Key Concepts
Before working with Finpilo, it helps to understand the core terms used throughout the platform. These terms appear in the interface and throughout this guide.
Workspace
A workspace is the top-level container for your organization. It holds all your entities, users, documents, and settings. If you are an accounting firm managing multiple clients, you have one workspace that contains all client entities. If you are a single company, your workspace contains your company entities (legal entities, branches, or departments).
You can switch between workspaces using the workspace selector in the top-left corner of the header, next to the Finpilo logo.
Entity
An entity represents a single company or legal entity within your workspace. Each entity has its own registration details (legal name, registration number, VAT number, address), its own set of partners, dimensions, document types, and field settings.
Documents are always associated with a specific entity. When you upload a document, you select which entity it belongs to. When you forward a document by email, it automatically routes to the entity whose email address you used.
An entity has the following key properties:
- Display Name — a short name shown in lists and selectors.
- Legal Name — the official registered name.
- Registration Number — the company registration number.
- VAT Number — the value-added tax registration number.
- Legal Address — the registered office address.
- Bank Accounts — one or more bank account numbers.
- Reference ID — an internal identifier (auto-generated if not provided, format: ENT-00001).
- Email Processing Address — a unique email address (e.g.,
abc123@in.finpilo.com) for automatic document intake.
Partner
A partner (also called a supplier, vendor or customer) is a company or person you do business with.
A partner is a dimension value. Every entity has a dimension named Partners, and its values are the companies you deal with. That matters because everything you can do with a dimension you can do with partners: import them, sync them from your accounting system, filter documents by them, use them in a workflow condition, archive one you no longer use. There is no separate partner screen or partner-only rule — see Dimensions.
When Finpilo processes a document, it matches the party details it extracted against the values in that dimension. On a match the value is linked automatically; otherwise you pick or create it on the document.
A partner value carries its name and reference ID like any dimension value, plus the columns the Partners dimension declares — typically registration number, VAT number, legal address and bank accounts.
Dimension
A dimension is an accounting classification category that you define for an entity. Dimensions represent the analytical tags that your accounting system needs but that are not printed on the document itself.
Common examples of dimensions include:
- Cost Center — which department or business unit bears the cost (e.g., Administration, Sales & Marketing, Operations).
- VAT Rate — the tax treatment applied to each line item (e.g., VAT 21%, VAT 0% — EU).
- Employees — which employee the expense is attributable to.
- Product — which company product or service the expense supports.
Each dimension contains a list of values. For example, the "Cost Center" dimension might contain values like "Administration," "Sales & Marketing," "Infrastructure Services," and "Office." Each value has a name, an optional description, and a reference ID (auto-generated if not provided, format: DIM-00001).
Finpilo's AI assigns dimension values to each line item on a processed document. You can see the AI's assignment, its confidence level (as a percentage), and a brief explanation of why it chose that value.
Document Type
A document type defines what kind of financial document Finpilo is processing. The default document types are:
- Invoice — purchase invoices and sales invoices.
- Receipt — payment receipts and transaction confirmations.
- Delivery Note — goods delivery documentation.
- CMR — international road transport documents.
- Other — any document that does not match the above categories.
Each document type has an extraction schema that defines which fields Finpilo extracts from the document header and line items. You can view these schemas but not modify them directly — they are managed by the AI processing service.
Document Statuses
A workspace can define its own statuses, so the list below is the standard set rather than a fixed one. Yours may differ — the Documents page's status filter shows what your workspace actually uses. The three sending statuses at the end exist only if your workspace uses a lifecycle that sends documents on.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Uploaded | The file has arrived and is waiting to be processed. Every document starts here. |
| Processing | The document has been uploaded or received and is currently being processed by the AI. |
| Processed | The AI has finished extracting data and assigning dimensions. The document is ready for your review. |
| Validated | You have reviewed the document and confirmed that all data is correct. Validated documents are locked — fields cannot be edited unless you unlock the document first. |
| Sending | The document has been handed to your accounting system and Finpilo is waiting for its reply. This normally passes in seconds. |
| Sent | The validated document has been sent to the connected accounting system by the Send to Accounting workflow. Sent documents are locked and cannot be edited. They can be re-sent if needed. |
| Send Failed | The send did not get through — the destination refused it, was unreachable, or none is configured. The reason is on the document's Activity tab. Fix it and send again. |
| Unsupported | The file cannot be processed as a document. Either the file type is not supported (only PDF, JPEG, and PNG are accepted), or the file is a very small image such as an email signature logo or icon. If a real document ends up here, use Reprocess to run it through processing. |
| Failed | The AI was unable to process the document. You can try reprocessing it. |
Document Direction
Every document has a direction that indicates whether it is incoming (received from a partner) or outgoing (sent to a partner):
- Incoming — a document you received. The supplier section shows the external party; the recipient section shows your entity.
- Outgoing — a document you issued. The supplier section still shows the external party, but the direction label changes.
Direction is auto-detected by the AI based on registration and VAT number matching. You can change it manually if needed.
Lifecycle
The set of statuses your documents move through, and the steps between them. Every workspace has one, and it can be changed to match how you work. A document keeps the lifecycle it started on, so a change applies to documents uploaded afterwards.
Workflow
An automation that runs on your documents — sending one to your accounting system, asking someone to approve it, writing a value onto it, or fetching data from another system. A workflow is a list of steps, each doing one thing. Workflows are set up in Workspace Settings and can be paused or changed without losing what they have already done.
Roles
Finpilo has three user roles with different levels of access:
- Member — can view and work with documents (upload, edit, validate, export) and view entity information. Cannot manage workspace settings, users, or entity configuration.
- Admin — full access to all features, including entity management, workspace settings, and user management.
- Owner — same access as Admin. Typically the account creator.
See Roles and Permissions for a detailed breakdown.