Old Smart Extract vs New Smart Extract+
If you've been a user of Lightyear for a couple of years, prior to the December 2024 release, the new view of the Processing Tab and the updated Smart Extract+ Workflow may be a bit confusing to begin with, but don't worry! This article should help you navigate through the Processing Tab and use Smart Extract+ like a seasoned pro!
Smart Extract+ Overview
Old Smart Extract
The Smart Extract you're familiar with has its limitations, namely:
- Restricted to Summary extraction, i.e., the one line of data with the addition of tax
- Issues extracting accurate dates depending on the format, calculating the tax and extracting/matching to the correct Supplier
- Inability to be triggered automatically and the need for manual intervention on each upload in order to start the extraction process
- Limited to five pages of extraction
New Smart Extract+
Smart Extract+ has undergone a lot of technical, under-the-hood type changes that we won't get into in this article. Instead, we'll focus on the things you can see and use day to day:
- Extraction of individual line items on a document, including product codes and descriptions that span across multiple lines
- Extraction of multiple tax rates on one document, e.g., a single document with lines for 0%, 5% and 20% tax
- Extraction on up to 20 pages on a single document
- Enhanced ability to extract from handwritten or incorrectly oriented documents, as well as poor quality scans and photos of printed documents
- Automatic Smart Extract on documents, customisable depending on your Company Settings
- Ability to toggle between extracted data Line Items, Service Lines or Summary - no need to wait for a map to be created or updated for you
- Enhanced matching to Suppliers, with Smart Extract+ remembering which Lightyear Supplier Name matches to which Extracted Supplier Name
- Real time extraction of your data - up to 15 seconds to wait per document
Uploading Documents
Old Upload Modal
Through the previous method of uploading documents within Lightyear, you would need to tick the Smart Extract box to the right of the Document Type drop-down, which would then automatically Smart Extract your data on a successful upload.
Depending on the Document Type selected, the Smart Extract box would either be active or inactive, i.e., Bill/Invoice is Active, but Purchase Order is Inactive.
New Upload Modal
Now, the Smart Extract checkbox is the first field you see after selecting a document for upload.
To the right is the Document Type drop-down menu, which may differ depending on if you've ticked Smart Extract or not, i.e., ticked Smart Extracted will display Bill, Credit Note, Receipt and Expense, whereas unticked will display the same options with the addition of Purchase Order and Statement.
Please Note: This is because Purchase Orders and Statements cannot be Smart Extracted.
When Smart Extract is ticked, an additional column will appear for Extraction Type, this will allow you to select between Lines, Service and Summary for the extraction of each uploaded document.
Expense and Receipt will default to Summary and cannot be changed.
Processing Tab
Old Processing
Within Processing Panel 2, the Mappings tab is where you would go to select the type of extraction you wanted.
You could choose between Maps, Smart Extract or Manual Entry. Alternatively, you could click the Manual Entry tab along the top of Panel 2 to do the aforementioned.
If you chose Smart Extraction, the extracted data would also appear in the Manual Entry tab, where it could be edited or sent to the Approvals tab once all required fields were populated.
New Processing
Processing has undergone a lot of visual changes that we hope makes for a more intuitive and an overall better experience.
Let's step through each change individually!
Within Panel 2 the main Tabs have been renamed slightly.
- Doc Data is the equivalent of what Manual Entry used to be, this is where you can trigger Smart Extract+, view Maps and Manually Enter documents if needed. (More info on this shortly).
- Activity is the same Activity tab as before
Starting in Doc Data, you have the ability to easily switch between the main types of extraction — Smart Extract, Maps and Manual Entry — which can be done via the three buttons in the top right of Panel 2.
- If the document hasn't been Smart Extracted, you can do so by clicking Smart Extract, either within the Doc Data tab, or in the Maps tab, where you will see the same buttons.
- Maps allows you to search for/request a map. If there is an existing (and working) map, it will be displayed here.
- Manual gives you the blank slate of Manual Entry, allowing you to enter your document data yourself.
When in the Smart Extract view, you can switch the Extraction Type between Lines, Service and Summary data using the buttons in the top left of Panel 2. If you are familiar with Maps, these should be straightforward to understand.
- Lines is the extraction of all lines on a document including Product Codes, Descriptions, Quantity, Unit Price and Line Amount, with tax applied where relevant.
- Service is the extraction of all lines on a document including Descriptions and Line amount, with tax applied where relevant.
- Summary is the extraction of the document tax/total with a default Description of Goods/Services.
If Smart Extract+ happens to miss some key, required information, this will be highlighted to you in yellow.
