Tune the controls

Invogi works well out of the box. You only need this page if you see too many exceptions that you always dismiss, or too few that you wanted to see, or if you work with UK or UAE suppliers and want their rules to match how your team works.

Everything is under Settings, in three tabs:

Tab	What it is for
Controls	Rules that apply to every invoice, whatever the supplier’s country: duplicates, unusual amounts, purchase orders, and how each exception is handled.
United Kingdom	Rules for UK suppliers: VAT numbers, VAT rates, and the Companies House register.
UAE	Rules for UAE suppliers: TRNs and VAT rates.

Who can do this

Everyone who can open Settings can see these settings. Only a workspace owner can change them. See Roles and permissions.

Before you change anything

• Defaults are recommended. Each tab says whether you are using the recommended settings, and lists exactly what differs if you are not. Reset this tab to recommended puts it back. To undo just one setting, use the Reset link that appears beside any value that differs from the recommended one. It fills in the recommended value, and Save changes applies it.
• Changes apply from the next invoice. Invoices already analysed keep the decision they got. Correcting an invoice analyses it again under the current settings.
• Every change is recorded. The audit log keeps who changed what, and each decision remembers which settings it was made under, so it can be explained later.
• Change one thing at a time, and watch the review queue for a week. A small threshold change can affect many review items.

Controls: rules for every invoice

Duplicate detection

Each new invoice is compared with earlier invoices from the same supplier.

Setting	What it does	If you see too many exceptions	If you see too few
How alike two invoice numbers must be (0.5–1, recommended 0.9)	How similar two invoice numbers must be to count as the same invoice. INV-1001 and INV1001 are very alike.	Raise it (for example to 0.95).	Lower it (for example to 0.8) to catch more retyped numbers.
How close two amounts must be (recommended 1%)	Amounts within this much of each other count as the same. 0% means exactly equal.	Lower it.	Raise it, for example if suppliers add small fees on a resubmission.
Days between the invoices (recommended 14)	Only invoices issued this close together are compared.	Lower it, for example if monthly invoices of the same amount are flagged.	Raise it if a supplier resends invoices weeks later.
Same invoice in two currencies (recommended 5%)	After conversion to your base currency, amounts this close count as one invoice.	Lower it.	Raise it.

Unusual amounts

Invogi learns what each supplier normally bills.

• Earlier invoices needed first (recommended 5): a supplier with fewer invoices than this is not judged, because there is no pattern yet.
• Sensitivity (1–10, recommended 3): how far from the usual amount counts as unusual. Lower flags smaller departures (more exceptions); higher flags only extreme ones.

Purchase-order matching

How far an invoice may go above its purchase order before it is flagged: unit price (recommended 5%), quantity (recommended 0%, so any quantity above what was ordered or received is flagged) and an extra allowance across currencies (recommended 3%), added when the invoice and order use different currencies because exchange rates move.

How each exception is handled

Every exception type has a built-in behaviour (see Control exception types). Open How each exception is handled to change one:

Choice	Effect
Built-in	What Invogi does by default, shown beside the option.
Information only	The exception is recorded and visible, but does not hold the invoice.
Always review	The invoice is held for a person to review.
Always block	The invoice is blocked until someone clears the exception.
Never raise	The exception is not created at all. It will not appear in the queue or the audit trail.

Use Never raise and Always block carefully

Never raise removes a safeguard entirely. Prefer Information only: you still see the exception and can search for it later. Always block can stop payments, so use it for exceptions you have decided are never acceptable.

The decision for an invoice is its most serious control result after these choices are applied. An exception set to Information only never holds an invoice, whatever its severity.

United Kingdom

These checks apply to suppliers Invogi recognises as UK: a GB or Northern Ireland VAT number, or a sterling invoice with a UK bank account. Other suppliers are never judged by them.

Tax checks

Setting	What it does
Run the UK checks	Master switch for everything on this tab.
Check that VAT numbers are valid	Catches mistyped numbers using the format and HMRC check digits. It does not confirm the supplier is VAT-registered.
Flag tax charged without a VAT number	An invoice that charges VAT should show the supplier’s VAT number. Held for review only for e-invoices; for historical audits it is information, because the number may not have been read.
Check VAT rates	Flags a line taxed at a rate that does not exist, or tax that does not match the rates on the lines.
VAT rates in force	The rates that count as valid, as percentages: 0, 5, 20 by default. Update it if the rates change, or if you deal in a rate not listed.

Company register (Companies House)

Invogi can check a supplier’s company number against Companies House, the UK’s official register, to catch companies that have been dissolved or put into liquidation, and numbers that do not exist.

1. Get a free key

   Create an account on the Companies House developer hub, register an application, and choose REST API key.

2. Add it in Invogi

   Paste it under Settings → United Kingdom → Companies House connection. Invogi verifies it, stores it encrypted, and never shows it again.

3. Provide company numbers

   Invogi reads the number from UBL and CII e-invoices, from Xero contacts (UK organisations) and Odoo partners, or from the company_number field when you submit invoices through the API. It never guesses a number from a supplier’s name.

