# Look up vendor details from your ERP when an invoice arrives

Fill in vendor name, terms, and GL account from your accounting database the moment an invoice with a vendor number is filed — a Content Capture trigger and a Perform Field Lookup action — for documents that arrive already coded and never pass through a person's hands.

Product: content-central · Versions: 7.8+ · Audience: catalog-administrator · Time: 15 minutes · Last verified: 2026-09-05

Canonical: https://help.ademero.com/content-central/workflow/look-up-vendor-details-when-an-invoice-arrives

**When you're done, an invoice filed with a vendor number gets its vendor name, payment terms, and default GL account filled in from your accounting database automatically — the same lookup a person would trigger in the Coding Queue, run by workflow instead.**

```plan
scope: document-type
trigger: Content Capture › Content Captured in this Document Type | Field Evaluation: Selected Field Has Value · Field: Vendor Number
action: Content - Perform Field Lookup | Field Lookup: your vendor lookup definition
rule: "Invoice with vendor number filed → look up vendor", enabled
```

## When you need this

A field lookup normally fires while someone codes a document: they type the vendor number, the other fields fill in. Documents that *skip* the Coding Queue — XML capture jobs from another system, capture forms, AI-extracted invoices filed straight into the catalog — never get that moment. This rule gives it to them.

## Build the trigger

1. Go to **Administration** > **Catalogs & Document Types**, pick the **Catalog** and the invoice **Document Type**, click the **Workflow** tile, then **Triggers** > **New Trigger**.

2. **Type:** `Content Capture` and `Content Captured in this Document Type`. **Trigger Name:** `Filed with a vendor number`.

3. **Field Evaluation:** `Selected Field Has Value`. **Field:** the vendor number field. A lookup with an empty key does nothing useful, so don't fire it.

4. Click **Save**.

## Build the action

1. Click **Actions** > **New Action**. **Type:** `Content - Perform Field Lookup`. **Action Name:** `Look up vendor from ERP`.

2. Choose the lookup definition under **Field Lookup:**. If the list reads `There are no field lookups in this Document Type.`, define one first — [Look up field values from another system](/content-central/integrations/look-up-field-values-from-another-system) walks through the data source, the table, and the field mappings.

3. Click **Save**.

## Wire the rule

1. Click **Rules** > **New Rule**. **Rule Name:** `Invoice with vendor number filed → look up vendor`.

2. **Add Trigger:** `Filed with a vendor number`. **Add Action:** `Look up vendor from ERP`. **Apply**.

## Test it

1. File one invoice with a valid vendor number and nothing else, by the route your documents really take (an XML capture job, say).

2. Open its properties.

**What you should see:** the mapped fields (vendor name, terms, GL account) now filled from the database, and the rule in **View History**. If they're still blank, test the lookup by hand on the same document in the Coding Queue — if that also fails, the problem is the lookup definition or the connection, not the workflow.

> **IMPORTANT:** A lookup that runs *after* a person coded the document will overwrite what they typed with the database's values. Fire it on capture (this recipe) or on the key field changing (Variations), not on every edit.

## Variations

| Want this instead | Change this |
| --- | --- |
| Re-run the lookup when someone changes the vendor number later | Trigger **Content Field Values** › **Field Value Updated in this Document Type** on the vendor number field, same action |
| Look up while the document is still in the Coding Queue | Trigger **Coding-Queue Arrival** › **Arrival in this Document Type**, action **Coding Queue - Perform Field Lookup** |
| Flag invoices whose vendor number isn't found | Add a second rule: **Content Capture** with **Selected Field Lacks Value** on the vendor *name* field, running after this one, that assigns to a corrections work queue |
| Fill fields from another *document type's* values instead of a database | Action **Content - Update Shared Fields by Key Field** |
| Refresh cached lookup values on a schedule | Action **Content - Update Field Lookup** on a scheduled **Content Query** trigger |

## What's next

- [Look up field values from another system (ODBC)](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/integrations/look-up-field-values-from-another-system)
- [Set up an XML capture job](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/capture/set-up-an-xml-capture-job)
- [Build a reference number from other fields](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/workflow/build-a-reference-number-from-other-fields)