** Last updated on April 30, 2025 **
Enterprises want to automate processes in their finance systems to improve user productivity. Suppliers send their invoices in different ways to their customers. By automating supplier invoice creation in your ERP system, your finance staff can focus on more strategic aspects of your business.
You can create supplier invoices in Oracle Cloud ERP in many different ways:
Electronic invoicing: Oracle Fusion Payables provides an inbound flow for receiving invoices from suppliers electronically in industry standard XML. Oracle Fusion Collaboration Messaging Framework (CMK) is used to set up business to business (B2B) messaging between customer and suppliers.
Supplier Portal: Supplier Portal is a collaborative application that enables buying (deploying) companies and their suppliers to communicate with each other. The Supplier portal invoice creation is part of the Manage Invoices business process.
Intelligent Document Recognition (IDR): The Intelligent Document Recognition (IDR) predicts invoice information from the emailed documents to create invoices and then import them into Payables. Use machine learning to improve recognition rate for supplier invoices over time.
Payables Standard Invoice Import: Use the FBDI template for Import Payables Invoices process to create invoices from invoice records in the Oracle Fusion Payables open interface tables.
Manually: Create Invoices manually through Spreadsheet or UI.
This blog focuses on the top 10 frequently asked questions (FAQ) and answers for IDR.
Summary of IDR Capabilities
IDR offers a fully integrated supplier invoice recognition solution that supports the entire invoice lifecycle. This includes document capture, recognition, routing, invoice creation, approval, and payment, with a seamless and secure user experience. If recognition of certain invoice fields fails for a given supplier, IDR learns from corrections you make to invoices. It understands how to predict invoice fields in future for that specific supplier. This adaptive learning approach improves invoice recognition rates over time.
IDR FAQ Top 10
| # | Question | Response |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Which supplier invoice and credit memo document formats does IDR support? | IDR supports the following invoice and credit memo document file extensions: PDF, TIF, TIFF, PNG, JPEG, DOC, and DOCX. For instance, some suppliers email invoices in pdf format. In addition, you may receive some paper invoices and credit memos from suppliers. In that case our recommendation is that you scan such invoices using TIFF document file extension. |
| 2 | When suppliers send us various invoice formats and they get processed through IDR what document format gets stored as the attachment in the AP module? | The document is stored as a Standard, Searchable PDF. For example, if your Supplier sent a Microsoft word document, or PNG file, or TIFF file, the attachment will be stored as a searchable PDF. Now if your Supplier sends a color invoice, the attachment will store as a color PDF. If your Supplier sends a black and white invoice, the attachment will store a black and white PDF. |
| 3 | If some suppliers send invoices in paper format, what are your recommendations for scanning those invoices to IDR? |
Invoices in a supported digital format can be sent electronically by suppliers via email. Ideally, suppliers should email electronic PDF (textual) invoices as that would minimize IDR processing errors. However, our recommendation for supplier invoices received in printed physical format (paper) is to scan them in and then send by email. For best document quality, set up the scanners to produce TIFF or PDF documents with International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT) Group IV compression at 300 dpi, and with page size as Letter, or A4. |
| 4 | Does the adaptive learning also work for other fields than Invoice number? | Yes, there are many other fields at invoice header and line level on which adaptive learning can be done, refer to Using Payables Invoice to Pay guide on Intelligent Document Recognition here. With the 25A quarterly update IDR can now compare similarity of invoices, enabling Adaptive Learning for supplier corrections. Making supplier corrections to incomplete invoices teaches IDR to recognize the correct supplier for subsequent invoices. IDR compares text, layout, and supplier logos from invoices to identify and match a supplier’s invoice template. For more information, refer to documentation here. |
| 5 | Can tax registration number be used by IDR to identify a supplier? | Tax registration number is one of the fields considered by IDR alongside other fields for supplier recognition such as supplier name, address (on pay site), supplier website, email address, telephone number, and more. |
| 6 | Can I process an invoice from a supplier through IDR even if the supplier hasn’t been defined in the system? | Best practice is to ensure supplier record exists in the system for any invoice that’s processed through IDR for good supplier recognition rates. |
| 7 | Why do I need to flag internal suppliers? | It is best practice is to exclude internal suppliers. This is because most of your external suppliers will include your bill to and ship to address on invoices and that conflicts with the supplier detection capabilities. |
| 8 | How does IDR process an invoice where supplier name and address are in an embedded image within the invoice? | If an embedded image is included for supplier name and address, then IDR will use other fields such as tax registration number, supplier website, email address, telephone number, and more to identify a supplier. If necessary, IDR may re-route invoice to use OCR for reading the data in the embedded image, as explained in Oracle Cloud Customer Connect webcast for 22D ERP highlights here: https://community.oracle.com/customerconnect/events/604099-erp-release- highlights-for-oracle-fusion-cloud-financials-in-22d |
| 9 | Can IDR learning be migrated from test to production pod? | Yes. That will allow you to test invoices, make corrections, and have the learning migrated. You request that migration via a SR. For more information refer to this Oracle Cloud Customer Connect post: https://community.oracle.com/customerconnect/discussion/739171/how-to-migrate-invoice-image-learning-from-the-test-environment-to-production-during-the-go-live |
| 10 | Which languages are currently supported by IDR? | IDR supported languages are listed Using Invoices to Pay guide on Intelligent Document Recognition here. |
To learn more about Intelligent Document Recognition capabilities refer to the Intelligent Document Recognition section in the Implementing Payables Invoice to Pay guide and the Scan Invoices Using IDR section in the Using Payables Invoice to Pay guide.
Conclusion
IDR enables our customers to quickly process supplier invoices from entry to payment. This end-to-end solution requires minimal setup and configuration, thereby reducing the total cost of ownership and enhancing capital management.