Invoice ocr extractor

Invoice OCR Extractor

Extract structured expense-entry fields from Hebrew and English invoice photos, scans, screenshots, PDFs, and OCR text for Israeli small businesses, freelancers, and consumers.

Use when

• A supplier invoice or receipt must become a bookkeeping row.
• A Hebrew/English document includes vendor, total, VAT, document number, or date.
• A payment screenshot must be checked before expense entry.
• A batch of OCR text files needs review flags and CSV export.

Output fields

Return JSON with vendor, document_type, document_number, date, currency, total_gross, vat_amount, total_net, vat_rate, payment_method, business_id, business_id_type, allocation_number, confidence, review_flags, and raw_evidence.

Web-validated Israeli parameters

As of the 01/06/2026 verification pass, the standard Israeli VAT rate remains 18%. Use the VAT rate printed on the document whenever it is visible, and keep 18.0 only as a configurable default. For Israel Invoices allocation review, flag ILS tax invoices above ₪10,000 before VAT from 01/01/2026 through 31/05/2026, and above ₪5,000 before VAT from 01/06/2026, when no מספר הקצאה or Allocation Number is visible. Treat this as a review flag, not as tax advice.

Core rules

1. Preserve uncertainty; use null when evidence is weak.
2. Prefer printed totals over inferred values.
3. Infer VAT only when enabled and clearly explain the inference.
4. Use the VAT rate printed on the document when visible.
5. Do not infer VAT for עוסק פטור unless VAT appears explicitly.
6. Keep foreign currency unchanged; do not convert without a separate exchange-rate workflow.
7. Keep credit-note signs; do not strip minus signs.
8. Treat payment confirmations as risky unless tax-invoice wording appears.
9. Add review flags for missing vendor, date, document number, total, or VAT.
10. Keep raw evidence snippets for important fields.

Document type mapping

Evidence	Output
חשבונית מס קבלה, Tax Invoice Receipt	tax_invoice_receipt
חשבונית מס, Tax Invoice	tax_invoice
קבלה, Receipt	receipt
חשבונית עסקה, Invoice	invoice
חשבונית זיכוי, Credit Note	credit_note
פרופורמה, Proforma	proforma
unclear	unknown

Vendor extraction

Prefer a business-like line near the top or near עוסק מורשה, ח.פ., VAT No., Company No., Ltd, or בע"מ. Down-rank lines after לכבוד, לקוח, Bill To, or Customer. Never use document titles, totals, phone numbers, or customer names as vendor names.

Document number extraction

Prefer labels such as מספר חשבונית, חשבונית מס מס', קבלה מס', Invoice No., Receipt No., and Document No.. Exclude ח.פ., ע.מ., phone numbers, card approval numbers, bank account numbers, and allocation numbers.

Date extraction

Accept 21/05/2026, 21.05.2026, 21/05/2026, and ISO 2026-05-21. Return DD/MM/YYYY. For 4/5/26, return 04/05/2026 and flag ambiguity when needed.

Amount extraction

Prioritize gross totals in this order: סה"כ לתשלום, סך לתשלום, סה"כ שולם, Grand Total, Total to Pay, Amount Paid, then a weak bottom amount with a warning. Do not confuse subtotal, net, balance, change, phone number, approval number, or business ID with total.

VAT extraction

• Extract printed מע"מ, מעמ, מע מ, VAT, or % lines.
• Validate net + VAT = gross within a small tolerance.
• If gross and visible VAT rate exist but VAT amount is missing, infer only when configured.
• If עוסק פטור appears and VAT is missing, set VAT to 0.0, set net equal to gross, and flag that VAT was not inferred.

