Documentation/ Uploading documents/ Grouping several photos as one document
Grouping several photos as one document
A three-sheet delivery note is three photos, but one document. Ticking them on upload gets them merged on their own once they have been processed; if you forgot, it can still be put right from the list.
Document upload › tick Auto-merge on the photos
On this page
The problem
Each photo is a file, and each file comes in as a document. A three-sheet delivery note photographed that way would give you three incomplete documents: one with the header, one with half the lines and one with the totals.
Not one of the three would add up, and all three would need correcting by hand.
Ticking them on upload
The upload screen puts it plainly: several photos of the same delivery note or invoice, tick them and they will be merged automatically once processed.
- Add the photos of the document.
- Turn Auto-merge on for them.
- Process.
The switch is on each file, and there is a general one, Auto-merge all, at the top of the upload list, which comes switched on.
The order matters
The photos are joined in the order you upload them. Photograph the last sheet first and the document ends up with the totals at the front and the header at the back, so the reading looks for the data where it is not.
The safe way is to photograph them in order, first sheet, second, third, and upload them in that same order. It is worth checking in the preview before you process.
When the merge happens
Not straight away: it happens after each photo has been processed. They are all read separately first and then joined into one document.
Which means that for a few moments the photos show up in the list as separate documents. There is nothing to do: they group themselves.
Usage is counted by the page processed, not by the document you end up with. Three merged photos cost three pages, exactly as a three-page PDF would.
If you forgot to tick them
There are two ways out from the list, and neither means deleting and uploading again:
| Action | What it does | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Merge selected | Joins exactly the documents you tick. | When the automatic grouping does not spot them. |
Merging by hand needs at least two documents ticked; otherwise the application says so.
If the automatic button comes back saying there is nothing waiting to be merged, it means it found no groups: merge them by hand instead.
With a PDF it is different
| Photos | A multi-page PDF | |
|---|---|---|
| What they are on upload | Several files. | One file. |
| What you have to tick | That they are one document. | Nothing: auto-merge is already on. |
| When to turn it off | If each photo is a different document. | If the PDF holds several invoices. |
Underneath it is the same mechanism, which is why the same switch settles both cases.
Things that come up
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The photos came in as separate documents | They were not ticked on upload. | Tick them on the list and use Merge selected. |
| The merged document has its sheets out of order | They went up in a different order. | Split it and merge it again in the right order. |
| Two different delivery notes got merged | Auto-merge was on and they were consecutive files. | Split the document and merge what belongs together. |
| You look for the automatic merge on the list | It is decided at upload, with the auto-merge tick box. | Merge by hand with Merge selected, or upload again with the box ticked. |
| It will not merge | Fewer than two documents are ticked. | Tick at least two. |