Process Project Receipts with Octopodi

Crew members frequently incur expenses while working on-site, such as parking tickets, fuel, meals, or public transport. Traditionally, collecting these expenses and passing them on to the accounting team involves manual chasing, emailing, and local file management.
SquidWeb streamlines this workflow by connecting the mobile app, Project Documents, and Octopodi. Crew members upload expense documents directly from their mobile devices while in the field. These attachments automatically appear in the project’s document section, allowing office teams to process them instantly with Octopodi without switching contexts or downloading files manually.

Requirements:

Before processing project receipts, ensure that:

  • Crew members have access to the mobile app to upload expense documents.
  • Uploaded files are correctly stored in the project’s Project Documents section.
  • Your user role has permissions to create and review receipts within the project’s company context.

Uploading Receipts from the field:

Crew members can capture and upload receipts on the go directly from their smartphones.

  1. Open the mobile app while on-site or after completing an expense.
  2. Select and upload the expense document (such as parking tickets, fuel receipts, or hotel invoices).
  3. The file is instantly transmitted and stored securely within the relevant project’s Project Documents section.

Processing the Receipt with Octopodi

Once the document is uploaded by the crew member, office users can process it directly from the project workspace.

  1. Open the project inside SquidWeb and navigate to Project Documents.
  2. Locate the uploaded receipt in the list of project files.
  3. Open the document’s action menu.
  4. Select Create receipt with Octopodi.
  5. Octopodi automatically analyzes the document, extracts the available information, and populates a new draft receipt.

Reviewing the Receipt

After processing is complete, SquidWeb generates a Draft Receipt.

  • The extracted data is automatically filled in, while the original mobile upload remains attached for easy verification.
  • Office users review the extracted information against the original file to ensure accuracy.
  • Once verified, the accountant can approve or reject the receipt according to the company’s standard accounting workflow.

Benefits

Processing project receipts from project documents helps teams to:

  • Enable seamless mobile expense submissions for field crew members.
  • Maintain centralised project documents without scattered local files.
  • Speed up expense handling and reduce manual data entry.
  • Eliminate unnecessary file downloads before starting the receipt workflow.
  • Keep full control over approvals with human-in-the-loop review.

Flexible Workflow

Every company handles project expenses differently. The receipt creation process can be configured to match your specific organizational requirements, including validation rules, custom approval steps, and automations. SquidWeb Support can assist in tailoring the workflow to fit your business needs.

Video Tutorial

Watch the video below to see how crew members upload receipts via mobile and how office users process them instantly using Octopodi from Project Documents.

Automate Receipts with a Google Drive Folder

Accounting teams often receive paper receipts from employees, crew members and suppliers. Collecting these documents usually means scanning receipts, sending emails, downloading attachments and manually importing each document into the accounting system before it can be reviewed.

SquidWeb simplifies this process by monitoring a shared Google Drive Folder. As soon as a new receipt is uploaded, Octopodi automatically detects the document, extracts the available information and creates a draft receipt ready for review. This eliminates repetitive manual imports while allowing accountants to focus on verifying the extracted information instead of entering it manually.

Requirements

Before using Drop Folder Receipt Automation, ensure that:

  • A shared Google Drive Drop Folder has been configured.
  • Users have permission to upload documents to the shared folder.
  • Supported receipt documents are uploaded to the Drop Folder.
  • Octopodi is configured to process incoming receipt documents.

Uploading Receipts

Receipts can be added to the Drop Folder in several ways:

  • Scan a paper receipt directly using the Google Drive mobile app.
  • Upload an existing PDF or image from your computer.
  • Save supported receipt documents into the shared folder.

Once a document is uploaded, no further action is required.

Automatic Receipt Processing

SquidWeb continuously monitors the configured Drop Folder for new documents.

When a supported receipt is detected, Octopodi automatically:

  • Imports the document.
  • Extracts the available receipt information.
  • Creates a Draft Receipt.
  • Notifies office users when processing has finished.

The original receipt remains linked to the generated draft for easy verification.

Reviewing the Draft Receipt

After processing, the Draft Receipt is automatically created inside SquidWeb.

The extracted information is pre-filled using Octopodi, while the original receipt remains available for comparison.

Users can review, edit and validate the information before approving or rejecting the receipt according to their accounting workflow.

