The Learning System
The learning system is powered by Brikly's AI engine. It analyses your matching decisions and builds supplier-specific patterns to automate future invoice processing.
Brikly learns from a supplier whether or not you confirm anything. The first invoice from a supplier it has never seen is read, matched where Brikly recognises the product, and drafted as a new ingredient where it does not, and what it read is stored as a pattern either way.
So confirming does not switch the learning on. What it changes is how correct the learning is. When you confirm a line, Brikly stores the pack size, unit size and unit of measure that you confirmed against that supplier's wording for the product. When nobody confirms it, Brikly stores the AI's own raw reading of those same three fields. If that reading was wrong, the wrong version is what gets applied to every later invoice from that supplier.
Confirming is also the only thing that strengthens a pattern. Automatic matching reuses a pattern without reinforcing it, so a product nobody has ever confirmed stays on the first rung of the ladder below however many invoices arrive.
The four stages of learning
The stages are keyed on confirmations, not on how many invoices you have uploaded. A confirmation is you settling a line yourself: matching it to one of your ingredients, correcting a match Brikly got wrong, or creating the ingredient from the line.
Patterns are held per supplier and per product description, so a supplier you buy forty different products from goes through these stages forty times over, one product at a time.
1. First confirmation
Brikly stores a pattern: the supplier's wording, the ingredient you matched it to, and the pack size, unit size and unit of measure you confirmed. The pattern starts at 0.85 confidence and is in use from the very next invoice.
- Your measurements win at the match. Brikly stores the pack size, unit size and unit of measure as they stood when you matched the line or created the ingredient from it, and those stored values override what the AI reads on later invoices, so a description the AI keeps misreading stops moving your costs around.
- The supplier may still need confirming, or a new supplier record creating.
- VAT treatment needs setting for the supplier.
- Products you have not confirmed yet are still matched or drafted from the AI's own reading, and they stay on the AI's reading until you look at one.
2. Second confirmation
Confirming the same product again takes its pattern to 0.90 confidence.
- The line arrives matched, so this is a check rather than a decision.
- It is still worth the check. This is the cheapest moment to catch a pack size that was wrong the first time.
Early confirmations carry the most weight. Correcting a pack size on the second invoice keeps the wrong figure off the invoices sitting behind it: the correction is applied to that supplier's other invoices waiting to be reviewed, and the lines already matched on the old figure are flagged for a look. Correcting it on the twentieth means nineteen invoices were costed on the wrong reading before you got there.
3. Third confirmation
A third confirmation takes the pattern to 0.95 confidence.
- Matching for that product is effectively settled.
- Price changes on it are detected and highlighted against the price you last confirmed.
4. Fourth confirmation and beyond
From the fourth confirmation the pattern sits at 0.99 confidence, which is the ceiling.
- Near-zero input for the products you have confirmed.
- New products from the supplier still come to you, because they have no pattern yet.
- Price updates on confirmed products are applied with minimal review.
Confidence progression
| Confirmations | Confidence | What it asks of you |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.85 | Match the line, or create the ingredient from it, and set the pack size |
| 2 | 0.90 | Check the match Brikly made, and correct it if it is wrong |
| 3 | 0.95 | Confirm |
| 4 or more | 0.99 | Nothing, unless the product or the price has changed |
A product Brikly matched on its own, that nobody has confirmed, stays at the first rung indefinitely. Automatic matches do not count as confirmations. That is why the first one or two invoices from a new supplier are worth going through by hand: everything you confirm there is what Brikly repeats on the rest.
How confidence builds
Brikly tracks patterns at multiple levels:
- Description-to-ingredient mapping - "CHICKEN BREAST 2KG" from Supplier A always maps to your "Chicken Breast" ingredient.
- Supplier format patterns - how the supplier structures their invoices (column order, VAT presentation, date format).
- Unit and quantity conventions - whether a supplier prices by the kilogram, by the case, or by the each.
- VAT treatment - whether the supplier's prices are typically inclusive or exclusive of VAT.
Each confirmed match strengthens these patterns. What Brikly holds against a description is the pack size, unit size and unit of measure as they stood when the line was matched or the ingredient was created from it. A correction you make afterwards is applied to that supplier's other invoices waiting to be reviewed, and it flags the lines that were already matched on the old figure, but the stored pattern itself keeps the earlier reading, so a description you have had to correct is worth a glance on the supplier's next invoice. Patterns are held per description, so when a supplier changes the wording they use for a product, confirming the new wording teaches it.
Managing patterns
You do not need to manage the learning system directly - it works in the background. However, there are a few things you can do to keep it running smoothly:
- Be consistent with matching - always match the same product description to the same ingredient. If you match "Semi Skimmed Milk 2L" to "Semi-Skimmed Milk" one day and "Milk (Semi-Skimmed)" the next, the system cannot build a reliable pattern.
- Correct mistakes promptly - if you notice a wrong auto-match, fix it straight away. The system learns from corrections just as it learns from confirmations.
- Merge duplicate ingredients - if the same product exists under two names in your ingredient list, merge them so the system has a single, clear target.
Deleting an ingredient that has been matched to invoice line items will break those historical links. If you need to remove an ingredient, merge it into the replacement ingredient first.
Resetting learning for a supplier
In rare cases you may want to reset the learned patterns for a supplier - for example, if a supplier has completely changed their product range or invoice format. Contact support if you need to do this, and they can clear the matching history for a specific supplier.
The bigger picture
The learning system is central to Brikly's promise: the lines you have already confirmed do the typing on the invoices that follow. The more of a supplier's products you have confirmed, the less of the next invoice from that supplier needs anything from you, and the more of what is left is the part that genuinely needs a person - a new product, or a price that has moved.
The practical consequence is worth acting on. When you take on a new supplier, or you have a backlog to bring in, put one or two of that supplier's invoices through and confirm them before you upload the rest. You will do less work in total, and the numbers behind it will be right.