Solutions · Finance
Accounts Payable Automation
Invoices captured, matched and routed on arrival. The only thing a person sees is the exception.
Why AP is hard
The payables queue, as people describe it
Nobody in an AP team complains about data capture. They complain about the supplier on the phone, the duplicate that got paid and the approver who is on a flight.
What you hear
Where is my invoice?
A supplier rings. Someone searches three inboxes and a shared drive, finds a PDF, and still cannot say whether it was approved.
What you hear
We paid that twice
The same invoice came by email and through the portal, one with a leading zero in the number. Both were keyed. Both were paid.
What you hear
The approver is travelling
An invoice waits a week for one person, then gets approved from a phone with the word ok. The early payment discount lapsed on day five.
What is underneath
Entry comes before checking
A person types the invoice into the ERP before anyone has asked whether it should be paid at all. The check happens later, if it happens.
What is underneath
Three documents in three places
The purchase order is in the ERP, the goods receipt is in the stores register and the invoice is in an inbox. Matching them means switching tabs.
What is underneath
Tax is checked at filing
A wrong GSTIN or rate on a supplier invoice surfaces when the purchase register is reconciled, months after the payment went out.
How PTAS AI automates it
Check first, enter second
The order of work is reversed. The invoice is read and tested against your rules before it exists in the ERP, so the entry is the result of the checks rather than the thing that triggers them.
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01
Understand
DocPro reads each invoice as fields: supplier, GSTIN, number and date, PO reference, every line with its HSN, rate and tax, and the totals. Each field carries a confidence score.
A PDF becomes a record you can test
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02
Decide
FinSuite runs your rules on that record. Is the vendor active and verified? Is this a duplicate? Does the line match the PO and the receipt within tolerance? Is the tax right for the place of supply?
Checks run before anyone reads it
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03
Act
Clean invoices post to the ERP with the document attached and go onto the payment run by their terms. Everything else is routed to the person whose threshold it crossed, with the reason stated.
Clean invoices never wait for a person
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04
Verify
Every decision, automated or human, is written to the audit trail with its evidence. Payment status comes back from the bank file, so the queue shows what was paid and not only what was approved.
The record answers the auditor
The workflow
What one morning's run looks like
Most invoices in a payables run are ordinary. The point of automating AP is that the ordinary ones never reach a person, and the few that do arrive with their reason attached.
One morning's payables run · Illustrative example
The exceptions are the point of the queue. Everything above them is work nobody has to look at.
The queue is the exceptions
A reviewer opens the morning run and sees the holds, each with its cause.
Thresholds are yours
Amount, category, variance and vendor risk decide what needs a person.
Evidence travels
The PO, the GRN and the invoice sit on the entry they produced.
Key capabilities
Eight things the workflow has to do well
AP automation that only does capture moves the typing, not the work. The checks and the routing are where the time actually goes.
Capture
Every inbound channel
A watched mailbox, a supplier portal, a scanner folder or the API. The invoice is logged the moment it arrives, so the clock on it is real.
Capture
Extraction with a score
Header, line items and tax read as structured fields. Fields below your confidence threshold go to a person. The rest do not.
Checks
Vendor and GSTIN validation
The supplier is matched to your master, the GSTIN on the invoice is checked for format and status, and bank details are compared with what you hold.
Checks
Duplicate detection
Number, amount, date and supplier compared with everything received, including near duplicates with a changed prefix or a resent scan.
Matching
Two-, three- and six-way match
Lines matched to the PO and, for goods, the GRN, with unit conversions and the tolerances you set. Partial deliveries are matched to what was received. Six-way matching adds the vendor, contract, tax, bank and duplicate checks where you hold that data.
Matching
Coding without a PO
Non-PO invoices are coded to account and cost centre from the supplier, the description and your history, then sent to the budget owner.
Flow
Approval routing
Routes by amount, category and variance. Delegation, escalation after a set time, and a mobile approval that still records a reason.
Flow
Posting and payment
Posted into the ERP using your accounts and dimensions, then scheduled by terms. Payment status is written back against the invoice.
Approvals and exceptions
What a person actually sees
An approver should not be reading invoices. They should be answering one question that a rule could not answer, with the evidence in front of them.
Invoice ₹ 2,70,220 — the route it took · Illustrative example
Nobody shared a login and nobody chased by email. The delegation, the timestamp and the reason are all on the entry.
A price variance of a few percent against the PO, a vendor whose bank account changed last week, a non-PO invoice above a cost centre limit: these are the holds. Each one lands with the person your rules named, states why it stopped, and escalates if that person does not act within the window you set. Approving from a phone is fine. Approving without a recorded reason is not, and the system does not allow it.
