OCR
Delivery note OCR: quantities received, genuinely compared
Delivery note OCR applies optical character recognition to the goods receipt document: quantities delivered, units, parcels, batch numbers, reservations. The Capture agent returns them line by line, each value with its exact position, so the receipt can then be checked against the order. Extract, then compare.
The problem
The delivery note is the only document that says what actually arrived
A delivery note has none of the solemnity of an invoice. It is often partly handwritten, photographed by a warehouse operator, stamped, annotated with a reservation in the margin. Yet it is the only document in the file that says what physically arrived on the dock: neither what was ordered, nor what was billed. The principle is the same as everywhere else in this field: read a document, then verify what it contains, and here it applies to every quantity declared.
In practice, the delivered quantity is compared with the order once in ten, by hand, when a dispute breaks out. The rest of the time the invoice is paid on the strength of the note, and the receipt discrepancy surfaces at stocktaking six months later, with no document to support it. The cases are always the same: a partial delivery with no back-order note, a parcel billed while the pallet arrived broken into, a handling unit taken for a sales unit: twelve cartons of twelve pieces becoming twelve pieces. Each of those discrepancies is legible on the document, provided the document was read in full.
What we extract from a delivery note
The fields below are expected by default, including on a note scanned askew or photographed on a phone. Each value stays tied to the place in the document where it was read, and carries its own confidence level.
- Header
- The identification of the note and its link to the commitment. Without an order reference, a goods receipt matches nothing.
- Delivered lines
- What arrived, item by item. The description is kept exactly as written: it is sometimes the only way back to the order line.
- Units and packaging
- The most ordinary and most expensive source of error: the supplier counts in parcels, your order was placed in pieces.
- Traceability
- Required in food, healthcare and regulated manufacturing, and essential to recalls as much as to warranty claims.
- Declared discrepancies
- What the supplier or the warehouse operator wrote down in black and white, including by hand in the margin.
Sixteen fields, three of them frequently handwritten. A delivery note reduced to a number and a date is of no use: what matters is the quantity, in the unit it was counted in, and the reservation written by hand under the stamp.
The check that follows
Delivered quantity checked against the order
Line by line, against the original order and not the invoice: an invoice is not proof of receipt.
Unit conversion
Parcels, pallets, handling units, sales units: everything is brought back to the unit of your order before comparison, with the calculation shown.
Back order tracked
A partial delivery opens an expectation. It stays open until the balance is delivered or the remainder is cancelled.
Receipt discrepancy costed before payment
The gap is expressed in quantity and in value, with the note and the order side by side, before the invoice goes out for payment.
Three-way matching (order, receipt, invoice) only becomes possible when all three documents have been read with the same care. Extraction on its own is self-serve and follows your monthly volumes. Matching is then scoped with you, on a quotation.
Capture
Gather and consolidate all your procurement data.
Collection by dedicated mailbox, upload, SFTP, scan, API or ERP export. Reads every format (native PDF, scan, photo, spreadsheet, structured feed), then extracts line by line: supplier, references, quantities, unit prices, discounts, taxes, terms.
The end of re-entry. A procurement history you can finally query.
What Capture detects
- Long documents and multi-page tables
- Unknown layouts
- Several languages and currencies
- Poor scans and handwriting
The plan covers extraction. Checking your negotiated terms and matching the documents are the next step and are sized with you, because they have to be connected to your orders, your tolerances and your approval routes.
See pricingNothing is lost. Everything can be checked, everything can be proven.
- The contract clause and the invoice line, highlighted side by side.
- Every extracted value stays linked to the exact place in the document where it was read.
- The same case produces the same decision, today as in six months: the rules are applied deterministically.
- No discrepancy is set aside in silence. Anything that matches no rule is raised, with its reason.
- The agent records what it did, in the order it did it: who, what, how much, when.
Frequently asked questions
Can a handwritten delivery note be used?
Yes. Handwritten entries (a reservation, a corrected quantity, a back order) are extracted like printed fields, with their position in the page and their confidence level, so that doubt stays visible instead of going unnoticed.
What if the quantity is in parcels and the order in pieces?
The unit of measure and the handling unit are extracted separately, never merged. Conversion to the unit of the order belongs to the matching step, which shows the factor it applied.
Does the data need to be perfectly clean?
No. The Capture agent is designed for heterogeneous documents and incomplete reference data; structuring is part of the deliverable.
How do I check a Zylio conclusion?
Every discrepancy opens onto its evidence: the contract clause and the invoice line, highlighted side by side, with the calculation shown.
Measurable impact in every environment
More than 5 million procurement documents analysed
Between 1 and 7% of margin recovered
on the scope analysed
From 15 to 45% of time given back to teams, per FTE
depending on the scope and on data maturity
Zylio fits into your existing ecosystem.
The ERP runs the process. Zylio handles the exception and recovers the value that escapes it: invoices without a purchase order, line-by-line price discrepancies, duplicates and overbilling, off-contract spend.
Your data under high security.
Zylio meets the most demanding standards, and nothing is committed without your approval.
- Certifications
- Hosting
- Encryption
- Access
Carry on through the OCR hub
- Supplier invoice OCRThe document the goods receipt either contradicts or confirms, line by line.
- The purchase order, read line item by line itemThe commitment every received quantity has to be compared with.
- Automatic invoice intakeEmail, upload, portal, EDI, scanned paper: five channels, one flow.
- Attachments and batchesFour stapled invoices, four processes: appendices, timesheets and delivery notes attached to the right document.
See what this looks like on your own data
Twenty minutes, on a spend category of your choosing. We show you what the agents detect, with the evidence behind it.
- No commitment, on your own data
- Result in 3 weeks
- 20 minutes, no sales pitch
- Your data stays hosted in France
- No change of tool or process