For a nonprofit supporting one person, an invoice should be traceable to both the recorded expense and the need it serves. In TidyOne, use Add → Choose file/PDF or Take a photo, let AI suggest the details, review every line, select the correct project and optional fund, and confirm. Before reporting, check separately whether the invoice was actually paid and whether the same expense has already been recorded.
Why do invoices become difficult to manage in a small nonprofit?
A therapy invoice arrives by email, a transport receipt through a messaging app, and a medical supply receipt on paper. Months later, the organization must answer simple questions: “Where is that invoice?”, “How much did we spend on Therapy 2027?”, “Did the accountant receive it?” or “Did we enter the payment twice?”.
TidyOne connects the source document with operational financial records. In single-beneficiary nonprofit mode, the primary beneficiary provides the default person context rather than being chosen repeatedly. Projects and funds remain distinct: they explain why an expense exists and, where relevant, which designated pool of money it uses.
What you will have when you finish
Before uploading: prepare the document and the project
Open the Association workspace. In Settings, check that it is configured for a single beneficiary and the primary person is set. Create a project with a clear name: Therapy 2027, Surgery, or Transport and accommodation. If you need to track a more specific purpose within a project, add a fund. Do not make one fund for every invoice.
Prepare a readable PDF or image: show the full page, the issue date, invoice number and total. The unified scanner supports PDF and common image formats subject to the current size and plan limits displayed in the app. If you upload several documents, review their AI proposals one at a time.
Invoice → AI → Expense → Project: step by step
Step 1 — Upload your invoice or take a photo
On the page you are currently using, select Add followed by Image/PDF or Document. The quick-upload panel offers Choose file/PDF and Take a photo. You can also upload directly from Documents. You do not have to navigate away merely to open the file picker.
Upload the original once. If you received both an image and a PDF of the same invoice, prefer the more legible copy and check whether the other version has already generated a financial entry.
Step 2 — Understand the AI proposal
After upload, TidyOne can suggest the document type, issuer, recipient, date, currency, document category and individual financial lines. For invoices and receipts it may identify individual goods or services. If analysis succeeds, the review panel opens. When AI usage is exhausted or analysis cannot complete, the file may remain in To classify for later processing.
Low-confidence warnings, unclear dates or a mismatch between line totals and the invoice total are signals to compare the proposal against the original PDF or image. When individual items are unreadable, the app may offer a generic “Document total” line with reduced confidence. That does not mean it successfully extracted an itemized list.
Step 3 — Check every field and line item
Compare the suggested issuer, recipient, invoice date, currency, total and line values with the original. For an invoice covering both therapy sessions and supplies, review each line's category and subcategory. Do not put every item into one category only because they share a supplier.
The AI review panel includes a Financial impact selector. Choose Expense when the document should create an operational financial entry. If you only need to archive it for now, choose No financial transaction. This can be useful for an invoice that has been issued but not paid, where treating it as a completed payment would mislead your reporting. Agree on the appropriate recognition process with your accountant.
Step 4 — Select the correct project and fund
Within the nonprofit section of the review panel, the primary beneficiary is the default in single-beneficiary mode. Under Project / need, select the actual purpose of the expense, such as Therapy 2027. Choose a Fund only when the invoice relates to that fund's intended purpose. If the project does not exist, use + Project next to the selector. You can finish its details later in Projects & Funds.
If AI suggests the wrong project, correct it before confirming. If one invoice covers two different projects, do not assume the single project selector automatically splits the invoice between them. Review any required allocation in Finance and keep an explainable audit trail without duplicate totals.
Step 5 — Confirm once
When everything matches the original, select Confirm and save. In the current app, financial documents can create financial entries from the confirmed lines and link them to the original file. With No financial transaction, the document is classified and archived without creating those entries. A confirmed document should not be re-analyzed just to create another transaction: edit the existing record if a correction is needed.
If you uploaded a batch, review each proposal sequentially. A fast batch analysis does not establish that every amount and category is correct.
Step 6 — Check Finance and Documents
Go to Finance and find the entry by supplier, date or project. Verify its amount and currency. When an invoice contains several financial lines, more than one linked financial entry may exist: check the combined total before comparing it with the bank statement. In Documents, the original can be opened, downloaded or shared, and filtered by the available document statuses.
If you already entered the payment manually in Finance, compare the existing record before confirming the AI document as another expense. Otherwise the project report may double-count the cost.