Processing Notifications

Throughout the process, SquidWeb keeps users informed through the Notification Center.

Users receive notifications when:

  • Receipt processing starts.
  • A Draft Receipt has been created.
  • Processing finishes successfully.
  • Validation is required.
  • Processing fails.

This allows accountants to immediately continue working without manually checking the Drop Folder.

Benefits

Using a Google Drive Folder helps accounting teams to:

  • Upload receipts from any device.
  • Eliminate manual imports.
  • Automatically create Draft Receipts.
  • Reduce manual data entry.
  • Keep the original document linked to the receipt.
  • Review receipts before approval.
  • Speed up the accounting workflow.

Flexible Workflow

Every organisation manages accounting documents differently.

The Drop Folder workflow can be configured to match your internal accounting process, including document validations, approval steps and additional automations. SquidWeb Support can help tailor the workflow to your specific business requirements.

Video Tutorial

Watch the video below to see how receipts uploaded to a Google Drive Folder are automatically processed by Octopodi and converted into Draft Receipts ready for review.

Process Receipts from Emails with Octopodi

Accounting teams often receive receipts by email from employees, crew members and suppliers. Processing these documents manually usually involves downloading the attachment, saving it locally, creating a receipt and entering the information before it can be reviewed.

SquidWeb simplifies this workflow by allowing users to create receipts directly from email attachments. With a single action, the attached document is processed by Octopodi, which extracts the available information and creates a draft receipt ready for review.

This reduces repetitive manual work while keeping users in full control of the approval process.

Requirements

Before processing receipts, ensure that:

  • The receipt is attached to an email available in a configured Public Mailbox.
  • The attachment is in a supported format (such as PDF).
  • Your user has permission to create and review receipts.

Processing a Receipt

Open the email inside the configured Public Mailbox.

From the attachment menu, select Create Receipt with Octopodi.

The attachment is automatically sent to Octopodi for document analysis.

Octopodi extracts the available information from the receipt and creates a draft receipt inside SquidWeb.

Reviewing the Receipt

After processing, the generated receipt is created as a Draft Receipt.

The extracted information is automatically populated, while the original attachment remains available for comparison.

Before the receipt is approved, users can review and edit the extracted information if necessary.

Once verified, the receipt can be approved or rejected according to the company’s accounting workflow.

Notifications

During processing, SquidWeb keeps users informed through the Notification Center.

Typical notifications include:

  • Receipt created successfully
  • Receipt ready for review
  • Receipt not booked
  • Processing failed
  • Validation warning

Notifications provide quick access to the generated receipt and highlight any actions that require user attention.

Benefits

Processing receipts directly from emails helps accounting teams to:

  • Create receipts without downloading attachments
  • Reduce manual data entry
  • Automatically extract receipt information
  • Keep the original receipt linked to the draft
  • Review information before approval
  • Speed up the accounting workflow

Flexible Workflow

Every company has its own accounting process.

Receipt processing can be adapted to match your organisation’s workflow, including validations, approval steps and additional automations. SquidWeb Support can help configure the process to meet your specific business requirements.

Video Tutorial

Watch the video below to see how to create a receipt directly from an email attachment using Create Receipt with Octopodi.

Process Bank Statements from Emails with Octopodi

Companies regularly receive bank statement PDFs from their banks by email. Processing these statements often involves downloading attachments, organising files and manually importing transaction data before it can be reviewed by the accounting team.

SquidWeb simplifies this process by allowing users to process supported bank statement PDFs directly from a configured Public Mailbox. Depending on the selected action, the statement can simply be identified and stored or processed further to automatically create accounting entries ready for review.

This helps reduce repetitive manual work while maintaining full control over the approval and release process.

Requirements

Before processing bank statements, ensure that:

  • The bank statement is a supported Revolut PDF.
  • The statement’s IBAN matches a bank account configured on the company’s Company Contact.
  • The configured bank account contains:
    • The correct IBAN
    • The Revolut BIC (REVOLT21XXX)
    • The correct currency.

Processing a Bank Statement

Open the email inside the configured Public Mailbox.

From the attachment menu, choose one of the available actions.

Identify and Save

This option identifies the bank statement and stores it inside SquidWeb without creating any accounting entries.

Use this option when you simply want to archive the statement and process it later.

