Guides

How to organise supplier invoices so you can find any one in seconds

Most filing systems are built around where a document is put. The faster approach is to make every word on the page searchable, and keep the structure around it as small as possible.

1. Let search do the filing

When an archive reads the text of every page, you no longer need folders for each supplier or file names with dates in them. You type what you remember – a supplier, an invoice number, an amount – and the document appears. That only works if scans are made searchable automatically, so check this before you choose a system.

2. Search by amount

The quickest way to match a bank payment to an invoice is the amount. Make sure your archive finds 18,128.08 whether you type it with the comma or without. Many do not; Kii Paper Vault does.

3. Use a few labels, not hundreds of folders

Keep labels for things search cannot know: the month you are closing, or “to be approved”. If you upload an existing folder of invoices, let the folder names become labels so the old structure is still there when you need it.

4. Keep departments separate

Purchasing, sales and accounts usually should not see each other’s paperwork. Give each department its own section, and decide who can add documents and who can only look. Accounts can often view everything while each team uploads only to its own.

5. Stop renaming files

Renaming scans is slow and everyone does it differently. If the archive reads the supplier, date and reference from the page, the file name stops mattering.

6. Sort by the reference you actually use

If your invoices carry a customer account number or an order reference, have the archive read it into its own column. Then the list sorts in the order your team already thinks in.

A quick test

Pick an invoice from two years ago and time how long it takes to put it on screen. If the answer is more than a minute, the archive – not your staff – is the problem.