Step 7 — Send the document to your accountant
From Documents, choose the file or use multi-selection, then Send or Download. Once you have actually transmitted the file, mark it Sent. This status is your organization's tracking aid, not automatic confirmation that the accountant received and accepted the file.
Step 8 — Inspect the project report
Open Reports, select Project / funder report, then choose the project, reporting period and relevant fund. Select Update report. Compare reported expenses with source documents and actual payments, review the missing-document list and look for transactions that should have a project but do not. Currencies remain separate; TidyOne does not silently combine RON and EUR.
Depending on your plan, you can use PDF / Print, Transaction CSV or the Accounting ZIP package. The AI narrative draft is a starting point, not a verified statutory or funder report.
Example: a 704 RON therapy invoice
Illustrative scenario: a small nonprofit has created the project Therapy 2027. It receives a PDF invoice for four therapy sessions totaling 704 RON. AI proposes the issuer, date and a line for 704 RON. The user compares the original, selects the correct financial category and links the document to Therapy 2027 and, if appropriate, a dedicated fund.
| Field | What to check | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Document | Complete and readable original, not a duplicate | Therapy invoice |
| Issuer and date | Exactly match the original | Verified supplier |
| Currency and total | 704 RON, not 704 EUR | 704 RON |
| Beneficiary | The nonprofit's primary beneficiary | Default person |
| Project | The real purpose of the service | Therapy 2027 |
| Financial impact | Issued or actually paid? | Selected after review |
| Accountant | Was the document really transmitted? | Sent status after sending |
Checklist before reporting
Ask AI Coach about the invoice later
Once the document is in the archive and its data has been reviewed, try: “Find the Therapy 2027 invoice from supplier X”, “What amount appears in last month's invoice?” or “Show expenses recorded for this project”. For an explicit question about PDF contents, TidyOne can consult relevant uploaded files within the feature's limits. Look at Files consulted and verify the source before communicating a figure externally.
AI Coach does not independently reconcile your bank account. It cannot treat an invoice as paid solely because it read the document. Use Reports for filtered totals, and investigate missing supporting documents before publishing a summary.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
AI read the wrong amount or currency
Compare all lines against the original. Do not confirm while a total mismatch is unresolved. If the photograph is illegible, use a clearer copy.
The same invoice was uploaded twice
Search by supplier, date and amount. Check whether a transaction already exists before confirming the second copy. Understand any links before deleting a file or transaction.
An unpaid invoice is described as a completed payment
Review is not proof of payment. Use No financial transaction when you only need to archive the document, if that fits your organization's process. Ask your accountant about the correct accounting treatment.
The wrong restricted fund was chosen
Review donor instructions and grant conditions. Do not automatically assign every expense to the fund with the highest available balance; the expense must actually be eligible.
The report does not match the bank statement
Look for missing payments, duplicates, fees, cash transactions, pending payments, timing differences or mixed currencies. An in-app balance reflects recorded data and is not guaranteed to equal the bank balance.
Frequently asked questions
Can TidyOne analyze both PDF invoices and photos?
Yes, within the formats and size limits supported by the current scanner. The quality of the source affects extraction, and every important proposal still requires human review.
Do I have to choose the beneficiary for every invoice?
Not in properly configured single-beneficiary mode. Still check that you are using the correct organization workspace.
Can I correct AI-generated categories?
Yes. In review, you can change categories and subcategories for individual financial lines as well as the issuer, date, currency and nonprofit context.
Does AI confirmation prove that the invoice was paid?
No. Confirmation saves the reviewed data and, based on the financial impact selected, operational financial entries. Verify payment evidence separately where needed.
Can multi-beneficiary nonprofits use this workflow?
Yes, with an extra check: select the correct beneficiary and case, and allocate costs explicitly when more than one beneficiary is involved. AI must not guess someone's identity from the type of service.
Is a TidyOne report an official accounting report?
No. It helps organize and prepare information. Legal reporting requirements vary by jurisdiction, nonprofit structure and funding agreement.
Continue with the next workflow
Upload it, compare every field with the original, select its project and verify the result in Finance. Once this routine works, repeat it for newly received documents.
Supporting-document requirements: for EU-funded grants, the European Commission explains reporting and record-keeping obligations. Check your own grant agreement, national rules and accountant's advice for applicable requirements.
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