How Rossum Works

Manual invoice data capture belongs in the same technological graveyard as rotary phones, VCRs, and floppy disks. We all have access to a solution that automates invoice text extraction and gives accounts payable (AP) professionals the chance to break free of the repetitive drudgery of manual invoice extraction.

It seems, however, we’re having a hard time letting go of a process that can slow down operations as it drives AP costs up: globally we’re still processing close to 90% of all our invoices manually.

Our purpose at Rossum is to drive that large percentage down with automated invoice capture. Our platform uses artificial intelligence (AI) that gets smarter as it extracts data from invoices. And, unlike traditional template-based optical character recognition (OCR) solutions, Rossum’s AI OCR capabilities eliminate the hassle of creating new templates and rules for every single invoice layout new to your AP process. 

You’re about to learn how you can use Rossum to export data to your accounting system or enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform in minutes. Yes, you read that right: minutes.

See for yourself:

Step 1: Create your Rossum account

Go to the Rossum registration page to create your free account. You don’t need to provide any payment details, and there’s no obligation to buy.  Your trial account is fully configurable and lets you process up to 300 invoices per month at no cost.

First, select the regional format of the invoices you want to process: EU, UK, or US. The region defines the pre-trained data fields you want to extract. You can change regions at any time.

Once this is complete, enter your

• First name
• Last name
• Company name
• Phone number
• Email address

Then create a password. Everything from this point forward is just as simple.

Step 2: Get in the queue

When you’re in the Rossum app, you’ll see a space for queues in the left panel. A queue is an organizational unit that represents a document type, such as EU, UK, or US invoices. You can add, remove, or group queues to suit your needs.

When you use your trial for the first time, the pre-loaded queue contains one sample invoice, which you’ll see in the center of the app.

Rossum is preloaded with data fields the platform understands, so you can start using it immediately. You can edit the structure of the fields you want to capture from each queue.

As you can see, this is just a matter of checking and unchecking boxes.

You can also create custom data fields to meet your specific needs. To do this, you’ll need to speak with our automation experts who will set your fields up and tell you which ones the AI engine can predict.

Step 3: Load up your invoices

Click the “Import” button at the bottom of the app to upload PDFs or scanned images of your invoices to Rossum. You can do this in two ways: via the Rossum UI or via email.

Upload invoices via Rossum UI

To import invoices directly through the UI, drag and drop files into Rossum or select them from Windows Explorer or Mac Finder.

Import invoices via email

When you complete your registration, Rossum creates an inbox you can send your invoices to. Your inbox address is displayed under the UI uploading instructions.

To use this feature, simply forward the invoices you receive to your Rossum inbox. Please note that the total size of the email cannot exceed 40 MB. Also, make sure you’re forwarding individual files, not ZIP files.

Then check the “To review” column in the Rossum app. It may take a few seconds before you see the newly uploaded invoices. Once Rossum has imported them, it will start extracting data.

Step 4: Rossum gets smart

Rossum reads your invoices and extracts data from them automatically. This is where the real magic happens – regardless of whether you upload one invoice or several, data capture only takes 30-60 seconds!

When you consider how long the manual alternatives take per invoice, this is blazing fast.

You also get highly accurate extraction, even when capturing line item data.

Step 5: Take a quick look at what you’ve got

Rossum’s AI engine captures most of the data, but you should still take a few seconds to review the extraction results. The intuitive UI makes data validation 100% hassle-free.

You can see just how quick and simple Rossum makes data validation in this video:

First, select an invoice to review. This opens a validation screen; on the left, you can see a list of data fields that Rossum extracted, and your selected invoice is displayed on the right.

Be sure to review fields with an eye icon as you might need to adjust field contents or remove the fields completely.

While checking fields with an eye icon is optional, you must review and correct any field marked with a red exclamation mark. If you don’t, Rossum won’t let you export data from the invoice.

As you review, you can make modifications in various ways:

• Press enter to confirm results and continue
• Type text directly into the field as it appears on the document
• Click on the document or select areas containing the data you want to export 

Step 6: Move that data into your accounting system

Now that you’ve completed the data extraction and validation processes, you can see your invoices under the “Exported” tab of the Rossum UI. 

All the data that Rossum captured is ready for you to export into your ERP or accounting system in one click. When you hover over the “Download all” button, Rossum presents you with three formats to download: CSV, XML, or JSON.

Click on your selected format to get your invoice data all sorted for you to integrate into your bookkeeping or resource planning software.

To get started, select CSV – this is a basic spreadsheet format that enables you to open the data in Excel and take it from there. Most bookkeeping software has an “Import from Excel” function that automatically retrieves and posts invoice data from external spreadsheets.

The XML and JSON formats are meant for programmers who use the Rossum API to interconnect systems automatically.

Smart OCR invoice extraction with Rossum starts right here

Now that you know how straightforward Rossum is, think about how it can transform the AP process and the ways that transformation can ripple throughout your organization.

For example, look at how AI OCR invoice extraction blows the traditional OCR process out of the water:

To experience Rossum’s intuitive UI and rapid invoice data capture yourself, you can set up a free account to try it out right now. You’ll finish the entire process, from account creation to capturing, validating, and exporting invoice data, in no time.