eProcureAI / Platform / AP Automation

AP Automation

Invoices that check
themselves and pay on time

An invoice arrives, gets read in about four seconds, and is matched against the order and the goods receipt. The clean ones go through on their own. Your team only sees the ones worth looking at.

This is the real screen. Invoice numbers, match states and vendors, straight from the product.

Invoice INV-2251Invoice arrives
How it feels to use

Your AP team stops typing and starts deciding

Ask an accounts payable team what they do all day and the honest answer is usually retyping things that already exist somewhere else.

An invoice turns up. Somebody keys the vendor, the amount, the lines and the account code, finds the purchase order it belongs to, works out whether the goods actually arrived, and then either pays it or starts an email thread. Multiply that by four hundred a month.

eProcureAI reads the invoice instead. Nine fields off INV-2251 in about four seconds, vendor matched to Classy Endeavors even when the name on the document is not quite how you have it stored, and the coding applied from the rules you set.

Then it checks three documents against each other

The purchase order says what you agreed to buy. The goods receipt says what actually turned up. The invoice says what you are being asked to pay. When all three line up inside your tolerances the invoice clears and gets scheduled without anyone touching it.

When they do not line up, it stops. INV-2251 sat on hold because the order and the invoice agreed but the goods receipt had not been raised yet. Nobody paid for something that had not been counted, and nobody had to notice that themselves.

What actually reaches a person

Only the genuinely awkward ones. A price variance on a laptop order. A supplier billing for twenty four units when twenty two arrived. When those land they come with the order, the receipt, the earlier invoices from that supplier and the variance already worked out, so the job is deciding rather than investigating.

Real time commitment visibility changed how we do quarterly planning. We stopped being surprised by what AP was processing at month end.Daphna Shafran, Head of FP and A, Remilk
How an invoice moves

Five seconds of work, and none of it manual

Second 0

It arrives

By email, through the supplier portal, or as a photo somebody took of a paper invoice on a loading dock. The format is rarely the problem people expect it to be.

Any channelAny format
1
Second 4

It gets read

Nine fields lifted off the document, the vendor matched to your records even when the name is written differently, and the account coding applied from your rules.

4.1 secondsVendor matched automatically
2
Second 4

Three documents compared

Purchase order, goods receipt and invoice, checked line by line inside the price and quantity tolerances you set.

Three wayYour tolerances
3
Second 5

A decision, not a suggestion

Clean invoices schedule themselves for payment. Anything that does not line up stops and becomes an exception with the evidence attached. Duplicates are blocked before they can be paid twice.

CleanStraight through
4
Month end

The close

Accruals build from open commitments and goods received but not yet invoiced. Ageing is live. Nobody rebuilds a spreadsheet the night before.

AccrualsBuilt automatically
5
The three way match

Three documents, one honest answer

What each document is for

The order is what you agreed to buy. The receipt is what arrived and what condition it was in. The invoice is what you are being asked to pay. Comparing all three is the oldest control in accounts payable and still the most effective one.

  • Order gives you the agreed price and quantity
  • Goods receipt records shipped against received, with condition
  • Invoice is checked against both rather than one
  • Nothing pays before somebody has counted it
INV-2198, Northwind SuppliesLive
Purchase orderMatched
Goods receiptMatched
InvoiceMatched
ResultPaid Jul 06
Human reviewNone
All three agreedCleared on its own

When one of them is missing

INV-2251 is a good example. The order and the invoice agreed with each other, but the shipment had arrived and nobody had checked it in yet. The invoice was held rather than paid, and the hold cleared the moment the receiving check produced the goods receipt.

  • Held instead of paid when the receipt is missing
  • The receiving site is chased rather than accounts payable
  • Hold clears automatically once the receipt exists
  • No one has to spot the gap themselves
INV-2251, Classy EndeavorsLive
Amount$825
Purchase orderMatched
Goods receiptNot yet raised
InvoiceMatched
StatusOn hold, awaiting receipt
Held correctlyCleared once counted

When the numbers disagree

A price variance on a laptop order goes to dispute rather than payment, with the difference already calculated. Short deliveries produce a credit note against the shortfall, and damaged goods produce a replacement, both of which stay linked to the original order so the running total is always right.

  • Price variances raised as disputes with the difference shown
  • Credit notes applied against the specific shortfall
  • Replacements tracked until they arrive
  • The net position on a supplier stays accurate
INV-2260, TechSup Inc.Live
Amount$15,120
Order and receiptMatched
InvoicePrice mismatch
StatusDisputed, price variance
AttachedOrder, receipt, history
Disputed not paidEvidence already gathered
Every state an invoice reaches

What the status means and who acts next

These are real records from the product. Between them they cover almost everything an accounts payable team sees in a week.