Decision tree

flowchart TD
A[Receive image/PDF/OCR text] --> B{Text available?}
B -- No --> C[Run OCR with Hebrew and English]
B -- Yes --> D[Normalize text]
C --> D
D --> E[Detect document type]
E --> F[Extract vendor, date, document number]
F --> G[Extract gross, net, VAT, rate]
G --> H{VAT coherent?}
H -- Yes --> I[Calculate confidence]
H -- No --> J[Preserve visible values and add flags]
J --> I
I --> K[Return JSON and evidence]

VAT decision tree

flowchart TD
A[Start] --> B{VAT amount visible?}
B -- Yes --> C[Use printed VAT]
B -- No --> D{Visible rate and gross?}
D -- Yes --> E[Infer only if enabled]
D -- No --> F{Exempt dealer wording?}
F -- Yes --> G[Set VAT 0 and flag]
F -- No --> H[Leave VAT null and flag]
C --> I[Validate math]
E --> I
G --> I
H --> I

Example: Hebrew tax invoice receipt

א.ב. שירותי מחשוב בע"מ
ח.פ. 512345678
חשבונית מס קבלה מס' 2026-104
תאריך: 21/05/2026
סה"כ לפני מע"מ: ₪1,000.00
מע"מ 18%: ₪180.00
סה"כ לתשלום: ₪1,180.00
שולם באשראי

{"vendor":"א.ב. שירותי מחשוב בע\"מ","document_type":"tax_invoice_receipt","document_number":"2026-104","date":"21/05/2026","currency":"ILS","total_net":1000.0,"vat_amount":180.0,"total_gross":1180.0,"vat_rate":18.0,"payment_method":"credit_card"}

Example: exempt dealer receipt

נועה לוי - עוסק פטור
קבלה מס' 45
תאריך 02/05/2026
סה"כ לתשלום ₪300.00

Expected: vat_amount = 0.0, total_net = 300.0, and review flag Document indicates exempt dealer; VAT not inferred.

Edge cases

• Multiple totals: select the strongest gross-total label and flag conflicts.
• Credit notes: preserve negative signs; flag positive credit-note amounts.
• Foreign currency: preserve USD/EUR/GBP and flag conversion requirement.
• Payment apps: classify as payment method, not tax invoice, unless invoice wording exists.
• Copy/duplicate: extract fields and flag Copy/duplicate indicator visible.
• Restaurant tips: include tip only when part of total paid; flag unclear VAT treatment.
• Poor OCR: normalize common digit mistakes such as O to 0 and l to 1 near amounts.

Confidence scoring

Suggested weights: gross total 0.20, valid date 0.15, document number 0.15, vendor 0.15, coherent VAT 0.20, document type 0.10, business ID 0.05. Subtract for short OCR text, VAT mismatch, inferred VAT, weak total labels, or missing vendor.

Troubleshooting quick table

Symptom	Action
subtotal selected	strengthen gross-total labels
VAT missing	match מעמ, מע מ, and VAT
vendor is customer	down-rank lines after לכבוד or Customer
wrong document number	exclude IDs, phones, approvals, allocation numbers
image OCR unavailable	provide OCR text or install an OCR engine

Anti-patterns

Do not select the largest number blindly. Do not force VAT on exempt dealer receipts. Do not convert currency without a rate. Do not treat a payment confirmation as a tax invoice. Do not remove negative signs. Do not store raw OCR text longer than needed.

Production checklist

• OCR configured for Hebrew and English.
• Images rotated, cropped, and deskewed.
• Output schema versioned.
• Confidence and review flags displayed.
• VAT inference configuration documented.
• Duplicate key uses vendor, document number, date, and gross total.
• Raw OCR text protected or redacted.
• Source file hash retained.
• Human review required below 0.85 confidence.
• Current Israeli VAT and recordkeeping requirements verified against official sources.

Version 2.1 correction pass

Use the installable invoice_ocr_extractor module for Python integrations. Treat the CLI parse command as a create operation: it returns a structured extraction response containing record_id. Pass that record_id into validation or downstream review queues to prevent mismatched records.

python -m invoice_ocr_extractor.cli parse --text-file invoice.txt --pretty > create-response.json
EXTRACTION_ID=$(python -c 'import json; print(json.load(open("create-response.json", encoding="utf-8"))["record_id"])')
python -m invoice_ocr_extractor.cli validate --json-file create-response.json --expected-id "$EXTRACTION_ID"

flowchart TD
    A[Create extraction response] --> B[Read record_id]
    B --> C[Validate response with expected id]
    C --> D{Valid and high confidence?}
    D -- Yes --> E[Send to expense import review]
    D -- No --> F[Route to manual review]