Bill Pay / AP is the dedicated accounts-payable engine that turns vendor invoices into approved, matched, paid, and posted disbursements — and produces the 1099 paper trail at year-end without anyone re-keying a number. It owns the AP-side vendor master (legal name, EIN, W-9 status, 1099 eligibility, remit-to address, ACH bank details, default payment terms), the bill intake pipeline (email-to-AP, OCR upload, manual key, recurring templates, and inbound Status: Approved Pay applications from PM Subcontractor), the three-way match engine that reconciles each Bill against the originating purchase order and the Goods receipt before a dollar moves, the tiered approval matrix that routes by amount band to Approver, AP Manager, Controller, or CFO, the weekly payment-run cycle that pulls due Bills into a batch and emits an ACH (NACHA) file, a check print register, or a wire instruction, the early-pay discount calculator that takes 2/10 Net 30 when the cash position allows, the disputes and vendor-credits ledger, and the year-end Form1099Tracking table that aggregates per-Vendor 1099-NEC totals against the applicable tax-year reporting threshold and hands the final Form1099Filings list to Payroll's Filing partner for IRS transmission.
Bills in one list
| Bill number | Vendor | Vendor invoice number | Bill date | Purchase order | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BLL-40371 | Westmere Freight Services | BLL-45346 | 03 Nov | Warehouse HVAC service visit | 42,849.82 | |
| BLL-18239 | Harborfield Office Goods | BLL-74233 | 02 Nov | Quarterly office supply order | 12,675.22 | |
| BLL-10632 | Iron Vale Equipment Repair | BLL-63144 | 16 Oct | Shipping carton replenishment | 42,700.78 | |
| BLL-55587 | Westmere Freight Services | BLL-71941 | 19 Oct | Bearing replenishment for line 2 | 12,407.77 | |
| BLL-32719 | Cedarline Industrial Supply | BLL-22978 | 22 Oct | Monthly facility cleaning | 12,610.48 |
Approver, AP Manager or Controller / CFO decides within the configured tier.
Every feature works on the same records. Pick one to see the screen your team works in.
Keep supplier details and payment instructions ready for the next invoice.
Vendors
Bring supplier invoices into a reviewable queue with their original documents.
Bills
| Bill number | Vendor | Vendor invoice number | Bill date | Total | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BLL-28687 | Northgate Packaging Works | BLL-81704 | 28 Oct | 31,226.47 | ||
| BLL-31500 | Westmere Freight Services | BLL-78136 | 22 Oct | 41,847.67 | OCR | |
| BLL-99289 | Blue Orchard Facilities | BLL-89992 | 11 Oct | 43,706.59 | ||
| BLL-58611 | Westmere Freight Services | BLL-78010 | 25 Oct | 7,575.12 | OCR | |
| BLL-24855 | Iron Vale Equipment Repair | BLL-38957 | 26 Oct | 44,210.90 |
Check what was ordered, received and billed before approving a payment.
Three way match results
| Bill | Matched at | PO match | Receipt match | Quantity variance percent | Dollar variance percent | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iron Vale lift repair, August | 11 Oct | Match | Match | 11 | 26 | |
| Cedarline bearings invoice, April | 25 Oct | No PO found | No receipt found | 21 | 21 | |
| Blue Orchard janitorial service | 21 Oct | Mismatch | Partial receipt | 27 | 14 | |
| Cedarline bearings invoice, April | 18 Oct | Match | Mismatch | 26 | 12 | |
| Northgate cartons invoice, June | 28 Oct | No PO found | Match | 0 | 8 |
Give each invoice a clear decision owner and each exception a visible resolution.
Bill approval steps
| Bill number | Vendor | Total | Department | Project code | Assigned at | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BAS-23732 | Cedarline Industrial Supply | 9,409.45 | Operations | BAS-87172 | 24 Oct | |
| BAS-69738 | Harborfield Office Goods | 32,892.48 | Facilities | BAS-54420 | 30 Oct | |
| BAS-12037 | Westmere Freight Services | 36,909.40 | Finance | BAS-88845 | 25 Oct | |
| BAS-78112 | Pine Hollow Maintenance | 9,111.09 | Customer Support | BAS-31264 | 25 Oct | |
| BAS-21262 | Northgate Packaging Works | 24,329.56 | Warehouse | BAS-35616 | 30 Oct |
Prepare a clear payment proposal, then release it with the right authority.