Business outcomes
What changes, and how you would measure it
We do not quote improvement percentages before seeing your queue. We do agree the measures up front, on your numbers, so the decision to extend is based on something.
What changes
Fewer hands per invoice
Count how many people open an invoice between arrival and payment. For a clean PO invoice the answer should be none.
What changes
Shorter arrival to posting
Measure it by invoice class. PO invoices, non-PO invoices and credit notes move at different speeds, and an average hides that.
What changes
A first-time match rate you can quote
The share of PO invoices that match without a person. Track it per supplier; the laggards usually have a pack size or a pricing problem.
What changes
Duplicates stopped, not recovered
Duplicates held before payment rather than clawed back after. Watch the second number; it should fall as the first one rises.
What changes
Discounts taken, interest avoided
Early payment discounts taken against discounts offered, and late payment interest owed to micro and small suppliers.
What changes
Accruals you can defend
At close, invoices received but not yet posted are a list rather than an estimate, because capture logged them on arrival.
Integrations
Your ERP stays the system of record
The workflow runs in front of the ERP and posts into it with your chart of accounts, cost centres and dimensions. Nothing about your ledger structure changes.
SAP
ERP · API, IDoc or file
Oracle
ERP · API or file
Microsoft Dynamics
ERP · API
NetSuite
ERP · API
Tally
Accounting · XML import or ODBC
Zoho
Accounting · API
QuickBooks
Accounting · API
REST API
Any system · custom
Webhooks
Status events out
Four integration methods are possible: native integration, API integration, file or flat-file exchange, and custom integration. The systems named here are planning examples; which method applies to your instance, and the scope of field mapping, is confirmed during assessment rather than assumed. See FinSuite integrations for how postings and status flow.
Security and governance
Controls an auditor would recognise
Automating payables concentrates risk if it is done carelessly. These are the controls built into the workflow, and the FinSuite security page has the detail.
Segregation of duties
The person who codes an invoice cannot approve it, and the person who approves cannot release the payment. The roles are enforced, not assumed.
Thresholds and delegation
Approval limits, delegation windows and escalation times are configured by you and recorded with every decision they shape.
A complete audit trail
Each invoice carries what was read, which rules ran, who decided what and when, and the document itself. Exportable for internal and statutory audit.
Data handling
Cloud, private cloud or on-premise deployment where supported, with role-based access and ISO/IEC 27001-aligned practices. Vendor bank details are masked by role.
Product connection
The products that deliver it
DocPro understands the invoice. FinSuite executes the payables workflow around it. The solution is the two configured to your rules.
FAQ
Questions AP teams ask
How is this page different from the FinSuite AP Automation module page?
This page is about the problem and the workflow: what goes wrong in a payables queue and what the automated version of it looks like end to end, including the DocPro reading step and the ERP posting. The module page describes the FinSuite features that run the middle of that workflow. Read this one to decide whether AP automation is the right first project; read that one to evaluate the software.
Do we need purchase orders for everything before this works?
No. Most AP queues are a mix of PO-backed invoices and non-PO invoices for services, utilities and subscriptions. The PO invoices are matched; the non-PO invoices are coded and routed to a budget owner. We would start with the PO-backed flow because the match gives the clearest early signal, but the non-PO flow is usually running within the same project.
What happens to an invoice the AI is not sure about?
The uncertain field, not the whole invoice, goes to a person. A reviewer sees the value DocPro read, its confidence score and the region of the page it came from, confirms or corrects it, and the invoice continues. Review is a control that you tune with the threshold; it is not a failure of the system. Over time the fields that reach review tell you which suppliers need a template fix.
Does it handle the GST side of a supplier invoice?
Yes, as a set of checks that run before posting. The GSTIN format and registration status, the tax type against the place of supply (IGST for inter-state, CGST and SGST within a state), the e-invoice IRN and QR code where the supplier is required to issue one, and reverse charge flags where they apply. An invoice that fails a check is held with the reason. The accounting treatment of what is held remains your decision.
How long does it take to go live?
The typical range is four to twelve weeks for a single AP workflow, and it varies with document variety, how many systems have to be mapped, the approval design and where it is deployed. The first two weeks are usually spent on your documents and your rules as they actually are, which is work worth doing whether or not you automate.
Keep reading
Related solutions and products
FinSuite AP Automation
The module that runs this workflow, feature by feature.
Read more →Finance Automation
AP as one part of the finance work that moves out of the close.
Read more →Invoice Automation
The reading and validation of the invoice itself, in detail.
Read more →Payment Automation
What happens after approval: runs, bank files and status.
Read more →AP Automation Evaluation Guide
What to insist on when you evaluate payables automation, and how to test it.
Read more →Next step
Run one month of invoices through it
Bring the real queue: the duplicates, the forty-line invoices and the ones nobody raised a PO for. That is the test worth doing.