Working the intake review queue
How bookkeeping staff should work the queue of low-confidence fields and possible duplicate documents in Achekam before any journal is posted.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Reading documents automatically is only half the job. The other half is deciding what to do with the ones the machine is unsure about. A supplier total that could be read two ways, a date half hidden under a staple, the same invoice arriving as a PDF from the client and as a phone photo from the client's bookkeeper. Each of these, posted without a second look, becomes an error in the client's books that someone will have to find later.
Achekam does not post those quietly. It puts them in front of a person. This article is about that person's work: what the review queue holds, how to clear it well, and why it should be cleared every day rather than once a month.
Why documents wait for a person
Journals proposed from documents, bank lines or adjustments are only candidates in Achekam. Only a person can approve a candidate and only a person can post it; AI is refused both steps. Candidates are worked under FINANCIAL INTAKE > Posting Candidates.
Before a document even reaches that stage, two kinds of problem hold it back. Low-confidence fields and possible duplicates wait in the Intake Review Queue for a person to decide. The queue is where judgement is needed, and the rest of the intake flow depends on it being worked.
The approval of candidates themselves is covered in posting candidates a person approves. This article stays with the queue that comes first.
Low-confidence fields
Achekam can read supplier invoices and receipts into their fields and propose a journal for each. Where it cannot be confident about a field, the document waits.
Common causes:
- a poor scan or a photo taken at an angle;
- handwriting on a slip;
- a total and a subtotal that look alike;
- a date written in an unusual format;
- a supplier name that appears only in a logo.
The reviewer's job is simple to describe and needs care to do: open the original, read the field yourself, and correct or confirm it. Do not accept a value because it looks plausible. Look at the document.
One rule surprises new staff. VAT that is not printed on the document stays empty. Achekam does not calculate VAT that the supplier did not show. If the field is empty, check the document: if no VAT is shown, it may be a non-VAT supplier, or a slip that is not a valid tax invoice. Either way, the answer comes from the document and the client, not from a guess.
Where staff use Document Intelligence to have AI read a receipt, invoice or statement, Achekam re-checks totals, VAT and dates and flags any figure that is not in its own transcription. Treat a flagged figure exactly like a low-confidence field: back to the original.
Possible duplicates
Duplicates are the costlier problem, because a duplicate that gets posted doubles an expense and, often, an input VAT claim.
They arrive in predictable ways:
| How it happens | What to look for |
|---|---|
| The client uploads the same invoice twice | Same supplier, number, date and amount |
| An invoice and a statement listing it are both sent | A statement line matching an invoice already read |
| A PDF from the supplier and a photo of the printout | Same details, different file type |
| A pro forma followed by the final invoice | Similar amounts, different document titles |
| A credit note read as an invoice | A negative or reversing document from the same supplier |
When the queue flags a possible duplicate, compare the two documents side by side. If it is a true duplicate, keep one. If they are genuinely two documents, such as two deliveries invoiced on the same day for the same amount, record why they are different so the next reviewer does not reopen the question.
Some duplicates are not accidents. ICAEW's guidance on how to identify and deal with fake invoices explains warning signs such as mismatches with purchase orders and delivery notes, and preventive controls like segregation of duties and verifying bank-detail changes. A reviewer who sees a repeat invoice with different bank details on it should raise it with the client, not simply delete one copy.
Originals in the client's folder
Every decision in the queue depends on the original document. When files are sent for intake, they are filed as originals in the client's "Uploads for processing" folder in the Document Centre, the vault that keeps a folder per client and lead, with versions, tags, archiving, restoring with a reason, and search.
That gives the reviewer what they need: the original is always one step away from the field being questioned. It also gives the file a trail. When a manager later asks why an amount was posted as it was, the original is still there, next to what was read from it.
Reading scans and photos needs some set-up first; without it, nothing can be read from them. What to configure is in reading clients' scanned invoices.
Clearing the queue every day
A queue that is cleared monthly becomes a queue nobody wants to open. Documents pile up, the client's questions get older, and month-end turns into a rush where care is the first casualty.
A daily routine works better:
- Open the queue at the same time each day.
- Clear duplicates first; they are quick and the cost of missing them is high.
- Work low-confidence fields client by client, with the original open.
- Note questions for the client rather than guessing, and send them together.
- Move cleared documents on so candidates can be approved.
- Leave the queue empty, or with only items waiting for the client.
When more than one person works the queue, split it by client, not by document, so the same reviewer sees all of a client's documents and recognises the duplicates.
Give one person ownership of each client's queue, agree a time of day for clearing it, and check at the end of the week that nothing older than a few days is still waiting.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
