Assign documents to transactions

Why a transaction needs a document

Every business transaction in your bookkeeping should have a document behind it: a receipt, a supplier invoice, or one of your own invoices. The document shows what the money was for.

To deduct input VAT on an expense, you generally need a proper invoice from the supplier. Keep the file, not just the bank line.

Norman tracks the gap for you. On the Accounting page, filter the transaction list by Without documents to see what is still open.

Three ways a document reaches a transaction

1. Norman matches it automatically after a bank sync.
2. You start the same match yourself with Match my documents on the home page.
3. You attach the document by hand from the transaction.

Everything Norman cannot decide alone waits for you on the review page.

Automatic matching after a bank sync

Each time Norman imports new bank transactions, it checks them against the documents you uploaded in the last 60 days. Norman links only the pairs that leave no doubt. It leaves the rest to you.

This is why early uploads pay off. You can upload an invoice weeks before the money leaves your account. When the payment lands, Norman connects the two.

Match my documents

Open the home page and click Match my documents. Norman runs the same match on demand across your recent bank transactions.

You get a short summary: how many documents Norman linked, and what is left. The Document matching card points at the two open piles:

• ... documents need your decision opens the review page.
• ... transactions have no document opens the filtered transaction list.

Review the ones Norman could not decide

Open Documents. When unassigned documents exist, a banner reads ... documents need review. Click Review documents.

Norman shows one document at a time, with a preview and the details it read from the file. Two tabs sit next to it:

• Match existing lists suggested transactions. Each suggestion says why it is there: Amount match, Date match, or Text match. Select one and click Confirm.
• Create transaction builds a new transaction from the document. Use it for payments that never appear in a connected bank account.

If no suggestion fits, use the search box above the list. It searches the transactions that have no document yet.

Skip moves to the next document. Skipped documents are not lost. They appear again the next time you open the review page.

Delete document removes the file for good. That is the right answer for duplicates and for files that are not documents at all.

Attach a document yourself

Open a transaction in Accounting. In the Document section, click Add. The Attach document panel opens.

The panel lists every receipt and invoice file that is not assigned yet, newest first. Select a row and click Attach.

Move the pointer over a row and click Preview to check the file first.

Nothing uploaded yet? Use Upload inside the panel. Norman accepts PNG, JPG, WEBP, XML, and PDF files here. The new file is selected for you right away.

On an income transaction the panel also shows Your Norman invoices: the open invoices you created in Norman that have no transaction yet. Norman puts the three closest ones first, by amount and date. Use Show all ... for the rest.

Search inside the panel

The search box takes three kinds of input, as the placeholder says: Vendor, number or amount.

• Vendor: type any part of the vendor or file name.
• Number: type the invoice or receipt number.
• Amount: type the amount in any common notation. Norman understands thousand separators, so 1190, 1.190,00, and 1,190.00 all find the same document.

Replace or unlink a document

When a transaction already carries a document, the Document section shows two buttons:

• Replace opens the panel again, so you can pick a different document.
• Unlink takes the document off the transaction.

Unlink does not delete the file. The document returns to your document list as unassigned and is ready for another transaction.

Both buttons stay inactive while the transaction is marked Finalized. Switch Finalized off first.

Additional documents

A transaction has one main document. That document drives the booking: the amount, the date, and the VAT come from it.

Everything else belongs under Additional documents. A delivery note, a contract, an order confirmation, or a payment confirmation are good examples. The section appears once the transaction has a main document. Click Add there and pick one or several files, or upload them from the same panel.

Supporting documents are stored as they are. Norman does not read them, and they never change the booking.

Two things follow from that:

• A receipt or invoice you attach as a supporting document no longer counts as unassigned. It stops appearing in the review queue and in the picker.
• Removing a supporting document takes it off the transaction. A receipt or invoice you picked from your documents stays in your document list. A file you uploaded directly as a supporting document is removed with it, because nothing else uses it.

What counts as an unambiguous match

Norman links a document on its own only when one answer is clearly right. That means one of two things:

1. The document number appears in the text of the bank transaction. Very short numbers are ignored, because 42 or 2026 would match almost anything.
2. Exactly one transaction fits by amount and date.

Small amount differences are allowed, so bank fees and exchange-rate drift do not block a match. The date rule depends on the document:

• A receipt must sit within a day of the transaction.
• An invoice may be paid later. Norman accepts a payment up to 30 days after the invoice date, because that is how payment terms work.

If two transactions fit equally well, Norman links neither. A wrong link costs you more than a short stop on the review page.

Do you have to upload your documents?

No. Uploading is not obligatory. You can categorise your transactions, run your bookkeeping and submit your tax returns in Norman without uploading a single file.

We still encourage you to upload them, for two reasons.

Everything sits in one place. Your documents live where your accounting lives. Years later, when a question comes up, you are not searching through mail folders and hard drives.

It saves you work. Norman reads an uploaded document and takes over what it finds: the vendor, the date, the amount and the VAT. That is data you no longer type in yourself, and it is what lets Norman match the document to a transaction for you.

Where and how you keep your documents is your decision. Norman works either way.

Related articles

For uploads that stay stuck in processing, and for exporting your documents, read Exports, categories, documents, and personal transactions.