How to Automate Voucher Entry in Epicor Prophet 21
The ways distributors take supplier invoices into Prophet 21 today, what each one leaves to AP, and how to automate vouchering against PO receipts.
Gonzalo Nuñez
Chief Technology Officer
To automate Voucher Entry in Epicor Prophet 21, have software read each supplier invoice, find the purchase order and the receipts it bills, and draft the voucher in the window your AP clerk would use: Convert PO to Voucher for stock purchases, Voucher Entry By Amount for expenses, and a debit memo for a vendor credit. A person should still release each voucher. Fluent does this through P21's own APIs with nothing installed inside Prophet 21, and creates every voucher unapproved by default, so AP keeps the final say before a check run.
Why vouchering takes so long in Prophet 21
For a distributor, most supplier invoices bill stock that came in on a purchase order. Prophet 21 already holds that purchase order and its receipts, so the work is not typing the invoice. It is finding which receipts the invoice bills, checking the quantities and prices against them, and then keying the lines in Convert PO to Voucher. Invoices that arrive before the goods have to be set aside and found again. Freight and tax have to land on the right lines, and an invoice that was already vouchered must not be vouchered twice.
Ways to automate it
Native P21: Convert PO to Voucher and scheduled imports
Convert PO to Voucher is the window most AP teams use. It lists the receipts for a purchase order and a clerk picks which ones the invoice covers. That keeps the three-way match inside P21, but a person still reads every invoice and picks the receipts by hand. P21 can also import vouchers from a file on a schedule, which suits invoices that already arrive as structured files, and leaves scanned and emailed PDFs untouched.
Document capture with a file import
Several AP tools capture the invoice, route it for approval in their own system, and pass the result into P21 as an import file. DataServ, for example, describes a tab-delimited file import into P21. This removes the typing but splits the work: the matching against receipts happens either outside P21, against a copy of its data, or after the import, by a person.
Epicor ECM AP Automation
Epicor's own content management product, ECM (formerly DocStar), offers AP automation with Prophet 21 workflows. It suits teams that also want invoice images stored and routed inside Epicor's document management. Confirm with Epicor which matching and voucher types your P21 version supports.
An agent that drafts the voucher in P21
Fluent reads each invoice (PDF, scan, photo or email body) and resolves it against your live P21 data:
- Vendor, from the purchase order the invoice refers to.
- Receipts, each invoice line lined up against the receipt line it bills, in the unit it was received in.
- Differences in quantity and price, shown on the line they belong to.
- Duplicates: an invoice number already vouchered for the vendor, or a receipt already vouchered.
- Tax and freight, checked against the invoice total.
The result is a draft in Fluent's review queue. An approved draft becomes a voucher in Convert PO to Voucher, or in Voucher Entry By Amount, one line per G/L account, with accounts suggested from how the vendor has been coded before. A vendor credit becomes a debit memo. When an invoice arrives before its receipt, it waits in Fluent until the receipt is entered, up to the window you set, and then drafts.
Fluent writes through P21's own interfaces, so your required fields and totals apply exactly as they do in the window, and Prophet 21 refuses a duplicate voucher on its own as well. After every save Fluent reads back what P21 committed.
Side-by-side
| Native P21 | Capture plus file import | Fluent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who reads the invoice | A clerk | The capture tool | The agent |
| Matching to receipts | A clerk picks receipts in Convert PO to Voucher | Outside P21, or after import; confirm with the vendor | Against live P21 receipts, before the draft |
| Invoices before the goods | Set aside by hand | Confirm with the vendor | Wait in Fluent until the receipt is entered |
| Expense invoices and credits | Keyed by hand | Confirm with the vendor | Voucher Entry By Amount and debit memos |
| What sits in or near P21 | Nothing extra | A scheduled import | Nothing installed; P21's own APIs |
| Who releases the voucher | AP | Depends on setup | AP; vouchers are created unapproved by default |
How to decide
Test with a batch of your own invoices, including the ones that cost your team the most:
- An invoice that bills part of a receipt, or several receipts.
- An invoice with freight and tax.
- An invoice that arrives before the goods.
- A non-PO expense invoice and a vendor credit.
- An invoice your team already vouchered.
Then compare how many lines arrive matched to the right receipts, how each tool shows what it could not match, and how long a person spends on each one.
Automate Prophet 21 Voucher Entry with Fluent
The Prophet 21 AP automation page explains the agent in detail, and the Prophet 21 integration page covers the connection and the access your administrator grants. To see it on your own invoices, book a demo.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Fluent reads each supplier invoice, matches it to the purchase order and the receipts it bills in your live P21 data, and drafts the voucher in Convert PO to Voucher, Voucher Entry By Amount, or as a debit memo. A person reviews the draft, and the voucher is created unapproved by default so AP releases it in P21.
Yes. Each invoice line is lined up against the receipt line it bills, in the unit the receipt was taken in, and quantity and price differences against the purchase order and the receipt are shown on that line before anything is saved.
The invoice waits. Prophet 21 can only voucher receipts that exist, so Fluent holds the invoice until the receipt is entered, up to the window you set, and then drafts the voucher. Nothing has to be sent again.
Not by default. Vouchers are created unapproved, so your AP team releases each one in Prophet 21 before it can reach a check run. You can change that per agent.
No. Fluent calls Prophet 21's own APIs from outside, through an integration user your administrator sets up and grants read access in User Maintenance and Role Maintenance. There is no import file to schedule and nothing to uninstall.
A non-PO invoice is drafted in Voucher Entry By Amount, one line per G/L account, with accounts suggested from how the vendor has been coded before, and tax and freight as their own lines. A vendor credit is drafted as a debit memo.
