Scanning Documents: Reading PDF, Scan and Photo on the Mac Beta
Not every invoice arrives electronically. Most still come as an ordinary PDF, as a scan or as a photo. As a beta, GrandTotal reads these documents as well – entirely on your Mac – and files them with your inbound invoices.
Drag the files onto the app icon or choose File → Import → Inbound Invoices… – several at once, too.
The analysis runs entirely on your Mac – no upload, no cloud, no third parties. GrandTotal reads the document via text recognition and determines the invoice number, dates, amounts, VAT, IBAN, VAT ID and the parties.
Nothing is imported sight unseen: before anything is taken over, a correction editor shows the document with every recognized value highlighted in color. If something is off, simply click the correct value right on the document. Mixed VAT rates are broken down as well, credit notes are detected automatically.
Onward Processing
What gets stored is a structured document with the original embedded – correctable at any time later. GrandTotal stores the recognized values as a bookkeeping aid in the Factur-X BASIC WL profile, a standardized e-invoice format. Documents with embedded XML such as ZUGFeRD/Factur-X or XRechnung skip recognition entirely: they are taken over directly.
Via Send to, GrandTotal hands the recognized documents on, including their tax breakdown – for example to Steuererklärung.app, which uses them to carry over the input tax for the advance VAT return. How invoices arrive automatically via Peppol is covered in the article receiving inbound invoices.
At a Glance
PDF, scan, photo
Conventional documents are read right on your Mac – no cloud.
On your Mac
No upload, no third parties – text recognition runs locally.
Nothing sight unseen
The correction editor shows every recognized value before import.
The original is kept
The PDF is embedded in the document and available at any time.
Handing on
Pass documents on including their tax breakdown via “Send to”, e. g. for the advance VAT return.