Supplier invoices: receive them, review them, and never pay twice

One supplier invoice arrives by email, another is a PDF downloaded from a portal, a third comes on paper and ends up in a folder. Someone forwards it to the accountant, someone else forgets it in their inbox. Then a reminder shows up for an invoice that was already paid, or a due date slips past without anyone ever seeing it. For a small business this is more than an annoyance: it’s real money and time gone, and it happens more often than people care to admit.

The problem isn’t the invoices themselves — it’s that they come in through a dozen different channels with no single place to receive, check and record them. The new Incoming invoices module in Blina Space exists for exactly this: to gather every supplier invoice into one orderly flow, from the moment it arrives to the export you hand your accountant.

Invoices come in on their own

The first step is to stop chasing invoices. Blina Space gives you three ways to bring them in: forward them to a dedicated email address, upload them by hand, or flag a document you already have in your archive as an invoice. The email address is the easiest of the three: you forward the supplier’s invoice to it, and within seconds it’s in the module, ready to work on. No more invoices buried in one person’s mailbox.

AI data extraction

Typing in the supplier, number, amounts and IBAN by hand is the tedious part — and it’s where mistakes creep in. In Blina Space the AI assistant reads the invoice and extracts the key fields: supplier name, VAT number, document number and date, net amount, VAT, total, IBAN and payment due date. You take a quick look and confirm. Recognition works on electronic invoices (XRechnung and ZUGFeRD) and on scans too. You always have the final say, but the platform does the heavy lifting.

Review and approval

An invoice isn’t just a record to file away — it’s an expense someone has to check and approve. In Blina Space every invoice follows a clear path — New, In review, Approved or Rejected — and you can assign it to a person and leave comments along the way. That way it’s always obvious who needs to do what and where an invoice stands, with no back-and-forth emails asking “has anyone looked at this yet?”. Whoever approves spending gets a tidy overview; whoever books it knows they’re only working on invoices that have already been validated.

Payment status you can always read at a glance

Knowing whether an invoice has been paid matters just as much as reviewing it. Every invoice carries a payment status — To pay, Paid or Overdue — independent of the approval flow. In a single glance you see what’s still open, what’s already settled and, above all, what’s late, before the reminder ever lands. For a small business that means no more double payments and no more invoices forgotten at the bottom of the list.

DATEV export for your accountant

In the end the supporting documents have to reach whoever keeps the books. Blina Space prepares a DATEV export of the documents (Belege): a tidy package with the invoices and their data, ready to hand to your accountant. Batches that have already been exported stay immutable, as any serious handling of tax documents requires. Fewer manual steps, fewer errors, and a cleaner relationship with the person who looks after your accounting.

Privacy and GDPR

Invoices hold sensitive data about your company and your suppliers. Blina Space gives each company its own dedicated database, hosted in Germany and the European Union. Your documents stay yours and are never used to train public models. It’s the level of protection a GDPR-conscious small business has every right to expect from invoice software.

Why it matters for small businesses

Large companies have an accounting department that sorts invoices every day. A small business doesn’t: receiving, checking and passing invoices to the accountant is one more task that falls on people who already have plenty on their plate. A lost invoice, a double payment or a missed due date weigh far more heavily on a small operation than on a big one.

The Incoming invoices module gives a team of a few the same tools as a team of many: email intake, AI data extraction, review and approval, payment status and DATEV export. Less manual work, less risk, more control — and it’s included in every plan.

Try Blina Space invoice management for free — 15-day free trial, no commitment.