Identify, Save and Process

This option identifies the bank statement, stores it and immediately processes its transactions.

Octopodi extracts the transaction data and automatically creates the corresponding accounting entries, ready for review.

Reviewing the Accounting Entries

After processing, the generated accounting entries automatically appear in the Accountings page with the status Design.

Before any accounting entry is released, users can review and adjust the generated information as required.

The Accounting Activities history records how each accounting entry was created, providing complete traceability back to the original bank statement.

Supported Banks

Currently, Bank Statement Automation supports PDF bank statements exported from Revolut.

Support for additional bank statement formats may be added in future releases.

Benefits

Bank Statement Automation helps accounting teams to:

  • Process bank statements directly from email attachments.
  • Eliminate manual downloads.
  • Automatically identify supported bank statements.
  • Store documents in the correct location.
  • Automatically generate accounting entries.
  • Maintain a complete audit trail.
  • Review accounting entries before they are released.

Video Tutorial

Watch the video below to see how to process a supported bank statement directly from a configured Public Mailbox using both Identify and Save and Identify, Save and Process.

Travel Groups

When multiple crew members travel together, coordinating vehicles and passengers can quickly become difficult. Travel Groups allow you to organize shared transportation directly within a project, making travel planning part of your normal scheduling workflow.

Each Travel Group represents a single journey, such as a car, train or shuttle, and crew members are assigned directly from the Project Crew Item grid.

When should I use Travel Groups?

Travel Groups are useful whenever crew members travel together to a project.

Typical examples include:

  • Car sharing between crew members
  • Company vehicles
  • Train journeys
  • Shuttle buses
  • Airport transfers

Instead of managing transportation separately, all travel information remains connected to the project.

How to create a Travel Group

  1. Open the project.
  2. Go to the Travel Groups side panel.
  3. Create a new Travel Group.
  4. Select the transport type.
  5. Enter the departure information.
  6. Define the vehicle capacity.
  7. Save the Travel Group.

Once created, it becomes available for crew assignment.

Assign crew members

Crew members are assigned directly from the Project Crew Item grid.

For each assignment you can define:

  • Travel Group
  • Travel Group Function

Available Travel Group Functions include:

  • Driver
  • Passenger
  • Driver Spare

This keeps transportation planning integrated with workforce planning.

Capacity control

Each Travel Group has a maximum capacity.

When assigning crew members, SquidWeb validates the configured capacity to help prevent overbooking.

For example, a vehicle with a capacity of four people cannot have more than four assigned Project Crew Items.

Example

A project requires 8 crew members working from 10:00–18:00.

The crew travels in two cars.

Travel Group 01

  • Car Pool
  • Capacity: 4
  • 1 Driver
  • 3 Passengers

Travel Group 02

  • Car Pool
  • Capacity: 4
  • 1 Driver
  • 3 Passengers

Each crew member is assigned to a Travel Group directly from the Project Crew Item grid, making it easy to see who is travelling together.

Good to know

  • Multiple Travel Groups can be created for the same project.
  • Crew assignments are managed directly from the existing Project Crew Item grid.
  • Travel Groups store journey information such as departure details and capacity.
  • Internal and customer travel calculations are performed by the assigned Project Crew Items, not by the Travel Group itself.

Best practice

Create one Travel Group for each shared journey instead of creating individual travel records for every crew member. This keeps transportation planning simple, makes drivers easy to identify and helps planners manage vehicle capacity more efficiently.

 

See here a short tutorial to learn how to use it!

Save Signatures & Sign Documents in Bulk

Digital signatures are an essential part of many workforce processes, from signing contracts to approving Delivery Notes and other important documents.

While digital signing is already faster than paper-based workflows, repeatedly drawing or uploading the same signature — or signing documents one by one — can still become a repetitive task.

With Saved Signatures, SquidWeb allows every user to securely store a personal signature in their profile and reuse it whenever a supported signing workflow requires it.

And when multiple documents need to be signed, Bulk Signature makes the process even faster by allowing you to apply your saved signature to multiple documents at once.

Set up your signature once. Reuse it whenever you need it. Sign multiple documents in one go.

Create your signature in seconds

Setting up your signature is quick and intuitive.

Users can choose between two different methods depending on their preference.

