Receive your inwards goods via AI Invoice Processing for accurate stock levels, automatic updates to recipe costs, COGs margins and a quick, simple process.
Prefer to watch a video walkthrough? Click here.
How does it work?
Email or upload invoices to Loaded
Receive invoiced goods in Loaded
Your Stock module updated
Export to Xero: new page
Before you get started:
Do you have ‘Stock’ permission? Read here for more detail on user permissions.
Ensure your invoice is in PDF, JPG, JPEG or PNG format and no larger than 10MB
Upload or Email your invoice to Loaded
Go to Stock > Invoices > Incoming Invoices.
Email: copy your unique email address to send the invoice to, or even better get your Suppliers to email their invoices directly to Loaded.
Upload: take a photo from your phone, or upload a copy of your invoice.*
*Get your team to bookmark this URL, or add it to their phone home screen so they can easily open it when they need to upload an invoice.
Receive the Invoice
Top tip: click the file icon in the top right hand corner so you can reference the invoice as you go.
1. Enter the invoice information
Select the Supplier from the drop-down list, or click ‘More’ to create a new Supplier
Enter the Purchase Order number if you are linking this invoice to a Loaded purchase order
Check the Invoice Number, Invoice Date and Invoice Total values match the invoice
2. Match the invoice lines to Loaded Stock Items
Loaded will try to match each invoice line to a Loaded Stock Item. If it cannot find a match, the row will be red, so you can search for the stock item or create a new one. The row will turn from red to white when Loaded has matched the line to a Stock Item.
Code: Loaded will grab the code from the invoice (or leave as Not Set if there is no stock code).
Stock Item Description: Enter the name of the Loaded Stock Item and match it in the dropdown list.
Check to see if you already have a Stock Item set up in Loaded before creating a new one. If you do, just select the Stock Item from the dropdown to match it to the invoice line. Loaded uses Stock Item Variants so you can receive different versions of the same item i.e. different brands, ordering from different suppliers, or purchasing different units.
To create a new Stock Item type and click 'More' and follow the prompts.
Brand: Enter the brand or leave as ‘Not Set’
Unit: Check you’re receiving a unit that is the same type (volume, weight or count) as you use in your Loaded recipes, or in the product you sell to your customers. You can enter a different unit to what is on the invoice to make sure you’re consistent with the rest of your Stock module in Loaded.
Quantity Received: Check this aligns with the unit you’ve entered. The Unit x Quantity Received should equal the total quantity of the stock item you’re receiving.
Unit Cost, Tax & Total Cost*: These can be edited and will automatically update if you edit one of them.
*AU only: click the value in the Tax field and select ‘Exempt’ for items that are exempt from GST and Loaded will remember this next time you order that stock item.)
3. Receive the Goods:
Click ‘Receive Goods’ > this will automatically update your stock on hand levels, recipe costs and COGs reports giving you smooth, accurate stock management! You can view and edit the invoice in the ‘Invoice History’ page.
Stock Item Price Change Alerts
Price Alert on the Receive Invoice Page:
If the price of a stock item has changed since you last received it, we’ll show you whether that price has increased or decreased. You’ll see this indicated next to the Unit Cost value with:
A red ‘up’ arrow indicating the price has increased
A green ‘down’ arrow indicating the price has decreased
If you hover over the arrow, you’ll see a tooltip telling you what the price was when you last received that stock item, with a link to the invoice (or purchase order) it was received on:
Key things to know:
You’ll need to match the Stock Item Description field and enter the Unit you are receiving before Loaded will calculate if the price has changed since you last received that stock item.
The price that you see in the tooltip will show you what the price would be in the last invoice you received, based on the unit selected on this invoice. This means you can easily compare the price from the last invoice to this invoice, even if you received a different unit in the last invoice.
Price Alert Dialog after receiving an Invoice:
This dialog is an awesome tool giving you visibility of the difference in your COGs margins for stock items, and recipes using those stock items.
The dialog will show you:
Stock item price changes:
A list of stock items where the price has changed
The $ value of the price difference from the last invoice
The % value of the price difference from the last invoice
Stock cost history for each stock item:
A list of recent invoices for the stock item where the price has changed
Open a recent invoice to easily compare the price difference
Recipes impacted by price changes:
A list of recipes that use stock items where the price has changed*
Compare the current cost and new cost of the recipe based on the price changes
Compare the COGs % margin of the recipe based on the price changes
*Recipes must be linked to a POS item and will appear in order of the most sold over the previous month.
Discounts
If your invoice includes a discount:
Enter the value of the total discount in the Discount incl tax field
A 'Show discounted item costs' toggle will appear. Turn this on to see the discounted values, or leave it off to see the original values.
Loaded will use the discounted price to see if the stock item price has changed, and to calculate your COGs margins in Recipes and POS Item Links.
Reports & Exporting Invoices to Xero
Once you receive goods via AI Invoice Processing, Loaded will update everything from your recipe cost, stock levels, COGs margins and Gross Profit report.
How do I export invoices received in Loaded to Xero?
Go to Stock > Reports > Received Invoices > Export to Accounting System
Select the invoices to Export and whether you export the invoices individually, or combine all supplier invoices into one entry.
If all your Purchase Orders have a corresponding Invoice that has been received in Loaded, then you should only export to Xero from the Received Invoices Report. The Orders by Supplier report is only for Purchase Orders that do not have a corresponding invoice received in Loaded.
FAQs
Exporting to Xero: How does the new Received Invoices report compare to the Orders by Supplier report?
You can export received invoices to Xero from the Received Invoices page. The Received Invoices page will show all invoices received via AI Invoice Processing, including those that have been connected to Purchase Order.