While in the Smart Extract tab, you can easily fill in the missing information.
If information is missing, but is clear on the document, you can click the Report Issue button along the top of Panel 2.
This will send a copy of the document to the Lightyear team to review, which helps us improve the quality of Smart Extract+.
Please Note: Only one copy of each document is needed for us to review, you don't need to send multiple copies from the same supplier.How do I Trigger Smart Extract+?
Old Processing
Apart from the already mentioned way of Uploading via the modal, while in the Processing Tab, you could select a document and Panel 2 would display the following options.
Clicking the middle option would trigger Smart Extract and populate data in the Manual Entry tab.
New Processing
Smart Extract+ can be triggered a number of ways, and may also automatically trigger depending on your Company Settings.
Manual Trigger
From within the Processing tab, you can select your document the same way as before. Here, Panel 2 will have a different layout as discussed above.
Within Doc Data tab of Panel 2, click the Smart Extract button in the top right and extraction will be triggered.
Automatic Trigger
Where the Auto Smart Extract setting is enabled in Company Settings, when a document is uploaded to Lightyear we will check if a map exists/is working.
- When a map does exist, the document will stop in Processing to be applied, or will automatically flow through to Approvals if it has been mapped before. This is the same behaviour that Lightyear previously used.
- When a map doesn't exist, the document will automatically begin to Smart Extract. Once extracted, the data will populate in Doc Data > Smart Extract.
Where do I View My Smart Extracted Data?
Old Processing
In the old view, you would go to Panel 2 and click into the Manual Entry tab, this would display the extracted data and allow you to edit where necessary.
New Processing
With the Smart Extracted data populating in the Doc Data tab, within the Smart Extract button.
Please Note: The document will only stop in Processing if the Extracted Supplier wasn't matched to a Lightyear Supplier, or other required fields were missed during extraction. If these were all found, the document will automatically flow through to the Approvals tab.
Within Processing, when you select a Supplier, if there are any Automation Rules — Keyword, Product, Description or Supplier Defaults — they will appear in Processing to show what will be sent into the Approvals tab.
How do I Change My Smart Extracted Data?
Old Processing
Similar to the above, you'd first need to navigate to the Manual Entry tab within Panel 2 and make any necessary changes.
New Processing
With the Smart Extracted data populating in the Doc Data tab, within the Smart Extract button, you can navigate back this at any point to edit the relevant information.
Within the header fields, Lightyear will highlight in yellow the required fields that weren't extracted.
These include:
- Supplier
- Bill #:
- Bill Date:
If you want to change the Extraction Type between Lines, Service or Summary, you can do so by clicking each of the relevant options within the top left of Panel 2.
By default, your extracted data will be whatever the document has been uploaded as in the Upload Modal > Extraction Type, or if Auto Smart Extract is enabled, it will be your Default Extraction Type within Company Settings or against the selected Supplier.
Please Note: The document will only stop in Processing if the Extracted Supplier wasn't matched to a Lightyear Supplier, or other required fields were missed during extraction. If these were all found, the document will automatically flow through to the Approvals tab.
Within Processing, when you select a Supplier, if there are any Automation Rules — Keyword, Product, Description or Supplier Defaults — they will appear in Processing to show what will be sent into the Approvals tab. If you make any changes to the line item coding here, only the Product Rules will update for future automation, Keywords, Description and Supplier Defaults won't be saved for future.
How do I Find a Map?
Old Processing
Within Panel 2 of Processing you could click the Find Map button or go to the Mappings tab and select Map My Data.
Both of these options would display a modal allowing you to search for a map.
New Processing
The process of searching for a map is largely the same, you can still click the Find Map button within Panel 2 from any of the tabs to display the same modal.
Within the Maps tab, you will see two options
- Find Map - the same behaviour as the previous Map My Data button, this will display the below modal
- Request Map - if you're familiar with the Mapping process, you'll know that if no map exists you will need to request a map. This button will take you straight to the Request Map modal in order to request one.
How do I Manually Enter My Data?
Old Processing
In Panel 2, you could click the Manual Entry tab along the top and this would bring you to the Manual Entry fields.
If the document had been previously Smart Extracted, the data would populate here and it would be difficult to start from a clean slate.
New Processing
Now, the Manual Entry and Smart Extracted data screens are separate, so it's easier if you want to start over or from a clean state without touching any Smart Extracted data.
You can click the Manual option from within Doc Data, either when you're in the Maps or Smart Extract tab.
Manual gives you a clean slate for the ability to manually enter your document data.
And that's all there is to Lightyear's Smart Extract+ enhanced experience.
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