Purchase invoices drafted against the order and its posted receipts, the way Business Central holds them.

Today someone opens a new purchase invoice, picks the vendor and types the number from the vendor's paper into Vendor Invoice No. If the goods came in on two receipts, they pull both in with Get Receipt Lines. Freight goes on as an item charge and gets spread across the items, and the invoice then waits for whoever can approve that amount. The slow part is deciding what to do when the invoice and the receipt disagree.

For the test, AI reads copies of invoices your team already posted, with the orders and posted receipts behind them, and drafts each as a Business Central purchase invoice: vendor, invoice number, receipt lines, item charges and the approver it would go to, with a note on every choice. Nothing is created or posted in Business Central. Your reviewer puts each draft beside the posted invoice and marks what differs.

Receipts arrive through Get Receipt Lines. On a new purchase invoice, Get Receipt Lines brings in posted receipt lines that were received but not yet invoiced, as long as they come from one vendor in one currency. Posting updates Quantity Invoiced on each order but leaves the order in place, even fully received and invoiced, until someone deletes it or runs Delete Invoiced Purchase Orders. Microsoft's help also warns that an invoice built this way can't be changed or canceled afterwards, only corrected with a purchase credit memo. So a wrong receipt line chosen today costs a credit memo later. The draft names the posted receipt behind every line and lists any open receipt it left out on purpose.

Newer releases match to order lines. Get Order Lines lets one invoice line cover several purchase order lines whether or not anything has been received, with a Matched Order Lines page to review the match. With Receipt on Invoice turned on for a line, posting the invoice posts the receipt first. Microsoft lists where it can't be used: prepayment orders, item charge lines, project, subcontracting, blanket and intercompany orders, and, for Receipt on Invoice, lines with item tracking or a location that uses directed put-away and pick. For incoming invoice drafts, a Price difference warning appears only when the gap passes the E-Document Matching Difference % on Purchases & Payables Setup, and it doesn't have to be cleared. The draft follows whichever route your team uses, and says when a line would have needed the other.

Freight is an item charge. A freight or duty line goes on the invoice with the type Charge (Item), and its Qty. to Assign shows in red until Item Charge Assignment has spread it over the items. Suggest Item Charge Assignment offers Equally, By Amount, By Weight or By Volume, and the last two read Net Weight and Unit Volume from each item card, so a blank weight skews the split. A carrier's bill that arrives after the receipt was posted is assigned through Get Receipt Lines on the assignment page instead. On items costed at Standard, the charge doesn't move unit cost; it posts as a purchase variance. The draft gives each freight line its charge number, the method your team used and the receipt lines it lands on.

Approvals run from Approval User Setup. Everyone in an approval workflow gets a line there: an Approver ID, a Purchase Amount Approval Limit in local currency or Unlimited Purchase Approval, and a Substitute for when the approver is out, with a single Approval Administrator for the company. Microsoft's help notes one catch: a user who is both requester and approver in a workflow user group has their own requests approved automatically. The draft names the approver your setup would send each invoice to, and flags any invoice whose requester could approve it alone.

Holds, blocked vendors and repeat numbers, and what your reviewer watches. A disputed invoice is held on its vendor ledger entry, with up to three characters, often initials, in On Hold, and Suggest Vendor Payments leaves it out until someone clears it. A vendor whose Blocked field says Payment can't get new payments; All stops every transaction. Business Central does check for a vendor invoice number the same vendor already used, but one partner's documentation notes that the standard check runs at posting, not when the number is typed. Your reviewer, often the AP lead or the person who keeps your approval setup, looks hardest at the receipt lines chosen, item charge assignments and repeat numbers, because each is hard to undo once posted.

With a yes against the success criteria, new vendor invoices get the same drafting for about 30 days.

A person on your AP team approves, corrects or rejects each draft before a purchase invoice exists in Business Central, and your approval workflow still runs after that. Your partner or in-house admin picks the route for approved drafts, typed in from the sheet or brought in by an import you already use. Posting and payment runs stay with your team.