Accounts payable automation for firms that run AP for their clients
For CPA and outsourced accounting firms paying bills for many clients. Invoices are captured from each client's AP inbox, extracted, checked for duplicates and vendor changes, coded and routed to the client approver, then entered in QuickBooks Online, Xero or BILL. Payment release stays with a person.
- Bills coded and routed per client
- Vendor bank changes held for verification
- W-9 and 1099 data tracked all year
Where outsourced AP goes wrong
Bills arrive in thirty different ways
Each client forwards bills differently, some by email, some as photos, some in a monthly folder, and your staff key every one.
A bank change email looks routine
Business email compromise often arrives as a vendor updating its payment details. If that change is keyed without verification, the client's payment goes to a fraudster.
January turns into a W-9 scramble
Forms 1099-NEC are due to recipients and the IRS by January 31. W-9s and vendor TINs gathered in December make that deadline tight.
What AP automation handles for each client
Built per client on top of the ledger and payables tool they already use. Approvers approve, and nothing pays itself.
Per-client bill capture
Each client gets an AP address. Bills, statements and credit memos are pulled in, split when one PDF holds several, and tied to the right client.
Line-level extraction
Vendor, invoice number, dates, line items, tax and totals are read, with low-confidence fields marked for staff.
Duplicate and change checks
A repeated invoice number, the same amount on the same date, or a vendor whose remittance details changed is held before entry.
Coding from history
Account, class and location suggested from how that client coded the vendor before, with PO matching for clients that use POs.
Approval routing
Bills route to the client's approver by amount, department or vendor, with reminders before the due date.
W-9 and 1099 tracking
New vendors get a W-9 request, TIN and entity type are recorded, and 1099-reportable spend is tallied all year for January filing.
Where bills get entered and approved
QuickBooks Online and Xero
Approved bills entered with attachments through each ledger's official API.
BILL
Bills and approvers set up through BILL's API, with payment release left to the approver in BILL.
Ramp
Card transactions and receipts checked against bills for clients that run spend through Ramp.
Sage Intacct
Bills created through Sage Intacct's web services for larger clients with dimensions and entities.
Invoice processing
The extraction engine behind AP, used across industries.
Bookkeeping automation
Paid bills feed bank matching and the month-end close.
AP controls built around fraud and filing risk
Payments stay manual
We never release payments or change vendor bank details. A client approver releases each payment in BILL, the bank or the ledger.
Remittance changes need verification
Any change in a vendor's bank details stops the bill until someone confirms it through contact details already on file, never the ones in the request.
1099 data ready by January 31
Year-round W-9 tracking turns the 1099-NEC run into a review. Clients filing 10 or more information returns in total must e-file, and the data is ready for that.
Client books kept apart
Each client's bills, vendors and rules live separately, on accounts your firm controls, documented for your Safeguards Rule program.
“He got me 9 sales in my first 7 days of launching our campaign, which exceeded my expectations!”
Common questions
What is accounts payable automation?
Software that captures vendor bills, reads them, checks for duplicates and fraud signs, codes them and routes them for approval before they reach the ledger. For a CPA firm it does that separately for each client.
Does it pay vendors?
No. It prepares and routes bills. Payment is released by the client's approver in BILL, the bank or the ledger.
How does it catch a fake bank change request?
Any bill or email that changes a vendor's remittance details is held and flagged, and the bill cannot move forward until someone confirms the change with the vendor using contact details already on file.
Can it check vendor TINs before 1099 season?
It collects W-9s and records the TIN and legal name for each new vendor. If your firm uses the IRS TIN Matching program, the list is prepared for that check so mismatches surface before January.
Does it handle POs and receiving?
Yes, for clients that use them. Bills are matched to the PO and, where tracked, the receipt, and price or quantity differences are flagged for the approver.
Can each client have different approval rules?
Yes. Thresholds, approvers, departments and due-date reminders are set per client, and every change to them is logged.
Stop keying bills for every client
Take the 2-minute AI audit to see which AP clients to automate first.
- Sort clients by bill volume
We list each AP client's monthly bill count, vendors and approvers, and choose two or three with the most keying.
- Learn each client's coding
We read a year of paid bills to set vendor coding, approval rules and duplicate checks.
- Hold every bill for staff review
For the first cycles, staff check each extracted bill and its coding before it routes to the client approver.
- Onboard the next clients
Once corrections are rare, more clients are added with their own rules, and we maintain the setup monthly.