You only need to use Orders by Supplier if you are ordering through Loaded, and do not connect a Purchase to an Invoice. You can still use the Orders by Supplier report to track orders sent to each supplier.
We recommend the following steps to have the smoothest process to export invoice data to Xero:
1. Invoices are received in Loaded
2. Supplier sends statement
3. Statement is reconciled in Loaded and then sent through as one entry to Xero
4. Payment is made in Xero
This means that all detail is in Loaded, and then the high level expense data is in Xero for your P&L. This means you can ensure inwards goods is actually accurate in Loaded, but don't need to replicate the work of reconciling a statement in Xero.
If I’ve been receiving Purchase Orders in Loaded, how does AI Invoice Processing fit in with this process?
You can still create & send Purchase Orders from Loaded as you’ve been doing
Upload or email your invoice to Loaded, then on the Receive Invoice page, enter the Purchase Order that you want to receive in the ‘Order’ number field
Go through each line and check the quantity ordered vs. the quantity received, and the unit received.
When you click ‘Receive Goods’, you’ll also ‘receive’ that Purchase Order
Export the invoice to Xero from the Received Invoices report (not the Orders by Supplier report if you were previously using that).
Some tips for connecting Purchase Orders to Invoices:
You need to connect the Purchase Order to the Invoice before you receive the Invoice, if you try connecting it afterwards the Purchase Order won’t be marked as received.
If you receive a different unit to what you ordered, you’ll need to mark the quantity received as ‘0’, then add a new line item so you can add the correct unit that you received (which will create a new stock item variant if you haven’t received that unit for that stock item already).
How do I delete an invoice?
From the Incoming Invoices page, click “Receive” next to the invoice you want to delete, then on the Receive Invoice page click “Delete”.
How does Loaded match invoice lines to Stock Items if there are no stock codes?
If the stock item description on the invoice is the same as the stock item name in Loaded, then it will match those items. However if the name on the invoice is different to what's in Loaded, then they won't automatically match and you need to match the stock items manually.
What do I do if an invoice is ‘Not Recognised’ and there’s a ‘Delete’ button instead of a ‘Receive’ button?
This means Loaded hasn’t recognised the document you’ve emailed or uploaded as an invoice. You can let us know this has happened by sending a copy of the invoice to [email protected] so we can update our AI Model to categorise the invoice correctly. In the meantime, you can manually create an invoice by clicking “Upload” on the Incoming Invoices page and then checking the box “Create invoice manually without uploading”.
Where do I add a freight or delivery charge?
At the bottom of the invoice lines, click ‘Add Item’ 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.
How does AI-powered Invoice Processing affect my COGs and Gross Profit reports?
As soon as you click “Receive Goods” to receive an invoice, all your Cost of Goods and Gross Profit reports will be updated based on the stock levels and pricing of the goods received. This works in the same way as if you currently receive Purchase Orders in Loaded.
What happens if the Invoice total is Loaded is slightly different (no more than a few cents) to the total on the actual invoice?
This is usually due to Loaded rounding differently to the supplier’s calculation on the invoice. Loaded will automatically round the invoice if it’s within 10 cents of the ‘Invoice Total’ 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 ‘Add Item’ and create a stock item called ‘Rounding’, then enter the amount needed for the invoice to match.
Why do I need to match the Supplier field before some of the line items match (i.e. turn white)?
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).
Can I upload and receive a Credit Note?
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 aren’t 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.
How do I edit the unit on an invoice line that is matched to a purchase order line?
Purchase order lines cannot be edited. Instead, you should receive the order qty as 0 and add a new line with what you actually receive. This will create a new stock item variant with the new unit that you receive.
How do I apply a discount the Supplier has provided on the invoice?
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.
“We couldn't process your invoice” email: 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 [email protected] explaining what you did and the message you got.
The ‘Receive Goods’ button is greyed out: If you can’t click ‘Receive Goods’ check you’ve entered a unit, quantity received and unit cost for each line item. If this doesn’t work, try clicking ‘Save’ or refreshing the page.
How do I set up auto-forwarding my invoices to Loaded from a Gmail account? Find out out how auto-forward invoices to Loaded from Gmail here:
How shall I handle keg deposits that are included in my invoice line item price? If your invoice line items include a keg deposit, we recommend creating a ‘Keg Deposits’ stock item and adding that as a separate line item on the invoice. Then you’ll need to calculate the correct Unit cost and Total price for each line item.
Known Constraints
Issue Summary | Description | Workaround |
‘Latest Price’ field on Stock Item does not reflect goods received via Invoice | The Latest Price field on the Manage Stock Item dialog is not being updated when that stock item is received via an invoice. This is because we are working on dynamic pricing and showing you when a price has changed since the last time that stock item was ordered. | The Latest Price column on the Manage Stock Items page does show the price for that stock item from the last invoice or purchase order received. |
Quantity Received and Unit Cost don’t 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 |
Stock Items with no stock code | When you receive stock items on an invoice that have no stock code, you will always need to manually match these to the Loaded stock item if the invoice description is different to the Loaded Stock Item name. Loaded won’t automatically match stock items with no stock code, even if you’ve received them before. | Click the Stock Item Description value, then search for the Stock Item set up in Loaded and match it to what you’re receiving on the invoice. |
You can upload one image at a time | The ‘Upload’ feature works best for single page invoices. Currently you can’t upload more than one photo at a time, so it’s tricky to upload an invoice with multiple pages. | Upload a multiple-page PDF file, or combine the photos into a PDF and email to Loaded. This is on our roadmap to improve going forward. |
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. |
Ordering > Order History page doesn’t show Invoice number | We are still working on displaying the Invoice Number in the Order History page. | You can see the Invoice number on the Received Invoices page in the Reports section of the Stock module |