Invoice extraction
Sixteen fields come off this invoice. A flat export keeps four.
Converters turn a supplier invoice into one row: who, when, how much. That row cannot produce a VAT return, because none of what it keeps is the VAT. Pileform reads every field on the page, one row per invoice line, and files it under its supplier with the original page beside it.
Survives flattening
- Supplier name
- HELIOS HOSTING
- Invoice number
- INV-8842
- Invoice date
- 31/03
- Invoice total
- €61.88
Everything on the page
One invoice, every field numbered.
The numbers on the document match the list beside it. Struck entries are the ones a one-row-per-invoice export cannot carry.
Hosting, March · 1€40.00 · 19% · €7.60 · €47.60
Domain renewal · 1€12.00 · 19% · €2.28 · €14.28
Header
- 1Supplier namePart of the VAT
- 2Supplier VAT numberPart of the VAT
- 3Invoice numberPart of the VAT
- 4Invoice datePart of the VAT
- 5Due datePart of the VAT
- 6CurrencyPart of the VAT
Per line
- 7Line descriptionPart of the VAT
- 8QuantityPart of the VAT
- 9Line netPart of the VAT
- 10Line VAT ratePart of the VAT
- 11Line VATPart of the VAT
- 12Line grossPart of the VAT
Footer
- 13Subtotal, netPart of the VAT
- 14VAT totalPart of the VAT
- 15Invoice totalPart of the VAT
- 16Payment methodPart of the VAT
4 of 16 survive
Sample invoice.
Not one of the four that survive is a VAT field. A flat export is a tidy table you cannot file from.
Many invoices, one PDF, one drop.
- Line items, kept.
- Each invoice line comes out as its own row, description, quantity, net, VAT rate, VAT amount, gross. Totals reconcile to the invoice's printed totals, with rounding gaps in explicit adjustment cells.
- VAT per line, never per document.
- Mixed-rate invoices keep each line at its printed rate, including reverse-charge candidates, which are flagged and routed through reverse-charge handling instead of defaulting to ordinary purchases.
- One workbook per supplier.
- Forty invoices from one supplier consolidate into a single tab with a running total and the VAT control figures. The period stops being a pile of PDFs and becomes a set of supplier accounts.
- The source page, embedded.
- Every row links to the original invoice image, embedded inside the workbook itself. Audit queries, client questions, and inspector requests are answered from the file, years later, without a document archive dig.
- Post-ready for Xero, QuickBooks, Business Central, and BTMS; posting to Esoft.
- Confirmed entries post straight through, supplier invoices as Bills in Xero and QuickBooks, with per-line VAT carried over. The Excel and CSV exports are always yours.
Invoice extraction questions, answered.
Line items. Each invoice line becomes its own row with description, quantity, net, VAT rate, VAT amount, and gross, and the rows reconcile back to the invoice's printed totals. Flattening to one total per invoice loses the VAT split, which is exactly what the return needs.
Yes, that is the intended workflow. Combine the period's invoices into one PDF in any order; extraction detects where each invoice starts and ends, reads it, and files it under its supplier. A typical 200-page batch processes in about 12 minutes.
The rate printed against each line is read and applied, 55 jurisdictions' rates are in the engine, and a printed rate is never overridden. Missing rates are inferred and yellow-flagged for review, and reverse-charge candidates (foreign suppliers, construction services) are flagged and routed through reverse-charge handling.
The gap is surfaced, not hidden. Cash rounding shows in an explicit adjustment cell; anything beyond rounding flags the document for review with the source page right there. Nothing is silently fudged to force the total to tie up.
Yes. Confirmed entries post straight through to Xero, QuickBooks, Business Central, BTMS or Esoft: Bills in Xero and QuickBooks, carrying the per-line VAT. Esoft posts straight through too. Everything also exports to Excel and CSV regardless, so the records stay yours whatever ledger you use.
Keep the lines.
Sign up free, no card. Drop a real period's invoices and see the lines, the VAT, and the embedded sources before you commit to anything.
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