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Capture a receipt using OCR

  • Article

Applies To: Project Operations for resource/non-stocked based scenarios, Lite deployment - deal to proforma invoicing

Expense entry has been enhanced through the introduction of optical character recognition (OCR) processing for receipts. This functionality is designed to improve the user experience when creating expense reports.

Key features

  • The system extracts the merchant name, date, and total amount from receipts.
  • The system will try to match unattached receipts to unattached expense transactions.
  • You can create manually entered expense transactions from receipts.

Attach receipts to an expense report

To automatically attach receipts that include credit card transactions when an expense report is created, complete the following steps.

  1. Open the Expense management workspace.
  2. On the Receipts tab, verify that unattached receipts exist. You can also upload receipts on the Receipts tab.
  3. On the Expenses tab, verify that unattached expenses exist. Typically, the expense administrator imports these expenses from the credit card provider.
  4. Select New expense report. Notice that you can include expenses, and receipts, now as well, when you create an expense report. If you add both expenses and receipts, automatic matching of the receipts against the expenses is triggered.

Create or match receipts to an expense report

To create an expense, or match an expense from a receipt, complete the following steps.

  1. On an expense report, on the Receipts tab, attach a receipt by selecting Add receipts.

  2. Under the uploaded image of the receipt, notice the Create and Match options.

    • Select Create to create a manually entered expense transaction and fill in the values that are extracted from the receipt.
    • If you select Match, the system tries to match an existing expense to the receipt.

Installation

To use these advanced expense capabilities, install the Expense Management Service add-in for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, and turn on the features in your instance. You can access the add-in from your project in Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services (LCS).

  1. Sign in to LCS, and open the desired environment.
  2. Go to Full details.
  3. Select Maintain, or scroll down to the Environment add-ins FastTab.
  4. Select Install a new add-in.
  5. Select Expense Management Service.
  6. Follow the installation guide, and agree to the terms and conditions.
  7. Select Install.

In the Feature management workspace, turn on the following features:

  • Expense reports re-imagined
  • Auto-match and create expense from receipt

When you turn on these features the following actions occur:

  • The existing Expense management workspace is replaced with the new workspace.
  • A new menu item for expense field visibility is added.
  • You can still open the former Expense reports page by going to Expense management > My expenses > Expense reports.
  • Workflows and any approvals still take you to the existing expense reports page.
  • Receipts will be processed through Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services, and metadata will be extracted and added.
  • An option is added that lets you create an expense report that includes matched unattached receipts.
  • An option that is added to expense reports lets you create an expense line from a receipt, or attempts to match an existing receipt to an existing expense line.

Frequently asked questions

Does Microsoft use my data for its models?

No, Microsoft has built a general machine learning model for its receipt processing service. This model isn't based on the receipts that you upload.

Where is this feature available and processed?

The availability of this feature in different regions is listed in the following table. If your region isn't currently supported, submit a request to prioritize the availability of the OCR service in your region.

Region Supported
USA Yes
CAN Yes
UK Yes
AUS Yes
EU Partially. English receipts only.
Asia No
Japan No
Africa No

Where do my receipts go?

Finance will contact Cognitive Services to extract the field data. Cognitive Services will retain a copy of your receipt for up to 24 hours while processing occurs. After processing is completed, Cognitive Services will remove the receipt. Receipts are still stored in Finance.

For more information, see Enable receipt understanding with Form Recognizer's new capability.