Our "Invoice Date" parsing rule preset lets you create a parsing rule capable of detecting and extracting the date of an invoice with only two clicks. Under the hood, a combination of pattern and keyword based recognition is used and you should be able to get reliable results without the need of tweaking the parsing rule options.
This intelligent filter does not rely on the position of your data inside the document. This means that the same parsing rule can be used to extract Invoice Dates from a variety of different invoice layouts.
How exactly does the parsing work?
Our Invoice Date extraction filter uses a combination of pattern and keyword based recognition. Basically we first extract anything which looks like an invoice date and we then look for certain keywords nearby. Docparser comes with a ready-to-use keyword dictionary which aims to cover most invoice layouts out of the box.
Can I format the output of the parsed dates?
Yes, parsed dates can be formatted to any format. All you need to do is add an additional formatting filter after the Invoice Date filter (Add Table Filter Modify Cell Content Format Dates'. This new filter will let you define a custom output format for you dates as described in this article.
Do I need to select a specific area of my document to make this work?
The presets for invoice and purchase order parsing (Invoice Totals, Invoice ID, Invoice Date, Purchase Order ID, ...) work best if you don't use the area selection tool at all and work with the entire text of the document instead. The underlying algorithms for those filters are based on keyword dictionaries and will only work if enough text from the document is available. Cropping too much text away from the document will result in lower detection rates.
What can I do if my Invoice Dates are not recognised?
Most of the time this means that our keyword dictionary is missing a certain keyword used in your invoice template. We can alter our dictionaries easily and will be happy to resolve the problem for you. Please refer to this article on how to report issues with Invoice, Sales and Purchase Order parsing presets.