Which fields an invoice actually offers
An invoice is a formally regulated document. German VAT law requires, among other things, the full name and address of the supplying business, the issue date, a sequential invoice number and the tax amount. For a filename you need three of those fields: sender, invoice date and invoice number. The sender appears in the letterhead and again in the footer — what you want is the company name, not the bank details printed below it. The invoice number almost always sits in the top right block together with customer number, order number and delivery date. It is the only number on the document that is unique per invoice, while customer numbers repeat on every document from the same vendor.
Why Scan_001.pdf becomes 2024-03-15_Telekom_Rechnung_RE-8834.pdf
The pattern behind it is Date_Sender_Type_Number. The date comes first and in YYYY-MM-DD form, because the file system then sorts chronologically on its own — with 15.03.2024 every March ends up scattered between the years. Next comes the sender in the short form you use day to day: Telekom rather than Telekom Deutschland GmbH. The document type separates the invoice from the credit note, dunning letter and delivery note of the same vendor. The invoice number at the end makes the name unique even when the same provider bills three times in one month. Every field in the pattern can be swapped: move the number to the front or drop the type, change the pattern once, and every following batch follows suit.
Three dates on one document — which one belongs in the name
Invoices regularly carry an invoice date, a service or delivery date and a due date, sometimes an early payment date as well. For filing, the invoice date is what counts, because the accounting period follows it. Filery picks exactly that field when it is labelled. Trouble starts with documents that show a bare unlabelled date, and with subscription invoices that print the service period in large type and the issue date in small. You see such cases in the preview before anything is renamed. If a date is missing entirely — which happens on some small-amount receipts — the field stays empty instead of a date being guessed. You then fill it in by hand and keep the rest of the suggestion.
Credit notes, cancellations, dunning letters and combined PDFs
A credit note carries its own sequential number and additionally refers to the invoice it reverses. When both numbers appear, its own belongs in the filename together with the type credit note — otherwise invoice and reversal sit side by side under nearly identical names and the folder total stops adding up. Dunning letters repeat the original invoice number but are not accounting documents; a separate type keeps them apart. The second common special case is the combined PDF: ten invoices in one file because the mailroom scanned a stack in one pass. Filery renames files, not pages, so split such bundles beforehand.
What happens to the invoice content
Filery opens the PDF on your device and extracts the text. That content is transmitted encrypted for AI analysis; what comes back is only the recognised metadata, meaning sender, date, type and number. The renaming itself is then carried out by the app on your device again — the invoices are not uploaded and are not stored permanently. If you would rather run the analysis through your own keys with your own AI provider, use the Custom plan at 5 euros a month and store your own API keys there. Every suggestion can be reviewed before renaming, and the rename history inside the app shows which name applied before.
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