Draw your signature

Use the built-in signature pad to draw your signature directly within SquidWeb.

If you’re not happy with the result, simply clear it and try again before saving.

Upload an existing signature

Already have a handwritten signature?

Upload an image of your signature and save it directly to your profile, ready for future use.

Both methods provide the same result: a signature that’s securely stored and always available whenever it’s needed.

Always available when you need it

Once your signature has been saved, there’s no need to recreate it for every document.

Whenever you reach a supported signing step, your saved signature is ready to use, making the signing process faster and more consistent.

This not only saves time but also reduces repetitive actions during everyday workflows.

Sign multiple documents with Bulk Signature

When you have several documents waiting for your signature, you don’t need to open and sign each document individually.

In Documents to sign, SquidWeb provides a Sign all option that allows you to apply your saved signature to multiple documents in one action.

How it works

1. Documents to sign section
Go to the documents waiting for your signature.

2. Select “Sign all”
Use the Sign all action to sign the documents together.

3. SquidWeb applies your saved signature
Your saved signature is used for the selected signing workflow, so you don’t need to draw or upload it again for every document.

4. Done
Multiple documents can be signed as part of the same bulk action.

What about documents with multiple signature placeholders?

Bulk Signature also works with documents that contain more than one signature placeholder.

This means that if a document requires your signature in multiple places, the bulk signing workflow can apply your saved signature to the required signature placeholders rather than requiring you to repeat the signing action manually for each one.

This is particularly useful for documents where the same person needs to sign in several places.

Why use Bulk Signature?

Without bulk signing, a workflow involving several documents can require repeatedly opening documents, signing them and confirming the action.

With Sign all, multiple documents can be handled together.

Sign individually:
Document → Sign → Confirm → Repeat

Bulk Signature:
Documents to sign → Sign all

This reduces repetitive actions and makes high-volume signing much faster.

Designed for every SquidWeb user

Saved Signatures are available to every type of user across the platform.

Whether you’re approving documents as a planner, confirming work as a crew member or signing Delivery Notes as a client, your signature is always available whenever a supported workflow requires it.

When several documents need to be signed, Bulk Signature makes it possible to handle them together instead of repeating the signing process for each document.

The result is a smoother signing experience for everyone involved.

Benefits

Using Saved Signatures helps you:

  • Save your signature once
  • Draw or upload your preferred signature
  • Reuse your signature across supported signing workflows
  • Sign multiple documents with Sign all
  • Apply your signature to documents with multiple signature placeholders
  • Reduce repetitive signing actions
  • Complete document signing faster
  • Enjoy a more consistent signing experience

Fully integrated into SquidWeb

Saved Signatures and Bulk Signature are fully integrated into the existing signing workflows across SquidWeb.

Create your signature once from your profile and reuse it whenever a supported document requires your approval.

When several documents are waiting for your signature, use Sign all to handle them together.

No repeated uploads.
No repeated drawing.
No signing documents one by one.

Just a faster, simpler signing experience.

Crew Optimizer

Workforce planning becomes increasingly complex as your organisation grows.

With dozens of planners, multiple projects and hundreds or even thousands of crew members, manually selecting the best person for every position quickly becomes one of the most time-consuming parts of the planning process.

Who should receive this job?

Who still needs contract hours?

Who worked on this project yesterday?

Who has the required qualifications?

Who lives closest to the venue?

The answer is rarely based on a single factor.

Every business has its own priorities.

That’s why SquidWeb introduces the Crew Optimizer.

Instead of manually comparing every available crew member, the Crew Optimizer analyses all eligible candidates, applies your company’s planning rules and instantly recommends the best matches.

Planning based on your own rules

Every company plans differently.

Some organisations prioritise reducing travel distances, while others focus on maintaining team continuity, balancing contract hours or complying with customer-specific planning requirements.

The Crew Optimizer adapts to your planning strategy—not the other way around.

You decide which criteria are most important for your organisation.

Examples include:

  • Travel distance
  • Team continuity
  • Contract fulfilment
  • Skills and qualifications
  • Working time limits
  • Availability
  • Required tags
  • Company constraints
  • Client memberships
  • Rate cards
  • Block dates

All these factors are considered automatically when generating recommendations.

Configure your optimisation strategy

Every Optimizer Method can be fully customised to match your organisation’s planning strategy.