A company number is optional. It is checked when an invoice has one, and never demanded unless you ask. Two settings control what happens around it:

Setting	What it does
If a supplier can’t be checked	The register can be down, busy, or reject your key. Review invoices from suppliers nobody has vetted yet (recommended) holds the invoices of a supplier until one of theirs has been passed, or reviewed and cleared, because that is where a dissolved or invented company does its damage. A supplier you have already paid is never held for this. Review every invoice that could not be checked is stricter; Just note it never holds anything.
Require a company number for UK suppliers	Holds UK supplier invoices that carry none. Leave it off unless most of your suppliers are limited companies: sole traders, partnerships and suppliers from other countries have no company number.

What the register check is not

It confirms the company exists and is active, and that the name roughly matches. It does not confirm that the person asking to be paid is the company. Bank account verification is what protects against that; see Suppliers and bank accounts.

UAE

These checks apply to suppliers Invogi recognises as UAE: a labelled TRN, or an invoice in dirhams. A UAE bank account alone does not make an invoice a UAE invoice, because a supplier may bank in the UAE and bill with another country’s tax.

Setting	What it does
Run the UAE checks	Master switch for everything on this tab.
Check that TRNs are valid	A TRN is 15 digits. Catches mistyped numbers; does not confirm registration with the Federal Tax Authority.
Flag tax charged without a TRN	A UAE tax invoice should show the supplier’s TRN.
Check VAT rates and VAT rates in force	As for the UK; the default is 0, 5.

E-invoicing mandate

These checks do not validate invoices against the UAE’s Peppol PINT AE e-invoicing standard. Invogi works alongside your accredited service provider; it does not replace one.

Exceptions for one supplier

Some suppliers behave in a way that is normal for them but trips a check that is right for everyone else: a monthly retainer billed the same amount every time looks like a duplicate, a seasonal supplier looks like an unusual amount. Rather than loosen the check for your whole workspace, give that supplier an exception.

The quickest way in is from the review item itself. If the same exception keeps being raised for a supplier and is always fine, open it and choose Add an exception for this supplier: the supplier page opens with that exception already set to information only, so you only add a reason. (Owners only; see below.) You can also open the supplier (Suppliers → the supplier) and use Exceptions for this supplier. You can:

• change how an exception is handled for this supplier: Information only (still recorded and visible, but does not hold the invoice), Always review or Always block;
• set different thresholds for this supplier, such as fewer days between invoices before two are compared.

An exception is deliberately narrow:

Safeguard	Why
Needs a reason, shown to everyone who opens the supplier	So the next person knows why it is there.
Expires (30 days to a year, 90 recommended)	After that the workspace’s settings apply again, so it is reviewed instead of forgotten. Renew it from the supplier page.
Cannot switch an exception off	The exception is still recorded and searchable. Only the workspace-wide Never raise removes one entirely.
Cannot relax the fraud checks	Exact duplicates, changed bank account, invalid bank details, inactive supplier and supplier identity can be made stricter for a supplier, never relaxed. These are the checks that catch payment redirection and impersonation. This is checked again every time the exception is applied: if you later make one of these stricter for the whole workspace, an older exception cannot lower it.
Loosening is an owner’s call	The workspace settings are owner-only, so anything that leaves a supplier’s checks less strict is too: setting an exception that relaxes a check, renewing one, or removing or weakening an exception that makes checks stricter. An admin can add exceptions that make checks stricter, and can remove one that only relaxed them.
Audited	Recorded in the audit log with who, what and why.
Not carried over by a merge	If you merge two suppliers, the merged-away supplier’s exception is dropped, so trust granted to one entity is not silently extended to another. Set it again on the surviving supplier if you still want it.
Merging cannot be used to get round it	Merging puts the merged-in supplier’s invoices under the surviving supplier’s exception. An admin can therefore not merge into a supplier that has a more relaxed exception, or merge away one an owner made stricter: that needs an owner.
An admin’s exception never outlasts a tightening	If an owner later tightens the workspace settings, an exception an admin set cannot hold a supplier below the new setting.

Why was this exception handled this way?

When an exception is treated differently from Invogi’s built-in behaviour, the review item says so and says why: Why it was handled this way, naming either an exception for that supplier or your workspace settings, and linking to it. The evidence also shows Treated as and Set by. So when two suppliers behave differently, the review item itself tells you which rule applied.

The country settings themselves (which checks run, the VAT rates in force, the company register) cannot be set per supplier, because they depend on the supplier’s country, which comes from the invoice itself. How the exceptions they raise are handled can be changed for one supplier like any other exception, within the limits above.

Common questions

I changed a setting and an invoice I already analysed didn’t change. Settings apply to new analyses. Correcting the invoice analyses it again under the current settings.

Can I change something for one supplier only? Yes, with a supplier exception. For a one-off, you can also record the decision on a review item as accepted risk; see Resolve review items.

Someone changed a setting. How do I know? Each tab says whether the workspace is on the recommended settings and lists exactly which settings differ. Who changed what, and when, is kept in the audit log; contact support if you need it for an audit.

Is it safe to leave everything on the defaults? Yes. The defaults are what Invogi is designed and tested with.