Complete Guide to Exporting Invoices to Hashavshevet with VirtuAc

Every accountant in Israel who works with Hashavshevet knows the routine: a stack of supplier invoices arrives, and each one must be keyed in manually. Vendor name, tax ID, invoice number, date, total amount, VAT amount, and the allocation number if the transaction exceeds the threshold. Multiply that by dozens or hundreds of invoices per month per client, and you are looking at hours of tedious, error-prone work before any actual accounting analysis can begin.

VirtuAc was built specifically to eliminate that bottleneck. This guide covers exactly how VirtuAc extracts data from invoices and produces files that Hashavshevet can import directly, what field mappings are applied, how to configure the integration, and how to resolve the issues that come up most often.

Why Manual Entry into Hashavshevet Is a Significant Liability

The obvious cost of manual data entry is time. A skilled bookkeeper can key roughly 20 to 30 invoices per hour under ideal conditions. In practice, with interruptions and verification, the real throughput is lower. For a firm managing 15 clients, each generating 80 invoices per month, that is roughly 1,200 entries per month, or 40 to 60 hours of work before any accounting begins.

The less obvious cost is accuracy. Studies of manual data entry in accounting contexts consistently find error rates between 1% and 4%. A 2% error rate on 1,200 monthly entries means 24 errors per month. Some of those errors are minor. Others cause VAT reconciliation failures, incorrect tax deduction claims, or disputes with suppliers that take hours to resolve.

VirtuAc brings that error rate close to zero by applying AI-powered OCR to every incoming document, followed by a post-processing validation pass that checks the extracted fields against known Israeli invoice patterns. The result is a structured data record ready for export, usually within seconds of the invoice arriving.

How VirtuAc Maps OCR Fields to Hashavshevet Fields

Hashavshevet uses a fixed data schema for its import files. VirtuAc maintains a mapping layer that translates the OCR-extracted fields into exactly the fields Hashavshevet expects. Here is how the key fields correspond:

VendorTaxId to Supplier Code. VirtuAc extracts the supplier’s Israeli business registration number (Mispar Osek or Mispar Chevra) from the invoice header. On first import, if the supplier code does not yet exist in your Hashavshevet supplier table, VirtuAc flags the record and prompts you to either create the supplier or map it to an existing code. On subsequent invoices from the same supplier, the mapping is applied automatically.

InvoiceTotal and VATAmount to Amount Fields. VirtuAc extracts the invoice subtotal before VAT, the VAT amount, and the gross total. These map to Hashavshevet’s net amount, tax amount, and gross amount fields respectively. VirtuAc validates that the three figures are internally consistent before exporting. If the arithmetic does not reconcile, the record is flagged for review.

InvoiceDate to Document Date. The invoice date is extracted and converted to the DD/MM/YYYY format that Hashavshevet requires. VirtuAc handles dates printed in Hebrew (e.g., with the Hebrew month name) as well as ISO format and common shorthand formats.

InvoiceNumber to Document Reference. The supplier’s invoice number is mapped to the document reference field. This is used by Hashavshevet to detect duplicate entries, so accuracy here matters.

AllocNumber to Allocation Number. For invoices where the VAT component exceeds ILS 25,000, Israeli law requires a pre-approved allocation number issued by the Tax Authority (Rashut HaMisim). VirtuAc extracts this number using a dedicated regex scan across the full extracted text, not just the key-value pairs, to handle non-standard invoice layouts where the field label may vary. The format is xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx (16 digits in four groups of four). If no allocation number is found but the VAT amount exceeds the threshold, the record is flagged for manual review.

Setting Up the Hashavshevet Integration in VirtuAc

Navigate to Settings, then Integrations, then Hashavshevet. You will see a configuration panel with the following fields:

Default Account Mapping. Map your VirtuAc expense categories to Hashavshevet account codes. You can set global defaults and then override them per supplier. For example, utility invoices can default to account 6100, while equipment purchases default to 1500.

Date Format. Hashavshevet imports accept DD/MM/YYYY. VirtuAc defaults to this format automatically. If your Hashavshevet installation uses a custom regional setting, you can override the export date format here.

Supplier Sync. Enable this option to allow VirtuAc to read your existing Hashavshevet supplier list via the import/export mechanism. This pre-populates the supplier mapping table and reduces the number of manual mapping decisions required on first import.

Auto-Export on Approval. When enabled, any invoice that passes automatic validation and reaches the Approved status in VirtuAc will be added to the next export batch automatically. You can schedule batches daily, weekly, or trigger them manually.