After creating a new method, planners can define how the Crew Optimizer evaluates and ranks candidates by adjusting multiple configuration areas.

Weight Factors

Weight Factors determine how much influence each criterion has on the final candidate ranking.

The default optimisation methods include factors such as:

  • Travel Distance
  • Team Continuity
  • Contract Fulfilment

Additional weighting factors can be added depending on your planning strategy, including:

  • Cost Optimisation
  • Membership Bonus
  • Fairness
  • Spare Priority
  • Accounts
  • Job Priority
  • Skill Bonus

The total weighting across all factors must always equal 100%.

Planner Crews

Select which Planner Crews are included when running the optimisation.

Only crew members belonging to the selected Planner Crews will be evaluated.

Constraints

Define mandatory conditions that every candidate must satisfy before being considered.

Available constraints include:

  • Function matching
  • Region matching
  • Active Rate Card
  • Break times
  • Blocklist validation
  • Working hour limits

Crew members that do not satisfy the enabled constraints are automatically excluded from the optimisation.

Working Time Limits

Configure operational limits such as:

  • Maximum working hours per day
  • Maximum consecutive working days

These settings help maintain legal compliance and reduce scheduling conflicts.

Block Dates

Choose which unavailable crew members should be excluded from the optimisation.

Supported block types include:

  • Self-blocked
  • Dispatcher-blocked
  • Request-blocked
  • No-answer

Output Options

Define how the optimisation results are presented.

Examples include:

  • Prioritise existing spare crew
  • Number of suggested alternatives

Required Tags

Limit the optimisation to crew members matching specific tags or qualifications.

Notification Settings

Select the notification template that will be used when requesting suggested crew members.

Save and reuse optimisation methods

Once configured, each Optimizer Method can be saved and reused at any time.

Methods can also be shared with different visibility levels:

  • Personal – Available only to the planner who created it.
  • Company – Shared with all planners within the same company.
  • Tenant – Available across the entire SquidWeb tenant.

This allows organisations to standardise planning strategies while still giving individual planners the flexibility to create specialised methods for different customers, projects or operational scenarios.

Create multiple optimisation methods

Planning priorities often vary depending on the customer, project or business unit.

For this reason, SquidWeb allows you to create multiple Optimizer Methods.

For example, you may configure different methods for:

  • Festival operations
  • Logistics projects
  • Premium customers
  • Warehouse staffing
  • Regional planning
  • Different business units

Each method stores its own configuration and can be reused whenever required.

This gives every planner access to consistent planning strategies while still allowing flexibility where needed.

Supporting better planning decisions

The Crew Optimizer is designed to support planners, not replace them.

It provides objective recommendations based on your configured business rules while keeping the final decision entirely under the planner’s control.

Every suggested crew member includes additional information such as travel distance, memberships, skills, planning history and overall ranking, making every assignment more transparent and easier to justify.

Benefits

Using the Crew Optimizer helps organisations:

  • Reduce manual planning time
  • Improve planning consistency across teams
  • Balance contract hours more effectively
  • Reduce unnecessary travel
  • Maintain team continuity across projects
  • Respect company rules and legal constraints
  • Improve workforce utilisation
  • Support objective assignment decisions
  • Scale workforce planning as operations grow
  • Improve planning transparency
  • Standardise workforce planning across teams

Fully integrated into SquidWeb

The Crew Optimizer is fully integrated into the SquidWeb planning workflow.

Select the missing crew positions, choose an optimisation method, review the suggested candidates and assign or request the crew member that best fits your planning strategy.

No exports.

No spreadsheets.

No manual comparisons.

Just faster, smarter workforce planning.

Watch the tutorial

Want to see the Crew Optimizer in action?

Watch the video below to learn how to configure optimisation methods, adjust planning rules and generate the best crew recommendations directly inside SquidWeb.

 

Project Crew Status

Managing a project often involves coordinating multiple teams working on different tasks, locations or stages of the same production. Rather than treating every crew as a single group, SquidWeb allows planners to organise work using individual Project Crews.

Each Project Crew can have its own crew members, Crew Mode, location, rate card and operational information. To make it easier to follow the progress of each team, every Project Crew also includes its own Project Crew Status.

