Using Copilot to map e-documents

In the rapidly evolving landscape of business automation, Dynamics 365 Business Central introduces Copilot, an AI-powered assistant designed to enhance operational efficiency. One of the standout features of Copilot is its ability to map e-documents, transforming how businesses handle digital transactions and documentation.

What is E-Document Mapping?

E-document mapping involves converting electronic documents, such as invoices and orders, into structured formats that can be easily processed by Business Central. This ensures seamless integration with existing workflows and systems, minimizing manual data entry and reducing errors.

How Copilot Enhances E-Document Mapping

Copilot leverages AI to automate the mapping process, providing several key benefits:

1. Intelligent Data Extraction: Copilot uses advanced algorithms to extract relevant data from e-documents accurately. This includes identifying key fields such as dates, amounts, and item details, and mapping them to the appropriate fields in Business Central.
2. Automated Workflow Integration: Once the data is extracted, Copilot automatically integrates it into the relevant workflows. For example, invoice details can be mapped to accounts payable, while order information can be mapped to sales orders.
3. Error Reduction: By automating the data extraction and mapping process, Copilot significantly reduces the risk of human error. This ensures that data is consistent and accurate, which is crucial for financial reporting and compliance.
4. Time Savings: Automating repetitive tasks like e-document mapping frees up valuable time for employees to focus on more strategic activities. This boosts productivity and allows for faster processing of transactions.

Old way:

Copilot:

Whole process for received e-documents

If the Purchase Order for this particular vendor exists and there’s a purchase order number in the received E-Document file, Business Central will automatically link this E-Document with the specified Purchase Order. The Document Status of this E-Document will be In Progress, and the E-Document Status in the Service Status subpage will be Order linked.
This link will be visible in the Document field on this specific E-Document. If you need to change the Purchase Order linked automatically, you can do so by using the Update Purchase Order Link action and then manually choose one of the existing purchase orders for this vendor. You can only do so before matching the lines between E-Document and Purchase Order.

If the Purchase Order for this particular vendor exists but there’s no purchase order number in the received E-Document file, if you uploaded this document manually, Business Central allows you to choose from one of the existing purchase orders, opening the Purchase Orders list from the orders that you got from vendors containing only E-Document, where you need to select Purchase Order you want and select OK. If you don’t select the right Purchase Order, or you got the E-Document automatically from an external endpoint using the Job Queue, the new E-Document won’t be linked with any purchase document and the Document Status is shown as Error and the E-Document Status in the Service Status subpage is Imported document processing error. To finish linking the Purchase Order, choose the Update Purchase Order Link action, and then choose one of the existing purchase orders for this vendor.

Setting Up Copilot for E-Document Mapping

If you didn’t activate the E-Document Matching Assistance Copilot, you must do so manually. To enable the E-Document Matching Assistance copilot, follow these steps:

1. Select the  icon, enter Copilot & AI Capabilities, and then select the related link.
2. In the list of capabilities choose E-Document Matching Assistance and change the status to Active.

You can start using Copilot as soon as it’s activated.

Match your received electronic documents

You can match your received electronic documents with the purchase orders’ lines from two different places, from the E-Documents page or from the Purchase Order page. The easiest way to locate the already linked Purchase Orders is to use the Linked Purchase Orders tile as part of E-Document Activities. All non-linked documents are found using the tile Waiting Purchase E-Invoices where you have a list of E-Documents that you must review.

When you want to run matching from the purchase order, choose the Map E-Document Lines action, which exists on both the purchase order and purchase order list pages. But, if you want to run matching from the E-Documents page, choose the Match Purchase Order action from this page. To process with matching, follow these steps:

Choose the Map E-Document Lines or Match Purchase Order action, for already linked documents.

You can notice that E-Document Match Order Lines with Copilot prompt is working, and you have the Purchase Order Matching page in the background. That means the same process is happening, but with the automatic support of Copilot, who runs the process of matching instead of you.

After a few seconds, the E-Document Match Order Lines with Copilot will suggest lines for matching with some more details:

In the prompt header, you can find the following information:

If all lines are matched, you see the green text in the upper-right corner: All lines (100%) are matched. If not than you will have screen like this:

Review match proposals. In the Matched proposal lines, you find the following information:

If you aren’t satisfied with most of the suggestions, or in a case you don’t want to use the E-Document Match Order Lines with Copilot feature, select Discard it, and you can continue with the manual matching.

If you want to keep suggestions, choose the Keep it button and the system saves all suggestions made by the Copilot.

Business Central closes the Copilot prompt and lines on the Purchase Order Matching page are marked as green, as they’re already matched.

From now on, you can continue to work as you’re doing manual matching, and that means you can remove matches, manual matches, reset matching or if there aren’t any changes you want to make, just choose the Apply To Purchase Order action and continue working with the Purchase Order.

Conclusion

The introduction of Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central marks a significant advancement in business automation. By leveraging AI Copilot to map e-documents, businesses can achieve greater accuracy, efficiency, and productivity. As more companies adopt this technology, the benefits of reduced manual work and improved data integrity will become increasingly evident.