VIM Beyond Invoices
Every document somebody still forwards by mail.
Customs documents, proof-of-arrival confirmations, mill and test certificates — and any document type without a standard package. In the VIM Beyond framework each becomes a captured, assigned work item with an owner, a deadline and a place in the archive.
20+ projects10+ years in SAP VIMnearly 6 years at OpenText
Where it hurts
No package, no process, no status.
Invoices, order confirmations, sales orders and delivery notes have ready-made solution packages. Everything else has — a shared mailbox. That takes its toll in four places:
The process is a mailbox
Documents land in a shared mailbox, get forwarded, filed and forgotten. There is no status, no deputy rule and no deadline — only the hope that the right person is not on holiday.
Missing proof costs money
A missing proof of arrival becomes a problem for the VAT exemption of an intra-EU supply during an audit. An unassigned import duty assessment costs input tax. Both surface months later — and then in bulk.
Filed without a reference
A certificate on a network drive helps nobody who is standing in SAP on the batch, the inspection lot or the material document. The proof exists, but not where the work happens.
There is no package for these
OpenText ships solution packages for the large document types. Everything else needs its own document scenario in the framework — and somebody who has already built more than one.
What we build
01
A custom document scenario
VIM Beyond Invoices is not just a set of packages but a framework for arbitrary inbound documents: capture, validation, business rules, agent determination, workflow and posting logic. We create a scenario for your document type inside it — as we did for laboratory analyses in chemicals and a custom process in the semiconductor industry.
02
A dedicated recognition application
A new document type has no trained profile. We create the application in Intelligent Capture or Core Capture from scratch, define the fields and align it with your real documents — most recently for laboratory analyses in a chemical environment.
03
Assignment to the right SAP object
Customs document to the import purchase order, proof of arrival to the delivery or billing document, mill certificate to the batch or inspection lot. We build the assignment logic against your master data — including customer-specific matching of individual document rows to SAP attributes.
04
Posting and follow-on logic
Where the document is meant to do more than be filed — a posting, an inspection result, a status update — that happens in the framework. For a chemical company we implemented new posting logic for the SAP QM module to do exactly this.
05
Deadline, escalation, open list
Documents that have to come back — proofs of arrival, signed confirmations, outstanding certificates — need an open list and an escalation. The workflow turns them into a work item with an owner and a due date instead of a calendar reminder.
06
Audit-proof archiving
Archived through SAP ArchiveLink against the leading document rather than on a network drive — the same route your invoices already take. In an audit the proof sits where people look anyway.
Evidence, not claims
No package? Then we build one.
Custom document types are the part of the framework hardly anyone touches — and the part we have built repeatedly: a new solution package with its own recognition application and its own posting logic in chemicals, a custom document scenario in semiconductors, a custom approval process in automotive supply.
- New solution package in the VIM Beyond framework (chemicals)
- New recognition application in IC4S for laboratory analyses
- New posting logic for the SAP QM module
- Customer-specific matching of document rows to QM attributes
- Custom document scenario (semiconductor industry)
- Custom approval process in the framework (automotive)
How we work
01
Understand the document type
What is on the document, where does it come from, which SAP object does it belong to and what should happen afterwards? Those four questions decide whether a document type takes weeks or becomes a project. We answer them before the proposal, not after.
02
Build it as a proof of concept
For a new document type a PoC with real documents is the honest route: show recognition, assignment and follow-on logic at a manageable scope — exactly how we approached the laboratory analysis scenario in chemicals.
03
Go live and hand over
The PoC becomes a document scenario with rules, roles and documentation. Then training, a supported go-live and third-level support — so the document type does not leave with the person who introduced it.
Customer voices
What clients say about working with us
Johannes supported us during our migration from SAP R/3 to SAP S/4 HANA, including the upgrade of OpenText Vendor Invoice Management for SAP Solutions (VIM) which we are using to process sales orders. We were facing several uncertainties in the process, as well as issues with SAP Single Sign-On in the validation client.
Thanks to his clear guidance and deep technical expertise, we were able to complete the upgrade successfully and identify the root cause of the SSO issue. Johannes even uncovered a deeply rooted bug in the OpenText Intelligent Capture for SAP Solutions (IC4S) component related to restoring machine learning data, which we were able to get corrected. His ability to explain complex topics clearly and his professional, solution-oriented approach made a big difference for us.
I would absolutely recommend working with him.
Johannes Auer impresses across the board with his overall package as a project manager. His ability to address issues early and proactively, combined with an excellent professional background, builds trust from the very beginning. Particularly noteworthy is his clear, technically sound, and at the same time pleasantly human communication with all stakeholders, which significantly contributes to the project’s success. Even in challenging situations, he remains calm and keeps a clear overview. His structured way of working and his ability to explain even complex matters in a clear and precise manner round off his profile and make working with him not only successful but also highly enjoyable.1
What I particularly value in working with Johannes Auer is his quick grasp of complex topics and his extensive expertise – not only in the SAP VIM environment but also across the broader SAP landscape.