Project Crew Statuses provide a simple way to indicate the current stage of each Project Crew throughout the project lifecycle.

Available Project Crew Statuses

SquidWeb provides several predefined statuses that can be assigned to each Project Crew.

These include:

  • Quote
  • Design
  • Signing
  • Confirmed
  • Ongoing
  • Has Changed
  • Client Added
  • Cancelled
  • Closed

Each status represents a different stage in the lifecycle of a Project Crew, making it easier to organise projects and keep planning information up to date.

Updating the Project Crew Status

Project Crew Statuses can be changed directly from the Project Crews overview.

As planning progresses, planners can simply select a new status from the available list to reflect the current stage of that Project Crew.

Because each Project Crew has its own status, different teams within the same project can be tracked independently.

For example, while one Project Crew may already be Ongoing, another may still be in Design or Confirmed, depending on the project schedule.

Project Crew Status and Crew Mode

Although they appear together inside a Project Crew, Project Crew Status and Crew Mode serve different purposes.

The Project Crew Status indicates the current stage of the Project Crew and is updated as the project progresses.

The Crew Mode defines how attendance tracking, working hours and sign-off processes are managed for that Project Crew. Read more about it here

For example, one Project Crew may be using a self-managed Crew Mode while another relies on a Crew Chief to manage attendance. Regardless of the selected Crew Mode, each Project Crew maintains its own independent status.

Managing multiple Project Crews

Projects involving multiple teams often require planners to monitor several Project Crews simultaneously.

By assigning an individual status to every Project Crew, SquidWeb makes it easier to maintain an organised overview of the project and quickly identify the current stage of each team.

Combined with Crew Modes, locations, Crew Chiefs and crew assignments, Project Crew Statuses help structure the operational information for every Project Crew within the project.

Crew Request Withdraw

Crew members can view and apply to open positions directly from the Project Vacancies section in the mobile app.

Once they apply:

  • A ToDo is automatically created for the planner
  • A new activity is logged in the project (web app)

This ensures the office team is immediately informed and can manage requests from the web app.

Withdrawing a request

If needed, the crew member can withdraw their application at any time — as long as the position has not yet been confirmed by the planner.

This action is also done directly from the mobile app.

Once the request is withdrawn:

  • A ToDo is created for the planner
  • A new activity is logged (web app)

This keeps everything transparent and up to date between crew and office.

Crew flexibility (mobile)

From the mobile app, crew members can:

  • Apply to open positions
  • Manage their availability
  • Withdraw requests if their situation changes

ToDos

How to create and manage ToDos in SquidWeb

Keeping track of tasks between office and crew can quickly become messy — especially when working across multiple projects.

With SquidWeb ToDos, you can assign tasks in seconds and make sure they are completed directly from the mobile app.

What you can do with ToDos

  • Create and assign tasks instantly
  • Add context and instructions
  • Send tasks directly to crew members
  • Track progress in real time
  • Complete tasks in one click from mobile

How to create a ToDo

1. Go to a project
2. Open the Activities section
3. Click on New ToDo
4. You can define:

  • Title (caption) – A short description of the task
  • Detailed instructions (body) – Add context or specific actions to complete
  • Recipient – Assign the task to the responsible person
  • Due date and time – Set clear deadlines
  • Reminder – Ensure the task is not forgotten
  • Priority – Highlight urgent or important tasks

5. Save the ToDo

Example: “Please contact the driver to arrange the pickup”

Create ToDos from different areas

ToDos can be created from multiple parts of SquidWeb, such as:

  • Projects
  • Leads
  • Payroll
  • Mailbox
  • Delivery Notes
  • Contacts

This allows you to assign tasks wherever the need arises.

How ToDos work on mobile

Once created a ToDo external:

  • The assigned person receives the task instantly
  • The ToDo appears directly in the mobile app
  • The crew can open and complete it easily

No need for calls or external communication.

Completing a ToDo:

Can be completed directly from the mobile app

  • Open the task
  • Click “Complete”

That’s it — fast and simple.

Tracking ToDos

From the web app, you can:

  • See all active ToDos
  • Track completion status
  • Review completed tasks

This gives full visibility to the office team.

Result

With ToDos in SquidWeb:

  • Communication becomes structured
  • Tasks are not lost
  • Office and crew stay aligned

Watch here the short tutorial: