Documents — Upload, Review, Approve

Common flags and what to do with them

New vendor. First time Tally has seen this vendor. She wants you to confirm name, category, and account mapping. After 3–5 reviews of the same vendor, she stops asking for confirmation each time.
Possible duplicate. Tally noticed another document that looks like the same invoice/receipt. Review both, approve the one you want to keep, reject the duplicate. Tally remembers — same vendor, same amount, same date won't auto-trigger if you've already told her once it's intentional.
Possible anomaly. The amount is much higher or lower than this vendor's usual range. Tally explains why she flagged it ("Stripe usually $12–15/month, this is $250"). You decide.
Missing field. Something Tally needed wasn't extractable from the document. Fill it in and approve.
Low confidence. The image was hard to read. Verify the extracted fields and approve, correct, or reject.

Common issues

Problem: A receipt won't extract or extracts wrong fields.
- Why: handwriting, glare, or unusual receipt layouts.
- What to do: correct the fields manually and approve. The next receipt from that vendor will be cleaner.
Problem: The same invoice keeps appearing as a duplicate.
- Why: the vendor sent multiple copies, or the document was uploaded twice from different sources.
- What to do: approve once, reject the others. Tally won't re-flag the approved one against itself.
Problem: A vendor I've never used appeared on the list.
- Why: it was in your CSV import, your forwarded inbox, or your bank feed.
- What to do: review the document. If it's a one-off, approve or reject as needed. If it's not yours, reject it and the vendor won't be remembered.
Problem: Tally flagged an amount as anomalous but it's correct.
- Why: the charge is genuinely outside this vendor's normal range (annual renewal, refund reversal, true price change).
- What to do: approve with a note. Tally absorbs the new range — future documents in that range won't fire.

If you're a bookkeeper reviewing client work

The document list and review actions work the same — the difference is scope. From the client drill-down view, you see only that client's documents. The Bookkeeper Command Center shows you which clients have queues that need attention so you can prioritize across your portfolio. See Bookkeeper workspace.

When you correct a document for a client, two things happen:

That client's Tally learns from the correction (per-client memory).
If the correction is one your firm makes consistently across clients (e.g., "Adobe Creative Cloud always maps to Software Subscriptions"), it can become firm-level memory on Business plans — see How Tally learns.

If you're an SMB owner reviewing your own documents

Same actions, smaller scope — you only see your own business. The first month involves more reviews because Tally is still learning your vendors. By month three, most routine documents arrive already-suggested with the right vendor, category, and account. Your job shifts from "review everything" to "handle exceptions."

Reviewing

Open a document to see Tally's full extraction. The detail panel shows the source PDF/image alongside the structured data. Three actions:

Approve — confirm Tally's extraction is correct. The document moves to Approved. If the document is part of a flagged pair (possible duplicate), you can override the flag with a note.
Correct — edit any field inline (vendor, amount, date, category, line items) and then approve. This is the most valuable action. Every correction teaches Tally — the next document from this vendor will be more accurate.
Reject — if the document is wrong, irrelevant, or shouldn't be in your books at all. Use this for accidental uploads or misidentified items.

The status taxonomy

Each document gets a status that tells you what to do next:

Pending — Tally is still extracting. Nothing for you to do yet.
Needs Attention — extracted, but Tally flagged something you should look at (missing field, low confidence, possible duplicate, possible anomaly, new vendor).
Suggested — Tally has a suggestion (often based on your history) that she'd like you to confirm with one click.
Approved — you've approved this document. Tally remembers your decision.
Auto-approved — Tally handled it on her own (only happens for vendors where she's earned that level of autonomy).
Rejected — you've rejected the document. It's archived, not deleted.

What's next

How Tally learns — why your reviews matter and how Tally earns autonomy over time
Connect QuickBooks — push approved documents through to your books
Bank feed — automatic transaction import
Troubleshooting — when something doesn't work

What Tally extracts

For each document, Tally captures:

Vendor name (and remembers your canonical spelling — "AWS" / "Amazon Web Services" become one vendor over time).
Amount, currency, tax, subtotal.
Date (invoice date, due date, document date).
Category (suggested from your history; you can correct).
Line items (when present and clear).
Confidence — Tally's own assessment of how clean the extraction was.

What you'll do

Upload documents (drag and drop, CSV import, email forwarding, or bank feed).
Read the statuses Tally assigns and understand which need your attention.
Review and approve, correct, or reject documents.
Handle duplicates, anomalies, and missing fields.
Find documents fast with search and filters.

Where documents come from

Tally accepts documents from four sources:

Direct upload — drag PDFs, images, or scans into the upload area on the Financials page. Single files or batches.
CSV / history import — upload a CSV exported from QuickBooks, Xero, or another system. Tally treats these as historical context (see How Tally learns for why this matters).
Email forwarding (Inbox) — if you have the Inbox feature, forward invoices from your email and Tally extracts them automatically. See Inbox.
Bank feed — if you've connected a bank, transactions sync in as expense documents. See Bank feed.