What is a Purchase Invoice in Business Central?

A document recording a vendor's bill for goods or services received, used for accounts payable processing in Business Central.

A Purchase Invoice in Business Central records an incoming vendor bill. It contains the vendor, invoice date, line items with quantities and amounts, tax calculations, and payment terms.

Traditionally, AP teams manually create Purchase Invoices by typing vendor information, adding each line item, and entering amounts from the paper or PDF invoice. For a 10-line invoice, this process takes 5-15 minutes.

With Zentriq Document Capture, you upload the invoice (PDF or image) directly in the Agent chat. AI extracts all data — vendor, line items, amounts, tax, dates — and creates a Purchase Invoice draft in BC. The entire process takes under 30 seconds.

The AI auto-matches the vendor from the document header to your BC vendor records, and validates line items against your item catalog. Any discrepancies are flagged for manual review before the invoice is posted.

Related terms

• Purchase Order — A formal document sent to a vendor to order goods or services, with agreed quantities, prices, and delivery terms.
• Vendor (Supplier) — A company or person from whom you purchase goods or services, represented as a Vendor Card in Business Central.
• Document Capture (OCR) — The process of extracting structured data from documents (invoices, receipts) using AI or OCR technology.
• Three-Way Matching — A verification process that compares the purchase order, goods receipt, and vendor invoice to ensure accuracy before payment.
• Purchase Credit Memo — A document used to reverse or correct a posted purchase invoice, handling returns, price adjustments, or billing errors.
• Payment Terms — Codes defining when and how vendor invoices must be paid, such as Net 30 or 2/10 Net 30, configured on vendor cards.

How Zentriq helps

Zentriq's AI tools automate many of the manual processes around purchase invoice in Business Central. Learn about the Zentriq Agent or try Zentriq PunchOut to see how AI simplifies procurement in BC.