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Invoice PO Attachments

Purpose​

Invoice PO Attachments connects Invoice Attachment Rules to native purchase orders. It lets an invoice user classify a file owned by a purchase order as evidence for a draft vendor bill, vendor credit note or vendor receipt. It preserves the purchase-order source instead of requiring a duplicate upload on the bill.

This is an automatically installable helper integration, with no standalone menu or top-level app. Its controls appear inside the base app’s Attachment Compliance page.

Before you start​

Install matching versions of Invoice Attachment Rules (corvus_account_attachment_guard) and native Purchase (purchase). The helper manifest declares both dependencies and auto_install; your administrator must make the matching helper package available. No Enterprise-only dependency is declared.

The vendor document must have an actual purchase-order line link. A typed origin reference, matching vendor, or purchase-order number in an attachment filename does not establish that relationship. Upload the original evidence to the linked purchase order before classification, and configure the document class and posting rule in the base app.

The workflow below was reviewed in 19.0 source. Other listed versions received limited source comparison; no runtime test was performed for this guide.

Access and roles​

The wizard is available to invoice users (account.group_account_invoice). Users need write access to the draft vendor document and read access to the linked purchase order and attachment. The base app enforces company-compatible document classes and draft-only classification. Accounting managers still own posting rules and exception decisions; this helper adds no approval role.

Workflow​

  1. Open a draft vendor bill created from the relevant purchase-order lines. Check that the bill lines retain their native purchase relationship.
  2. On Attachment Compliance, choose Classify PO Evidence. If no exact purchase-line link exists, the action stops with an explanation.
  3. In Classify Purchase Evidence, select an offered purchase order, its attachment, an active document class for the bill’s company, and a reason.
  4. Select Classify Evidence. The file must be owned by the selected purchase order, and that order must be linked to the bill. A classification is created with purchase provenance; the source file is not copied.
  5. Use Refresh Checklist in the base app. The classification contributes only if it satisfies the effective rule’s file requirements, count and reuse rules.
  6. Post through the normal accounting workflow once ready, or follow the base app’s manager-exception process where configured. The same posting audit records the accepted evidence metadata.

Practice scenario​

In an authorised test database, fictional Cedar Office Supplies has a purchase order for paper cartons and a linked draft bill. Attach a sample supplier PDF to the purchase order. Classify it from the bill as Supplier Invoice, then refresh the checklist. If the PDF meets the base rule’s requirements, the source-derived expected result is that the requirement is satisfied. This practice case was not executed.

Repeat with an unrelated purchase order from the same vendor. It should not be offered as a linked source, and a file on that unrelated order does not qualify simply because the supplier matches.

Troubleshooting and limitations​

  • No exact purchase-order line link: use a vendor document with the native purchase relationship; entering an origin string is insufficient.
  • Select an attachment owned by the exact purchase order: choose a file attached to that order, not the bill or another order. Bill-owned evidence uses the base Classify Attachment action.
  • Evidence becomes missing later: the guard rechecks source linkage and readability. Removing the relationship, moving the file or losing source access can invalidate it.
  • Classified but not accepted: check the base rule’s MIME type, extension, age, size, filename and duplicate-content rules. Classification does not bypass them.
  • Posted document: classification is a draft workflow. The helper does not amend posted evidence history or create purchase orders.

The assigned catalogue qualifies 15.0, 16.0, 18.0, 19.0 and 20.0. A 17.0 source version exists without a qualified live-demo pair here. The inspected bridge comparisons retain the exact purchase linkage; older releases adapt access checks and form modifiers, while 20.0 changes the ACL format. The base app also has version-specific differences.

Live Test — Odoo 19.0 · Choose the exact version in the Corvus catalogue.

Read Invoice Attachment Rules for configuration, posting and exceptions, and Invoice Receipt Evidence for files attached to linked receipts.