You automate the posting of purchase invoices in Exact Online with automatic invoice processing: invoices arrive through the digital postbox, the Scanning service turns them into an entry proposal, and the setting "Automatically create entries for complete entry proposals" turns a complete proposal into an entry without a click. Exact picks the G/L account and VAT code from your earlier entries for that supplier, but it puts an invoice with several lines on one total per VAT rate. If you want every line coded separately, matched with your purchase order and still posted by itself, you need a tool that takes over that work.
This guide first shows how to set it up in Exact Online itself, step by step with the menu paths. Then the mistakes we see most, what Exact does and does not do for you, and how Glimps handles it. I checked all Exact menu paths and features in the Exact knowledge base on 24 September 2026. The sources are at the bottom. Where I could not check the English label, the Dutch one from the interface is in brackets.
How does automatic posting work in Exact Online?
Exact Online first turns every purchase invoice it receives into a draft entry. Exact calls this an entry proposal (boekingsvoorstel). You check the proposal, change what is wrong and save it. Only then is it an entry.
A PDF or photo goes through the Scanning service first, which reads the data. A structured e-invoice through Peppol is read straight from the XML file, without a scan. For a valid proposal Exact must find three things:
- The supplier. Exact searches on VAT number, Chamber of Commerce number and name. Small differences such as "B.V." or full stops do not count. An extra word in the name does: then Exact does not recognise the supplier.
- The G/L account. Exact compares the VAT percentage and description with the 100 most recent entries of the same supplier and takes the G/L account of the most similar one. If that finds nothing, it looks at the 1,000 most recent entries in the whole company and then at suppliers with a similar SBI code.
- The VAT code. This also comes from the 100 most recent entries of that supplier. Otherwise Exact takes the VAT code you use most for that percentage.
If the invoice has more than one VAT rate, Exact creates a separate line per rate. But an invoice with twenty lines at one rate becomes one amount on one G/L account. More on that below.
Step by step: how to set it up in Exact Online
Step 1. Switch on automatic invoice processing
Go to Company name > Settings and select Automatic invoice processing. These settings decide what happens to an incoming invoice:
- Send to Scanning service automatically. If this is off, Exact does not create an entry proposal from a PDF. XML and UBL invoices always go through, even when this is off, and you pay for those too.
- Automatically create entries for complete entry proposals. This is the switch for real automatic posting. If the scan found all the data it needs, Exact turns it into an entry by itself. Exact gives monthly invoices with a fixed amount as the example.
- Description. You choose what goes into the description of the entry proposal.
- Purchase journal. You choose which journal the entries from the Scanning service go to.
- Show changes in account name or address as "Needs attention". By default Exact ignores address changes. Switch this on if you want to see them.
Step 2. Get the digital postbox ready for email
The Scanning service only works with a digital postbox. There is one on your company by default. To receive invoices by email, you generate an email address: go to User name > My Exact Online, tab Mijn relatiegegevens, click your postbox under Mijn digitale brievenbussen and click the document type under Gekoppelde e-mailadressen.
Add the allowed senders (Toegestane afzenders) there as well. Mail from a sender who is not on that list lands in blocked emails (Geblokkeerde e-mails) and does not become an entry proposal. You find that list under Purchase > Invoices > Purchase > Overview, top right.
Step 3. Make sure Exact recognises your suppliers
The Scanning service searches on VAT number and Chamber of Commerce number first. So check:
- Under Company name > Settings, General tab: is your own VAT number filled in? Exact ignores your VAT number on the invoice, so it picks up the supplier's.
- On the Financial tab: is there a purchase payment condition?
- For every supplier: VAT number, Chamber of Commerce number and a payment condition. When the Scanning service recognises the supplier, it uses that payment condition.
Step 4. Switch on automatic posting per supplier
You do not have to switch it on for everyone at once. You also manage this setting through Smart purchase configuration (Slim Inkopen instellen, an icon on the purchase entries overview) or on a supplier's account page. Start with suppliers that send the same thing every month: rent, lease, subscriptions.
Step 5. Fix a coding with an entry template
If you want a supplier to always land on the same G/L account and VAT code, or to spread an amount over several lines, you use an entry template (boekingtemplate). Go to Company name > Master data > Financial > Entry templates (Stamgegevens > Financieel > Boekingtemplates), pick the purchase journal and click New. You link the supplier and choose a calculation method per line: no fixed value, fixed amount or relative weight. When you create an entry for a supplier with a linked template, Exact selects that template by itself.
Step 6. Process the entry proposals that remain
Everything not posted automatically sits under Purchase > Invoices > Purchase > Overview, on the Entry proposals tab. The entry status column shows whether a proposal is ready or needs a check. Exact points you to three things:
- Stamgegevens controleren: the invoice differs from what is stored for the supplier.
- Nieuwe relatie controleren: Exact did not recognise the supplier and created a new one.