Payment release waits for the controller / cfo
| Run number | Run date | Scheduled pay date | Bank account | Total amount | Item count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PR-29733 | 18 Oct | 26 Oct | Operating checking, ending 4821 | 28,360.52 | 17 | |
| PR-46499 | 02 Nov | 11 Nov | Vendor disbursements, ending 7306 | 1,423.07 | 20 | |
| PR-44903 | 11 Oct | 15 Oct | Facilities checking, ending 1944 | 19,792.64 | 23 | |
| PR-64904 | 19 Oct | 22 Oct | West region operating, ending 3058 | 27,219.29 | 11 | |
| PR-74328 | 22 Oct | 29 Oct | Payroll and expenses, ending 6620 | 46,284.95 | 5 |
See outstanding invoices, payment progress and year-end document readiness.
Bills
| Bill number | Vendor invoice number | Bill date | Due date | Total | Amount paid | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BLL-38639 | BLL-44507 | 20 Oct | 29 Oct | 9,648.40 | 9,822.99 | |
| BLL-93137 | BLL-57945 | 11 Oct | 15 Oct | 34,050.51 | 30,365.21 | |
| BLL-96491 | BLL-89840 | 30 Oct | 02 Nov | 4,988.04 | 27,283.96 | |
| BLL-51662 | BLL-60219 | 18 Oct | 22 Oct | 4,940.36 | 27,425.08 | |
| BLL-62147 | BLL-54061 | 24 Oct | 26 Oct | 26,379.40 | 1,564.21 |
Invoice to payment ships ready to use. 2 steps need a named approval before the work moves on: Approve (Controller / CFO) and Release (Controller / CFO).
Bring the supplier invoice and supporting documents into one draft.
Compare the bill with the order and actual receipt evidence.
Route the reviewed amount to its authorized decision owner.
Select eligible balances and review terms, holds and discounts.
Authorize the proposal before producing bank instructions.
Reconcile the actual bank result and retain exceptions.
Open any bill to see its three way match results, the roles that work on it, its process stages and its approvals on one page.
Vendor invoice number, Bill date, Purchase order and Total.
Each line is linked to this bill.
Controller / CFO, AP Manager and AP Clerk, each with their own permissions.
Bill intake and Three-way match, with the role that acts.
Approve and Release, with who decides.
Warehouse HVAC service visit
| Bill | Matched at | PO match |
|---|---|---|
| Iron Vale lift repair, August | 11 Oct | Match |
| Cedarline bearings invoice, April | 25 Oct | No PO found |
| Blue Orchard janitorial service | 21 Oct | Mismatch |
AP Clerk prepares bills and supporting evidence. Approver decides own-scope bills; AP Manager and Controller / CFO act within the configured amount tiers.
Signed in as Controller / CFO
| Decision | Approver | |
|---|---|---|
| ApproveRoute the reviewed amount to its authorized decision owner. | Controller / CFO | |
| ReleaseAuthorize the proposal before producing bank instructions. | Controller / CFO | |
| Approve Bills in the highest tier of bill approval matrix (typically >$50k or >$250k depending on configuration) | Controller / CFO |
Everyone opens Accounts Payable Automation to the work that is theirs. Pick a role to see what it starts with.
Systems administrator. Owns the configuration surface — Vendors catalog, bill approval matrix, match tolerances, integrations (bank, OCR, fin-accounting, Payroll, scm-procurement) — and the RBAC plumbing. Not the day-to-day AP operator.
Final signoff on payment runs, top-tier bill approval, year-end 1099 release. Sees every Vendor, every Bill, every Payment in full detail.
This is the first screen this role sees.
Bill approval steps · Controller / CFO
| Bill number | Vendor | Total | Department | Project code | Assigned at | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BAS-23732 | Cedarline Industrial Supply | 9,409.45 | Operations | BAS-87172 | 24 Oct | |
| BAS-69738 | Harborfield Office Goods | 32,892.48 | Facilities | BAS-54420 | 30 Oct | |
| BAS-12037 | Westmere Freight Services | 36,909.40 | Finance | BAS-88845 | 25 Oct | |
| BAS-78112 | Pine Hollow Maintenance | 9,111.09 | Customer Support | BAS-31264 | 25 Oct | |
| BAS-21262 | Northgate Packaging Works | 24,329.56 | Warehouse | BAS-35616 | 30 Oct |
Owns the AP function end-to-end. Runs the weekly payment cycle, manages Vendor relationships, tracks Disputes through to resolution, owns the year-end 1099 file readiness. The named approver in mid-tier bill bands.