RecordVendorAmountMatch positionWhat happens
INV-2198Northwind Supplies$2,140Order, receipt and invoice all agreePaid without review
INV-2251Classy Endeavors$825Order and invoice agree, receipt not yet raisedHeld until the goods are checked in
INV-2260TechSup Inc.$15,120Order and receipt agree, invoice priced differentlyDisputed, difference calculated
CRN-0043Classy EndeavorsMinus $90Credit against a short deliveryApplied to the shortfall automatically
RMA-2026-031Classy Endeavors$24Replacement for two damaged organisersTracked until it arrives

Credits and replacements stay attached to the order they came from, so the amount you actually owe a supplier is always current rather than something finance reconstructs at year end.

Who does what

The short version of everyone's job

The split matters more than the percentage. Your team keeps the work that needs a person and loses the work that never did.

What your team does

Judgement calls, and nothing else. On a typical day that is three invoices out of forty eight.

The human partLive
Look at exceptionsThree, with evidence attached
Decide on a varianceAccept, dispute or ask
Approve non order invoicesWhere you require it
Release the payment runOn your terms
Talk to suppliersWhen it is worth it
Three of forty eightThe rest went through alone

What eProcureAI does

Reading, matching, chasing, coding and holding. All the parts nobody was ever glad to be doing.

The automatic partLive
Read the invoiceNine fields in four seconds
Match the vendorEven with a different spelling
Compare three documentsLine by line
Hold what should be heldMissing receipts, duplicates
Schedule the clean onesWithin your terms
Forty five of forty eightNo keystrokes
The difficult ones

What happens when it is not a clean invoice

No order

There is no purchase order

Utilities, professional fees, one off services. These route through an approval flow you define, with the coding suggested from how similar invoices were coded before.

CodingSuggested from history
RouteYou define it
Duplicate

The same invoice, twice

Exact duplicates are blocked outright. Near duplicates arriving under a slightly different vendor name are flagged with the original attached, which is the version that usually costs companies money.

ExactBlocked
Near duplicateFlagged with the original
Short

Fewer arrived than were billed

The receiving check records the difference and a credit note is raised against the shortfall, staying linked to the original order.

RecordedAt receiving
CreditAgainst the shortfall
Damaged

It arrived broken

Condition is captured during the receiving check, a replacement is requested, and the replacement is tracked until it turns up.

ConditionCaptured on check
ReplacementTracked
Priced wrong

The invoice does not match the order

It goes to dispute rather than payment, with the difference calculated and the order and receipt attached so the conversation with the supplier is short.

StatusDisputed
DifferenceAlready worked out
Messy

The supplier invoices badly

Odd formats and inconsistent naming are handled. Suppliers who submit through the portal come through clean far more often, which fixes the cause rather than the symptom.

Portal submittedClean far more often
UnreadableSent to a person
0to read an invoice and apply the coding
0invoices clear with no human review
0arrive with order, receipt and history attached
0paid before somebody counted the goods
FAQ

Questions people actually ask

What is three way matching?
It compares the purchase order, the goods receipt and the supplier invoice before any payment is released. The order says what you agreed to buy, the receipt says what turned up, and the invoice says what you are being asked to pay. When all three agree inside your tolerances the invoice clears on its own.
What happens to invoices with no purchase order?
They route through an approval flow you set up, with the account coding suggested from how similar invoices were treated previously. The audit trail is the same as it would be for an invoice backed by an order.
Do we still control when suppliers get paid?
Yes. Scheduling happens inside your approved payment terms and your approval rules. Nothing is released early and nothing is released without whatever sign off you require.
Can it read a photograph of a paper invoice?
Yes. Scans and phone photos are handled. If a document genuinely cannot be read it goes to a person with the original attached rather than being guessed at.
How does duplicate detection work?
Exact duplicates are blocked. Near duplicates, which usually means the same invoice arriving under a slightly different supplier name, are flagged with the original attached so somebody can confirm quickly.
What about credit notes and replacements?
Both are supported and both stay linked to the order they relate to. A credit against a short delivery is applied to that shortfall, and a replacement is tracked until it arrives, so the amount you owe stays accurate.
How do suppliers check whether they have been paid?
Through the portal. That is the main reason inbound status emails drop off sharply in the first month, because the question people used to email about is now answerable without you.
What if an invoice is priced differently from the order?
It goes to dispute rather than payment, with the difference calculated and the order and receipt attached. Your team decides whether to accept the variance or push back.
Does this help with month end?
Yes. Accruals build from open commitments and goods received but not yet invoiced, and ageing is live rather than assembled. One manufacturer took about two days out of each close.
Will it cope with our worst supplier?
Probably, though the honest answer is to test it. Send a stack of your real invoices, including the ones that cause arguments, and we will run them on the call rather than describe what should happen.

Send us your messiest invoices

We will run real ones through on the call, including the awkward ones. That demo usually settles it faster than anything we could say.

Book your free demo

Next in the chain: Budgets and Spend