- Factuurbedrag controleren: the amount differs a lot from what this supplier usually sends.
Click View on a proposal and Exact shows, in the window "How was this entry proposal generated?", which method it used. If the invoice belongs to an order, you select the related orders yourself in the invoices to be received window (Te ontvangen facturen).
Step 7. Have invoices approved (from Plus)
You switch on approval through Smart purchase configuration or in the company settings. You choose who may approve, can let the invoice amount decide the approver and can have invoices from certain suppliers approved automatically. An invoice waiting for approval only shows up in the Payments overview after it is approved. According to Exact's pricing page, working with approval flows is part of Plus, Professional and Premium, not Essentials. Read more about this part in approving invoices in Exact Online.
What does it cost in Exact?
Every edition includes 3 automatically processed documents per month. After that you pay 0.39 euro per document in a bundle or 0.50 euro per document without a bundle.
Common mistakes
- No allowed senders. The invoices do arrive, but they get stuck in blocked emails (Geblokkeerde e-mails). Nobody looks there, so the invoice sits until the reminder comes.
- Your own VAT number is missing. Then the Scanning service cannot tell your number from the supplier's.
- Automatic posting on for invoices that vary. A complete proposal is not yet a correct proposal. Exact's own example is fixed monthly invoices.
- Expecting lines to be posted separately. An invoice with several lines comes in as one total per VAT rate. If you want lines on different G/L accounts, Exact says you post them by hand or with an entry template.
- Duplicate suppliers. One extra word in the name and a missing Chamber of Commerce number, and Exact creates a new account. Always click through on the new account notice.
- Vague descriptions in old entries. Exact looks up the G/L account on description and VAT percentage. If you used to post everything as "invoice", it learns little from that.
What Exact does itself and where a tool takes over the work
| Part | Exact Online itself | With Glimps |
|---|---|---|
| Getting the invoice in | Digital postbox, email to a generated address, upload, Peppol | The Inbox Agent picks every invoice out of your Microsoft 365 mailbox. Glimps does not support Peppol or UBL. |
| G/L account | From earlier entries, on VAT percentage and description | Per line, from how you posted that supplier in Exact before |
| Invoice with many lines | One total per VAT rate; you split it yourself or with a template | Every line read and coded separately: G/L account, VAT, cost centre |
| Purchase order and receipt | You select the order yourself when you open the proposal | Matched line by line with order and receipt (PO matching add-on) |
| Automatic posting | When the proposal is complete, per company or per supplier | Per supplier, after a clean track record and your yes, or for a matched order or approved contract |
| What stops a posting | Incomplete proposal; notices for an unusual amount, a new account or changed master data | Eight checks, such as a possible duplicate, a different bank account, amounts that do not add up |
| Approval | Approval flows from Plus | Approvers prepared per invoice |
How Glimps does it
Glimps only works with Exact Online, and it does the work instead of suggesting it. The Inbox Agent picks every invoice out of your Microsoft 365 mailbox, including the reminder and the forwarded mail. Glimps reads every line and codes G/L account, VAT and cost centre per line from your own posting history in Exact. With the PO matching add-on it puts every line next to the purchase order and the receipt. Then Glimps posts the entry in Exact Online itself, as far as you allow per supplier.
That "as far as you allow" works like a ladder:
- A new supplier is prepared and waits for you. You press post.
- After enough invoices without a correction, Glimps proposes to let that supplier post automatically. You say yes or no.
- If you correct something later, that supplier goes back to prepare by itself. Climbing takes a clean track record, falling back takes one correction.
- If an invoice matches an order within your tolerance, or falls under an approved contract, it does not have to wait either.
Even for a supplier that posts automatically, eight checks stop a posting: a possible duplicate invoice, a duplicate check that could not run, a different bank account than usual, amounts that do not add up, an amount above your limit, a supplier that was silent for twelve months, a credit note and a different currency than usual. When Glimps is in doubt about a field, it stays empty. And Glimps never pays. Read more about this approach on agentic Glimps and automatic posting in Exact Online. How matching with order and receipt works is in 3-way matching explained.
You start today. You connect Exact Online yourself, without a demo or an implementation project, and your first invoice is processed within minutes. You try it free for 14 days. After that you pick Starter (75 euro per month), Professional (149 euro) or Business (399 euro); PO matching is an add-on of 149 euro per month. Everything is on the pricing page. Prefer to look around first? Open the demo. If you want to put Glimps next to Exact's Scanning service, read the alternative to scan and recognise.
Conclusion
Exact Online can post purchase invoices by itself: switch on automatic invoice processing, set up the digital postbox, make sure your suppliers are recognised and switch on "Automatically create entries for complete entry proposals" for your fixed suppliers. For a subscription invoice with one line, that is enough. For invoices with many lines, cost centres and purchase orders, manual work remains. That is the work Glimps takes over.