Packing slip automation

Packing slip documents are received through these configured intake channels:

• A monitored email inbox
• A predefined shared folder

Based on business requirements, the RPA can be set up to run in attended mode or unattended mode.

• Attended mode: Triggered or monitored by a user.
• Unattended mode: Fully automated and scheduled to run without manual intervention.

Before processing begins, the system performs validation checks to ensure the document is suitable for automation:

• File format validation: Supports PDF formats only.
• File size validation: Documents larger than 10 MB are excluded.

If any of these validations fail, the document is routed to exception handling.

After validation, the system prepares the document for processing.

If a document contains multiple POs, the RPA splits the documents to multiple PDFs based on the purchase order number.

After data extraction, the system validates whether all required information is available to proceed with processing.

These fields are mandatory for packing slip attachment:

• Purchase Order Number
• Ship-To Address
• Item
• Quantity
• Unit of Measure (UOM)

If any of the mandatory fields are missing or cannot be confidently extracted, the document is routed to exception handling for manual review.

The extracted Ship-To address is used to determine the correct company and ship-to location.

An AI-based address matching process compares the extracted address with ship-to location records in the system so that we can take the corresponding company where that location is tagged into.

Using the extracted PO number and identified company, the system retrieves existing PO receipts.

• If a Shipment Date is available, receipts are filtered using Received Date ≥ Shipment Date.
• If no Shipment Date is available, all receipts for the Purchase Order are considered.

The system then validates matching criteria such as Item, Quantity, or Unit of Measure (UOM).

For Item validation, the system follows a defined priority sequence. The relevant fields are first extracted from the packing slip, and then matched in FSM in this order:

1. Vendor Item
2. Manufacturer Number
3. Item

The system attempts to match sequentially. If a match is found at any step, the subsequent steps are not evaluated.

The system proceeds based on matching results:

• Single Matching Receipt Found: The packing slip is attached to the identified receipt.
• No Matching Receipt Found: If no matching Purchase Order Receipt is identified, the system generates the appropriate exception message and routes the file to exception handling.
• Multiple Matching Receipts Found: The system proceeds only if there is a single, unambiguous item-level match.

A new Purchase Order Receipt is created only when any of these conditions are met:

1. No receipt exists for the Purchase Order, or
2. No receipt exists in FSM with a Received Date greater than or equal to the Ship Date in the packing slip, for example, Received Date ≥ Ship Date, and
3. The configuration flag AutoReceiptCreationFromPackingSlip is set to TRUE.

If the configuration flag is disabled, the packing slip does not trigger receipt creation. The packing slip is routed to exception handling.

Receipt creation is allowed when these conditions are met:

• A new Purchase Order Receipt is created in FSM.
• Receipt lines are created using the Item, Quantity, and UOM extracted from the packing slip.

Once the receipt is successfully created, the packing slip is attached into the receipt.