This is the first screen this role sees.
Bill approval steps · AP Manager
| Bill number | Vendor | Total | Department | Project code | Assigned at | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BAS-23732 | Cedarline Industrial Supply | 9,409.45 | Operations | BAS-87172 | 24 Oct | |
| BAS-69738 | Harborfield Office Goods | 32,892.48 | Facilities | BAS-54420 | 30 Oct | |
| BAS-12037 | Westmere Freight Services | 36,909.40 | Finance | BAS-88845 | 25 Oct | |
| BAS-78112 | Pine Hollow Maintenance | 9,111.09 | Customer Support | BAS-31264 | 25 Oct | |
| BAS-21262 | Northgate Packaging Works | 24,329.56 | Warehouse | BAS-35616 | 30 Oct |
Operational role — the day-to-day Bills processor. Captures / keys / OCRs vendor invoices, runs three-way match, prepares payment run items for AP Manager review.
This is the first screen this role sees.
Disputes · AP Clerk
Line-of-business approver — typically a Department head or Project lead. Approves Bills against own cost-center per the bill approval matrix tier band that maps to the Approver role. Sees own department / project bills only.
This is the first screen this role sees.
Bill approval steps · Approver
| Bill number | Vendor | Total | Department | Project code | Assigned at | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BAS-23732 | Cedarline Industrial Supply | 9,409.45 | Operations | BAS-87172 | 24 Oct | |
| BAS-69738 | Harborfield Office Goods | 32,892.48 | Facilities | BAS-54420 | 30 Oct | |
| BAS-12037 | Westmere Freight Services | 36,909.40 | Finance | BAS-88845 | 25 Oct | |
| BAS-78112 | Pine Hollow Maintenance | 9,111.09 | Customer Support | BAS-31264 | 25 Oct | |
| BAS-21262 | Northgate Packaging Works | 24,329.56 | Warehouse | BAS-35616 | 30 Oct |
External portal seat — implicit (typically delivered via a vendor-portal sub-app or a shared-link mechanism). Submits invoices via email or portal upload, sees own payment status, updates own remit-to address (subject to AP Manager verify).
This is the first screen this role sees.
Bills · Vendor User
| Bill number | Vendor invoice number | Bill date | Due date | Total | Amount paid | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BLL-38639 | BLL-44507 | 20 Oct | 29 Oct | 9,648.40 | 9,822.99 | |
| BLL-93137 | BLL-57945 | 11 Oct | 15 Oct | 34,050.51 | 30,365.21 | |
| BLL-96491 | BLL-89840 | 30 Oct | 02 Nov | 4,988.04 | 27,283.96 | |
| BLL-51662 | BLL-60219 | 18 Oct | 22 Oct | 4,940.36 | 27,425.08 | |
| BLL-62147 | BLL-54061 | 24 Oct | 26 Oct | 26,379.40 | 1,564.21 |
Executive read-only — board members, outside auditors, FP&A analysts.
This is the first screen this role sees.
Bills · Viewer
| Vendor | Bill number | Bill date | Due date | Total | Amount outstanding | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pine Hollow Maintenance | BLL-88847 | 24 Oct | 27 Oct | 9,775.53 | 6,805.58 | |
| Iron Vale Equipment Repair | BLL-19564 | 22 Oct | 25 Oct | 31,214.28 | 22,218.88 | |
| Pine Hollow Maintenance | BLL-74249 | 21 Oct | 23 Oct | 27,214.59 | 38,677.05 | |
| Iron Vale Equipment Repair | BLL-47553 | 28 Oct | 01 Nov | 31,292.47 | 16,264.78 | |
| Cedarline Industrial Supply | BLL-55722 | 03 Nov | 08 Nov | 38,889.66 | 27,789.58 |
Explain aging, supplier spend, invoice exceptions and payment outcomes.
This quarter
How far records got this quarter
| Stage | Reached | Step | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Draft | 40 | ||
| Pending match | 8 | 20% | |
| Pending approval | 2 | 25% | |
| Approved | 1 | 50% |
Sample totals per stage
Review remaining approved balances by supplier and due date, retaining the as-of basis.