He finds pragmatic solutions, critically questions existing processes, and proactively provides helpful documentation. He delivers changes and adjustments reliably after conducting his own tests – significantly reducing the risk of errors only being discovered by the business users.1
Next step
Let's talk about your VIM project.
No obligation — 30 minutes, directly with the managing director.
Frequently asked questions about other inbound documents
Which document types work — and which do not?
As a rule of thumb: anything with a recurring layout that can be assigned to an SAP object and triggers a process is a candidate — customs documents, proofs of arrival, mill and test certificates, carrier documents, inbound contracts, dunning letters, balance confirmations. Poor candidates are one-off documents without repetition, and documents that lead to nothing but filing — an archive is enough for those.
Does a customs document turn into a posting automatically?
That depends on your customs setup. The core of the solution is capture, assignment to the right transaction and audit-proof archiving. Whether a posting follows, or the values are handed to an existing customs application, is something we clarify against your system landscape — promising automation before that would not be serious.
Is the archiving audit-proof?
Archiving runs through SAP ArchiveLink into your archive system — the same route your invoices take today. Whether that archive meets the requirements, and whether your procedural documentation matches, is decided by the people running your archive together with your tax advisor, not by the VIM configuration. We are not a tax or legal advisor.
How long does a new document type take?
That can only be answered seriously after a document review. What drives the duration is rarely capture but the follow-on logic: a document type that is only assigned and archived is far quicker than one that triggers a posting in a module that had nothing to do with VIM before. We have built both, and we tell you beforehand which case you are in.
Is it worth it at 200 documents a month?
At 200 documents, pure capture automation rarely pays for itself — obligations of proof, deadlines and retrievability may well do. When one missing document costs more in an audit than a full year of processing it, the deciding factor is risk, not volume. That is a calculation we are happy to do with you before you start a project.
Do we need SAP VIM for invoices first?
No, the framework can be implemented on its own. If you already run VIM you use the same installation, the same archive connection and the same capture layer — the additional document type is then considerably less effort than the first.
More document types in the VIM Beyond framework
Sales orders
Capture customer purchase orders from mail and PDF, check them against customer, material and pricing master data and create the sales order in SAP — without re-keying in the sales office.
To sales orders →
Order confirmations
Check price, quantity and date of every confirmation against the purchase order, write the confirmed date back into the PO and send only genuine deviations to purchasing.
To order confirmations →
Processing further inbound documents in SAP
Beyond invoices, every company receives documents that trigger a process but appear in no standard package. For those, OpenText VIM Beyond Invoices is not a finished product but a framework — and that is precisely where its value lies.
Customs documents in the SAP intake
Import duty assessments and other customs documents carry amounts that must be assigned to a transaction and retained. The practical effort rarely lies in reading the values but in the assignment: which document belongs to which import, which purchase order, which period? That assignment logic is exactly what a document scenario in the framework takes over.
Tracking proof-of-arrival confirmations
The German Gelangensbestätigung is a document that has to come back — which makes it less a capture problem than a tracking problem. What matters is an open list: for which deliveries is the proof still outstanding, who is responsible, when is it chased? As a workflow item with a deadline and an owner that is manageable; as a folder on a network drive it is not.
Mill certificates, test reports and certificates of analysis
Quality records belong on the batch or the inspection lot, not in a directory. For a chemical company we built a dedicated scenario for exactly this: a new recognition application for laboratory analyses, customer-specific matching of individual document rows to attributes from SAP QM, and new posting logic for the QM module.
Custom document types in the VIM Beyond framework
The framework provides the same building blocks for every document type: capture through capture or AI extraction, validation, business rules, agent determination, workflow, posting logic and archiving via ArchiveLink. A new document scenario therefore does not mean starting from zero — it means configuring the existing blocks for your document and developing where the standard ends.
Further reading
The two document types most companies start with have their own pages: sales orders and order confirmations. The framework overview is on the VIM Beyond Invoices page, references in the project list.
Legal notice
This page is not legal advice.
What you read here is professional orientation from day-to-day SAP VIM consulting — not legal advice, tax advice or a legal service in the sense of the German RDG. We are neither lawyers nor tax advisors, and we may not and do not wish to advise on such questions.
All statements on deadlines, obligations, formats and countries were researched to the best of our knowledge (as of August 2026). This area of law changes constantly: dates are postponed, thresholds adjusted, regulations refined. Despite all care, individual statements may therefore be incorrect, incomplete or outdated. We accept no warranty for accuracy, completeness or timeliness, and liability for decisions made on the basis of this page is excluded.
What is binding is solely the applicable legislation in the country concerned. For your specific situation — in particular the tax and legal obligations of your company — please consult your tax advisor or lawyer. Our role is the technical implementation in the SAP system, not the legal assessment.
- 1This testimonial was originally written in German and has been translated into English for international readers.