Document intelligence for utility invoices

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated September 5, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Document intelligence for utility invoices

    The AI-driven Document Intelligence for Utility Invoices feature in ServiceNow automates the extraction and processing of utility bill data within the Operational Sustainability Workspace. It eliminates manual data entry by capturing key information such as consumption, billing dates, amounts, and units of measurement from diverse utility bills. This automation enhances the accuracy, efficiency, and consistency of operational sustainability metric reporting while reducing the workload on data owners.

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    The extracted data is clearly marked for user verification, and users can override values with justification to maintain data integrity. The original utility bill is attached to each metric data task to ensure traceability and audit readiness.

    Key Features

    • Automated extraction of utility bill data mapped to metric definitions using configurable mapping tables.
    • Unit of measurement extraction with matching against existing units in the Metric Unit table; warnings issued if no match is found.
    • Manual review and validation capabilities for data owners, including override and error correction with reprocessing options.
    • Support for multiple document formats and languages, with potential integration extensions such as email intake.
    • Role-based access control requiring the snesggenai.docinteluser role to access document intelligence functions.
    • Restriction on manual metric definitions to process only standard monthly periods; automated metric definitions support irregular date ranges.

    Practical Benefits

    • Significantly reduces manual workload and human errors in collecting operational sustainability data.
    • Promotes consistent, reliable metric reporting aligned with operational sustainability standards.
    • Improves auditability by attaching original invoices and maintaining evidence management.
    • Scales to handle diverse utility invoice formats and languages, supporting broader organizational needs.

    Using Extracted Data

    After extraction, customers can view detailed summaries of key invoice data, the extraction status, and AI-extracted fields marked for review. Users can override extracted values with justifications and access the original utility bill attached for compliance purposes. This ensures confidence in the accuracy and validity of the reported metrics.

    Next Steps for ServiceNow Customers

    • Assign the snesggenai.docinteluser role to appropriate ESG users to enable document intelligence features.
    • Use automated metric definitions when working with invoices covering irregular billing periods.
    • Review and verify all AI-extracted fields before using the data for reporting to ensure accuracy.
    • Consider integrating document intelligence with existing intake processes such as email to optimize data collection.

    The AI-driven document intelligence for utility invoices feature is designed to automate metric data collection. It automates the metric data collection by extracting utility bill data such as consumption, billing dates, amounts, and units of measurement within the Operational Sustainability Workspace.

    Document intelligence overview

    Document Intelligence for Utility Invoices automates utility bill data extraction and processing, removing manual entry for metric reporting. It streamlines the data collection process, improving accuracy and efficiency while reducing the burden on data owners. This capability addresses the challenges of manual data collection, aggregation, and entry from diverse utility bill formats and languages. It promotes consistent and reliable operational sustainability reporting.

    The AI-extracted fields are clearly marked for verification, and you can override and justify changes to confirm data integrity. The original bill is attached to the metric data task for traceability and audit. After the extraction is completed, the extracted data is mapped to the correct metric definitions and entities using configurable mapping tables. The system extracts units of measurement from invoices and attempts to match them to existing units in the Metric Unit (sn_grc_metric_unit) table. If a matching unit is found, the unit reference is populated in the Metric Data record. If no matching unit is found, the Metric Data record is created without a unit reference, the extraction status shows Completed with Errors, and a warning message appears on the Invoice Detail record. Data owners can review, validate, or override extracted data as needed. If the extraction process fails, you can correct the errors and rerun the extraction by selecting reprocess option.

    Note:
    The sn_esg_gen_ai.docintel_user role is required to view the option to document intelligence for utility bills. This role must be manually assigned to an ESG user.

    To understand how you can extract details from the utility bills, refer to Extract data from utility invoices.

    Note:
    The fields extracted by AI on the Metric Data task page must be verified for accuracy before use.

    Metric definition date restriction

    When using Document Intelligence with manual metric definitions, the system only processes documents that cover standard monthly periods—where the start date is the first day of the month and the end date is the last day of the same month.

    If your source documents cover irregular date ranges, use automated metric definitions instead. Automated definitions can map and process data for any date range without the first/last day restriction, providing flexibility for irregular billing cycles or custom periods. This limitation ensures consistency with operational sustainability reporting standards that require standard monthly periods for manual metric entries.

    Benefits of document intelligence for utility invoices

    • Reduces manual workload and errors in operational sustainability data collection.
    • Promotes consistency and accuracy in operational sustainability metric reporting.
    • Enhances auditability and compliance with evidence management.
    • Scales to handle diverse document types and languages.
    • Supports manual uploads and can be extended to integrate with email or other intake flows.

    Viewing extracted data summary

    After the extraction and data mapping you can view the following:
    • The extracted key details from the utility bill, such as consumption, billing dates, bill amount, and units of measurement, mapped to the relevant operational sustainability metric data task.
    • The state of the extraction process (for example, complete or failed).
    • AI-extracted fields clearly marked for user review.
    • The option to review extracted data in the document intelligence review screen.
    • The ability to override extracted data and provide justification if needed.
    • The original utility bill attached as evidence for audit and compliance.