Trailing-12-months total Cleared Payments per Vendor, ranked, with month-over- month delta and concentration metric (top-10 share of total AP spend). The strategic-sourcing input. Drills into per- Vendor Bills and into bill lines by GL account.
Per period: count and percent of Bills with Outcome: Mismatch or partial match, broken down by Vendor and by discrepancy type (quantity vs. dollar variance). The control-effectiveness report — a rising mismatch rate from one Vendor flags either a process break or a vendor-side billing problem.
Distinguish opportunities from discounts actually applied to eligible payments.
Per payment run: Item count, total amount, total discount taken, breakdown by payment method (ACH / Check / Wire), Funded / Posted timing. Drills into per-Bill payment run items and into per-Vendor Payments.
Per tax year: count of Vendors with Required1099 = TRUE, count missing W-9, count Computed / ready to file / Filed, total reportable dollars by form1099 box. The pre-January-31-deadline Controller report that drives W-9 solicitation and the filing partner handoff.
Per period: count of Disputes opened, closed, average days-to-resolution by Reason type; total vendor credits issued, applied, remaining balance. The AP Manager's vendor-management report.
Forward- looking 4-week forecast of cash out: Approved Bills bucketed by due date (current week / next week / wk+2 / wk+3), net of available early pay discounts and held payment run items. The Treasury / Controller cash-planning report.
See how Accounts Payable Automation fits your kind of team.
Each stage of invoice to payment names the role that acts and the status it records, so a change is never anonymous.
Each stage, the role that acts and the status it records
Use an agent to prepare AP work while keeping financial decisions attributable.
Set up connections through ERP.AI and Proto workflows, with every change logged.
Every record lives in a table you can see, extend and export. Add fields or whole tables in Proto.
Browse all 27 tablesStart with one team and one process, then add the rest once the basics are running.
Agree supplier populations, approval bands, source ownership, bank methods and filing ownership. Identify the ledger and identity directories that remain external.
Resolve duplicate vendors and invoice identifiers. Confirm opening bills, credits, pending payments and tax-document exceptions.
Controller / CFO reviews the authority policy with the administrator, who binds authenticated identities to scopes and approval tiers. Test independent bank verification and payment release with both allowed and rejected actions.
Verify intake retries, procurement references, draft journals, payment acknowledgements and filing results in a controlled environment.
Trace matched, disputed, partially paid, returned and corrected cases. Compare balances with the source records before widening the supplier population.
$0per user
The base account and everyday work in the ERP.AI app are free, for every user.
| Usage | Per $1 |
|---|---|
| Record reads (list, filter, get) | 20,000 |
| Search or aggregate queries | 4,000 |
| Record writes | 4,000 |
| Imported or synced records | 200,000 |
| Workflow runs | 2,000 |
| AI agent runs | 2,000 |
| Scheduled jobs or webhooks | 20,000 |
| File uploads (MB) | 2,000 |
| CSV or PDF exports | 100 |
Click Get started, then use Proto to configure Accounts Payable Automation for your business. Set up your workflows, import your data and invite your team.
No. The system manages the AP operating workflow. A configured ledger connection receives journal requests and returns posting results. Bank reconciliation and the full period close remain in their owning systems.
The model links bill lines to purchase-order and receipt evidence and records tolerance-based match results. Configure the source ownership and matching rules, then verify them with representative receipts and discrepancies before launch.
Permitted non-PO bills follow their configured approval route with supporting evidence. A missing order reference does not automatically make an invoice valid or describe it as three-way matched.
AP Manager reviews the proposal and Controller / CFO authorizes release through the configured route. AP Clerk preparation and technical connector access do not substitute for that release decision.
No. Keep generated, transmitted, acknowledged, cleared and returned outcomes separate. Update the payable using the attributable bank result and preserve failed attempts when a replacement is needed.
Vendor User is limited to own-supplier documents, bills and permitted payment status. The implementation must enforce that boundary in direct access, exports and linked records as well as the visible portal.
The model supports readiness review and a controlled handoff to a configured filing partner. Verify tax-year and form rules, resolve missing documents and record the external filing result. A prepared record is not proof of accepted filing.
Start free, then use Proto to change fields, steps and approvals before your team goes live.