, and an orderly way to get its data out without retyping it.

What a tax invoice contains

Allocation numbers in brief

An allocation number is issued by the Israel Tax Authority for a tax invoice, under the "Israel Invoices" model. The supplier requests it through its invoicing system and it is printed on the invoice. A business that receives an invoice above the set amount can deduct the VAT on it only if the invoice carries an allocation number.

The amount above which an allocation number is required has been lowered in stages since 2024, so check the Tax Authority's site for the current figure. Either way, it is worth extracting the allocation number as a separate field: you see at once which large invoices arrived without one, before they reach your accountant.

From PDF or photo to a sheet

1. Drop the invoice onto the invoice OCR page. A PDF with several pages is read page by page.
2. Check the document type. If a receipt was recognised instead of an invoice, the fields will differ. A combined "tax invoice/receipt" also yields the payment details when they are printed.
3. Go over the fields. A value marked for review needs a look. Clicking a field marks its place on the page, and you can correct it in place.
4. Check the line items in the tables tab. Each table opens in Excel as its own sheet, with numbers as numbers.
5. Export to Excel. The fields sheet lists the field, the value, the normalised value and a column showing what needed review. Dates are stored as dates, and amounts as numbers you can calculate with.

Each invoice exports to its own file. To build a monthly list, copy the value column from the fields sheet and paste it into a new row of your list with Paste Special and Transpose.

Checks worth running on every invoice

Even when the reading is accurate, the invoice itself can be wrong. Four simple checks in Excel, with the amount before VAT in column B, the VAT in C and the total in D:

• The amounts add up: =ROUND(B2+C2-D2,2)=0 returns TRUE when the total equals the amount plus VAT.
• The VAT rate is right: =ROUND(B2*18%,2)=C2 for an ordinary Israeli transaction. Exempt or zero-rated transactions return FALSE, which is exactly what you want to look at.
• The supplier number looks valid: =LEN(E2)=9 with the VAT number in column E.
• No duplicates: =COUNTIFS(A:A,A2,F:F,F2)>1 flags an invoice number already seen from the same supplier, with the supplier in column A and the invoice number in F.

Invoices in English and in two languages

Invoices from suppliers abroad are read the same way, and field names are shown in the interface language. In a document that mixes Hebrew and English, the text comes out in each line's reading order and numbers stay whole. Mind the currency: it is kept as a separate field, and nothing is converted.

What not to do

• Do not skip the check. Automatic reading can be wrong, and a wrong amount slips quietly into reports.
• Do not throw away the original. The data in the sheet does not replace the invoice itself. Keep it as your bookkeeping rules require.
• Do not post to your system before checking. Fixing a sheet is easier than reversing an entry.