Template
Accounts payable automation template
This template takes a supplier invoice from the inbox to an approved bill in your ledger, with a three-way match, a budget holder’s approval and a separate approval before payment is released.
Last reviewed 7 October 2026
Status
Designed
No template covers accounts payable. The Marketplace listing Invoice extraction → ERP is a sample with nothing seeded behind it, so every step below is something you build in Studio.
No template covers this job yet. The steps below are the shape we would build and the shape you can build in Studio yourself.
The job
What this template does
Accounts payable belongs to a finance operations lead, with budget holders approving spend in their own areas. The job is to pay the right supplier the right amount once, on time. Each invoice touches a mailbox, an order, a receipt, an approver and a bank.
By hand, an invoice waits in a manager’s inbox, a duplicate is paid because the number was typed with a space, and a supplier’s changed bank details are never compared with the record. This flow runs the checks in a fixed order, shows each approver the evidence and stops at two places where a person must say yes.
Workflow
The workflow, step by step
Steps marked as approval gates pause the run until a named person approves. Nothing after a gate runs before that decision, and the decision is recorded.
- 01
Receive and read the invoice
The workflow watches the invoices mailbox and a shared upload folder. For each new document it saves the original, opens a payable record and reads supplier, invoice number, dates, lines, tax and total into it, noting any field it could not read. The next step receives the record beside the original. - 02
Check supplier and duplicates
The workflow looks the supplier up in your master list, compares the invoice number, supplier and amount with open and paid items, and compares the bank details on the invoice with those on file. A difference in bank details always stops the record for a person. Clean records move on. - 03
Match to order and receipt
The record is compared with the purchase order and the goods or service receipt. Lines inside the tolerance you set pass. Lines outside it are listed as exceptions with both figures shown. The next step receives the match result and an agent’s suggested cost code, marked as a suggestion. - 04
Approve coding and amount
The run pauses for the budget holder of the cost centre, who sees the invoice image, the matched order and the suggested code. They approve, change the code or reject. Above <approval threshold - set by the process owner> a second named approver is required. The decision goes onto the record.Approval gate: a named person approves before the next step runs. - 05
Post the bill
After approval the workflow creates the bill in the ledger, unpaid, with the approval reference and the original attached. It then adds the bill to the next payment proposal. Nothing is paid at this step. The next step receives the proposal. - 06
Approve the payment release
A finance approver reviews the payment proposal and approves it or removes lines. You assign someone other than the budget holders, since the platform does not enforce separation of duties. The payment itself is made in your bank or payment system, outside this workflow.Approval gate: a named person approves before the next step runs.
Controls
What it can do, cannot do, needs approval for, and records
Can
- Collect invoices from a mailbox and a folder
- Read the fields and compare them with supplier, order and receipt
- Suggest a cost code and show the evidence for it
- Create an unpaid bill after approval
Cannot
- Pay a supplier or send a bank file
- Change supplier bank details
- Approve its own cost code suggestion
- Skip the match because an invoice is small
Requires approval
- Coding and amount, by the budget holder
- Spend above the threshold, by a second approver
- Any change in supplier bank details, by a named finance person
- The payment proposal, by a finance approver
Records
- The original invoice and the fields read from it
- Supplier, duplicate and bank-detail checks
- Match result and exceptions
- Each approver, decision and time
Honest labels
What the library holds for this job
| Asset | Type | Covers | Role in this flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Invoice extraction → ERP | Marketplace sample listing | Sample listing, no template behind it | A sample listing for reading an invoice and posting it to an ERP. No template is seeded behind it, and this page does not quote its cost. |
| Draft a polite reminder email | Prompt | Used inside the flow | A starting prompt for supplier queries about a mismatch or a missing document. |
| QuickBooks | Integration | Used inside the flow | Receives the approved bill if QuickBooks is your ledger. |
| Xero | Integration | Used inside the flow | The alternative ledger target for approved bills. |
Connections
Integrations this flow uses
- QuickBooks: Receives approved bills if it is your ledger.
- Xero: The alternative ledger target for approved bills.
- Email (IMAP): Reads the mailbox where suppliers send invoices.
- Slack: Delivers the approval request to the budget holder where they already work.
The full list of tools Studio connects to is on the integrations page.
Before you start
What you supply, and what this page does not cover
- You supply the supplier master data, the match tolerance, the approval thresholds and the list of approvers for each cost centre.
- The workflow needs permission to create bills in your ledger. Grant it the narrowest access that allows that and nothing for payments.
- Paying a supplier is outside this design. Release happens in your bank or payment system.
- Tax treatment, withholding and e-invoicing rules differ by country. This page does not cover them.
Common questions
- Does the template pay suppliers?
- No. It creates an approved, unpaid bill and a payment proposal. A finance approver reviews the proposal and the payment is made in your bank or payment system. Keeping payment outside the workflow is deliberate, because releasing money is the step you most want a person to own.
- What is a three-way match?
- A comparison of the invoice, the purchase order and the receipt for goods or services. If the quantities and prices agree within the tolerance you set, the invoice passes. If not, the differences are shown to a person. The workflow runs the comparison and a person decides on the exceptions.
- How does it catch a changed bank account?
- It compares the bank details printed on each invoice with the details on the supplier record. Any difference stops that invoice and routes it to a named finance person. The workflow never updates the supplier record itself. A phone call to a known number is still the safer check, and that part is yours.
- Can one person approve both steps?
- The platform does not stop that. Separation of duties is not enforced today, so you enforce it by assigning different people to the coding gate and the payment gate. The run records who decided each one, so a review can see whether the rule was followed.