Export Batch Notifications. Configure email notifications for when a batch is ready for download and when it has been marked as imported successfully.

Export Formats: DAT, CSV, and Excel

VirtuAc supports three output formats for Hashavshevet:

DAT format is the native Hashavshevet import format. It produces a fixed-width or delimited text file structured according to the Hashavshevet import specification. This is the most reliable option because it requires no intermediate handling by the user.

CSV format is useful when you need to inspect or lightly modify the exported data before importing. Each row represents one invoice line item, and the column headers correspond to Hashavshevet field names.

Excel format is provided for accountants who want to review the batch before importing, add manual annotations, or archive the records. Note that Excel files cannot be imported directly into Hashavshevet; they must be converted to DAT or CSV first using the built-in Hashavshevet tools.

To export, go to Invoices, select the approved invoices you want to include (or select all), click Export, and choose your format. The file will download immediately.

Handling Missing Allocation Numbers

If an invoice has a VAT component above ILS 25,000 but no allocation number was detected, VirtuAc places the record in a “Needs Review” queue and sends a notification to the assigned accountant. The record cannot be exported until the issue is resolved.

Your options at that point are:

1. Open the invoice document preview in VirtuAc and look for the allocation number manually. If you find it, type it into the AllocNumber field directly. VirtuAc will validate the format (16 digits in four groups) before accepting the value.
2. Contact the supplier and request the allocation number. Some suppliers omit it from printed invoices while having it on file. The number must be obtained before the transaction can be deducted for tax purposes.
3. If the allocation number genuinely does not exist because the supplier failed to obtain one, the VAT on that transaction is not deductible. Mark the record as non-deductible in VirtuAc, and it will be exported with a flag that prevents incorrect VAT reclaim.

Using the Hashavshevet Manual Import Wizard

Once you have downloaded your DAT or CSV file from VirtuAc, open Hashavshevet and navigate to Utilities, then Import. The import wizard will ask you to select the file and specify the import type. Choose “Supplier Invoices” from the type dropdown.

The wizard will display a preview of the records to be imported. Review the list for any rows highlighted in yellow or red. Yellow rows indicate warnings, typically a supplier code that does not yet exist. Red rows indicate errors that will prevent import.

For each warning, you can either proceed (Hashavshevet will create a new supplier entry) or cancel and resolve the mapping in VirtuAc first. For errors, the most common causes are described in the next section.

After confirming the import, Hashavshevet will process the file and display a summary showing how many records were imported successfully and how many failed. Export the failed records log if any exist, and use the invoice numbers to locate and correct the corresponding records in VirtuAc.

Common Issues and How to Resolve Them

Duplicate entry warnings. Hashavshevet checks the combination of supplier code, document date, and document reference (invoice number) against existing records. If a duplicate is detected, the import will either warn you or reject the record depending on your Hashavshevet settings. In VirtuAc, navigate to the flagged invoice and verify the invoice number is correct. If a genuine duplicate exists (the same invoice was submitted twice by the supplier), archive the duplicate in VirtuAc so it is excluded from future exports.

Date format mismatches. If your Hashavshevet installation was configured with a non-standard regional setting, the dates in the export file may not match. Go to VirtuAc Settings, Integrations, Hashavshevet, and change the export date format to match what your Hashavshevet installation expects. The most common alternative is MM/DD/YYYY for installations configured under US regional settings.

Missing supplier codes. When a supplier does not yet exist in Hashavshevet, the import will create the supplier automatically if you allow it in the import wizard, or reject the record if you do not. To create the supplier mapping in advance, go to VirtuAc Settings, Integrations, Hashavshevet, Supplier Mapping, and add the mapping manually.

Amount field validation errors. If Hashavshevet rejects a record because of amount validation errors, open the invoice in VirtuAc and check whether the net, VAT, and gross amounts add up correctly. If the OCR extracted an incorrect figure from a damaged or unclear invoice, use the correction interface to update the values before re-exporting.

Getting Started

VirtuAc handles the complete pipeline from invoice ingestion to Hashavshevet-ready export, cutting the time your team spends on data entry to near zero. The integration setup takes approximately 15 minutes, and most firms are processing their first live batch on the same day.

To see the integration in action, sign up for a free trial at VirtuAc or visit the features page to learn about the full range of ingestion channels and export targets. If you have a specific question about Hashavshevet compatibility, the support team is available to walk you through your firm’s configuration.