Unattended Processing
DocumentQ can run the capture → reconcile → decide cycle on a schedule, and can register a fully reconciled document without a click. Everything is on the DocumentQ Unattended Processing page.
What the scheduled cycle does
Enable Unattended Processing schedules a Business Central job queue entry that runs the cycle periodically — every 15 minutes by default. One cycle:
- Polls the configured mailbox for new invoices, if a retrieval connector is set up.
- Runs capture on documents sitting at Received.
- Reconciles and decides.
- Registers documents that qualify for touchless registration, if both switches are on.
- Retries documents whose file offload did not land on an earlier cycle.
Run Now runs one cycle immediately, so you can test without waiting for the schedule.
The email rail runs here, and only here
This is the single most useful thing to know about this page. Mailbox polling happens inside the scheduled batch. There is no independent mailbox watcher.
On a tenant where unattended processing has never been enabled, emailed invoices never appear in DocumentQ at all. If you are wondering why nothing arrives from email, check this first — before the connector, before permissions, before anything else.
Invoices may still land in Business Central’s own Incoming Documents through unrelated native configuration. In that case, Process with DocumentQ on the Incoming Document is how they get in.
The job queue user needs the Full seat
The job queue entry’s own user must hold DocumentQ - Full (Write/Post), because registering requires it even when nothing human is clicking.
If it does not, unattended registration refuses. The Unattended Processing page reports this by name if it is the cause of a failed run, rather than leaving you to guess.
Touchless registration needs two switches, not one
Touchless registration is deliberately opt-in twice:
- Touchless Registration Enabled — tenant-wide, in DocumentQ Setup.
- A per-vendor opt-in, on Vendor Touchless Settings.
Turning on the tenant-wide switch alone changes nothing. The Unattended Processing page shows the status of both and names which half is missing, rather than sitting scheduled and silent.
Touchless registration also applies only to Standard documents — ordinary PO-backed invoices. Credit memos, prepayments and contract-coded documents are never registered automatically, because the safety argument for touchless registration rests on there being a posted receipt, which those kinds do not have.
Touchless means registered, not posted
A touchless document builds its Business Central purchase invoice automatically from your purchase order and posted receipt. Posting remains a human action, and any approval routing you have configured still applies.
There is no flag anywhere in DocumentQ that causes a posting. The unattended batch registers; it does not post.
When to turn touchless on
Not on day one. Watch DocumentQ process a few dozen documents first, look at which vendors reconcile cleanly every time, and enable those vendors individually. The per-vendor switch exists precisely so that touchless registration is a decision you make about a vendor whose invoices you have actually watched behave, rather than a global bet.