Check invoice discounts without guessing how they apply

Where the extra work starts

Preserve the source context before interpreting it so the exported schedule does not apply the same reduction twice or miss it altogether.

Upload a representative supplier invoice, inspect its extracted fields and line items beside the PDF, then download Excel. Put the awkward invoice in your trial too: the useful result is less total work after corrections.

The goal is faithful transcription and a clear review question. Allocation, tax consequences and accounting treatment belong to the responsible reviewer and are outside the extraction decision.

A practical way to get it right

Inspect the discount label, its position and any referenced item or base amount. Record the raw wording and amount with the source location. Distinguish a value printed in the item table from a separate summary adjustment, without assuming that position alone resolves all meaning.

Keep item values as printed and store the discount evidence separately when its relationship is uncertain. If the source explicitly associates it with a line, record that association and still preserve the original value. Do not subtract a document-level discount from every item or spread it equally just to create a convenient table.

Ask the reviewer to decide any required calculation using the full source context. Record that derived result in a separate field with its rule and decision reference. The raw extraction should remain unchanged so another person can distinguish source facts from later interpretation.

OpenPeppol: Invoice line price details distinguishes net price, price base quantity and price allowance. Inspect the source’s pricing scope before treating a nearby discount as an independent line subtraction.

What this looks like on a real task

Synthetic example. The people, references and figures below are invented to demonstrate the method.

These are three different invented presentations, not three adjustments to one invoice. Copy the presentation, source and action columns when designing a review fixture. The example deliberately stops before allocation because the document must support the rule and the authorized reviewer must decide how it is used.

Catch the cases that create rework

A percentage without a clear base can be misapplied. Preserve both the stated percentage and any base evidence, leaving the calculation unresolved when the source is incomplete. A matching final amount does not prove that your allocation is correct; different allocations can produce the same total.

Do not remove a discount row simply because it is inconvenient for the line-item schema. Retain it in context or an exception record with its source reference.

OpenPeppol: Document-level allowances and charges models document-level allowances separately from lines. Preserve that scope in your context record instead of distributing the amount without a supported rule.

Decide whether the change is worth keeping

Check that every printed discount or allowance relevant to the task is represented somewhere and that no raw item value was silently changed. Review any derived allocation separately and document its authority. This preserves a useful line-item register while making the unresolved business question visible rather than hiding it in a spreadsheet formula.