This article explains how Candis detects possible duplicates among uploaded documents and how you decide whether to keep or delete a document. This helps you avoid booking or paying the same document twice.
Invoice and expenses are target of the duplicate detection.
What is the duplicate check?
Candis archives every uploaded document together with its invoice data. Invoice data is the information Candis extracts from a document, for example, contact, invoice date, invoice number, and amount.
Based on this archived data, Candis automatically compares every newly uploaded document with documents that already exist. If Candis finds a match, Candis flags the new document as a possible duplicate.
You don't need to start the duplicate check yourself. Candis runs the duplicate check automatically when you upload a document and while you process it.
Processing is the step in which you review and complete the invoice data Candis captured for a document before the document moves on to approval (the sign-off step before export) or export.
When does Candis flag a document as a possible duplicate?
Candis flags a document as a possible duplicate when one of the following criteria applies:
The content of the document is identical to an existing document.
Contact and invoice number match an existing document.
Contact, amount, and invoice date match an existing document.
Candis also flags a document as a possible duplicate if you enter invoice data manually during processing and this data matches or closely resembles an existing document.
Candis doesn't only compare invoices with each other. Candis can also detect a possible duplicate between an expense and an invoice.
Where do you find the possible-duplicate flag?
You find the possible-duplicate flag directly in the list where you process the relevant document.
A document with a possible duplicate shows a yellow icon labeled Possible Duplicate. Below the icon, Candis describes which details match, for example: "Amount, invoice date, invoice number, and merchant match 1 existing invoice."
Resolving a possible duplicate
Follow these steps to review and resolve a possible duplicate:
Click Compare with Existing in the Possible Duplicate flag. Candis opens a comparison view showing two documents side by side.
Review the document already in Candis on the left side, and review the newly uploaded document that triggered the possible-duplicate flag on the right side.
Decide whether to keep or delete the newly uploaded document.
If it isn't a duplicate: Click Keep on the newly uploaded document. Then continue processing the document. From this point on, Candis treats the document as a separate, independent document.
If it is a duplicate: Click Delete on the document you don't need. Candis removes that document from the system entirely. You can delete either the existing document or the newly uploaded document, depending on which one you want to keep.
You can't delete a document that has already been exported.
You can't request approval for a document that has an unresolved possible-duplicate flag. Resolve the possible-duplicate flag before you request approval for the document.
What else the comparison view shows you
In the comparison view, you also see the following for each of the two documents:
the reason Candis flagged the document as a possible duplicate
the document's origin, for example a user upload or an email inbox
whether the document already has files or credit card transactions linked to it
Use this information to decide which of the two documents to keep and which to delete.
Examples
Example 1: A receipt gets photographed twice A team member pays cash at a bakery and photographs the receipt with the Candis App to submit an expense. Shortly after, the team member accidentally uploads a second photo of the same receipt. Candis detects that amount, invoice date, invoice number, and merchant match the existing document and flags the second document as a possible duplicate. The team member opens the comparison view, recognizes the duplicate photo, and deletes the second document.
Example 2: An invoice arrives through two channels A supplier sends an invoice by email to the company's mail inbox. The supplier also hands a printed copy of the invoice to a team member. The team member uploads the printed copy through the Candis App. Candis detects, based on contact, amount, and invoice date, that both documents belong to the same invoice and flags the later-uploaded document as a possible duplicate. An accountant compares both documents in the comparison view, keeps the version from the mail inbox, and deletes the additionally uploaded copy.