Automate payables processes with the Payables Agent

Business value

The Payables Agent in Business Central assists you by automating tedious and time-consuming accounts payables (AP) and accountant tasks, saving time and reducing errors. The agent sources vendor invoice attachments from email and SharePoint, and creates purchase invoice documents in Business Central for review. The agent uses available purchase history or the company's accounting policies to register purchase invoices. The Payables Agent allows AP professionals, clerks, and accountants to focus on more demanding tasks, boosting productivity and efficiency.

Feature details

Every company has expenses. Some relate to the supply chain, and others to operating costs like rent, utilities, leasing, food, phone bills, and software subscriptions. These operating costs, known as overhead expenses, are the first focus of the Payables Agent. They are often received as email attachments or through other channels.

Sourcing files and attachments related to purchase of overhead expenses

In the first version, the Payables Agent can source purchase attachments (PDF files) from a Microsoft 365 email account where vendors send their invoices. The agent can also import PDF files from a shared SharePoint folder where the accountant and other employees place files to be processed. These invoice documents are imported into E-Documents in Business Central for further processing. After importing the documents, the agent moves the files to an archive folder.

Processing imported purchase attachment and files

Once files are imported, Azure Document Intelligence processes them using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. The results are stored in Business Central in the E-Document. An updated PDF attachment viewer lets users validate the OCR processing by viewing the attachment in near-full screen with position overlays of captured information like amounts and descriptions.

Creating purchase invoices

When Azure Document Intelligence processes a purchase attachment, the Payables Agent creates a purchase invoice document, ready for further approval and posting. The agent uses various predictors and indicators for creating these invoices, like the company's available purchase history, accounting policies, or others specified when setting up the agent. The goal of the Payables Agent is to streamline the entire flow from identifying and importing purchase attachments, capturing relevant information to categorize the expense, registering the expense correctly in the general ledger, to creating purchase documents.

In the future, the Payables Agent will handle increasingly complex scenarios and company-defined rules, manage supply chain expenses, and match with open purchase orders, while also supporting E-Invoices received through other channels, like PEPPOL and other access points, or vendor invoices pushed into E-Documents via its native API.