Governed AI agents, explained
The five controls every agent runs under, and how governed agents compare with RPA bots and chatbots.
Read the explainerAI agent for accounts payable Invoices coded and routed. Finance still approves every payment.
The accounts payable agent captures vendor invoices from your AP inbox, codes them using your rules and routes each one to the named approver. It also sets up new vendors with tax and insurance documents collected. Finance approves every payment, and the agent never releases funds.
vendor invoice
Illustrative
- Invoice arrivesYour AP inbox, vendor portal or upload
- Agent matches and codes itAgainst the purchase order, contract and past invoices
- Policy checkOver-threshold amounts and changed bank details are flagged
- Controller approves ApprovedNamed approver, with the match and evidence attached
- Agent queues it for paymentPosted to your accounting system for the next payment run
- Logged and confirmedAudit trail kept, vendor updated, exceptions reported
What it does
From invoice received to ready for payment, step by step.
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01
Capture
Reads each invoice as it lands in your AP inbox, in the layouts vendors actually send, and picks out the vendor, amounts, dates and lines.
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02
Match and code
Matches it against the purchase order, contract and past invoices, then codes it using your rules.
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03
Check policy
Flags over-threshold amounts, changed bank details and anything that doesn't match before it goes further.
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04
Route for approval
Sends it to the named approver with the match and evidence attached. Nothing moves until that person approves.
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05
Queue and log
Posts the approved invoice to your accounting system for the next payment run and logs every step.
New vendors
- Collects tax and insurance documents from the vendor
- Prepares the vendor record for finance to review
- Stops for finance to approve every new vendor
- Treats any bank detail change as a stop for a person
When an invoice doesn't fit
- Unclear, incomplete or out-of-catalog invoices go to a person
- The details travel with it, so nobody starts from scratch
- The agent asks instead of guessing
- Every exception appears in the monthly report
Where finance approves
The agent prepares the work. Finance approves the money.
These rules are written into the design and approved by your finance team before anything is built.
- Finance approves every payment. The agent never releases funds. It prepares and queues approved invoices, and a person in finance decides what is paid.
- New vendors stop for a person. A vendor isn't set up until finance approves it.
- Bank detail changes stop for a person. Finance reviews every change, with the request and evidence attached.
- Approvers and thresholds are written down. The design names who approves what, at which threshold and with what evidence.
- Actions come from an approved catalog. The agent only acts on the systems and actions you have approved. Anything new goes through you first.
- Every step is logged. Each action, approval and exception is recorded against the invoice in your accounting system.
What it connects to
The systems your AP team already uses.
- Your ERP or accounting system
- Your AP inbox
- Your approval tool
The agent works in the systems you run today rather than a new platform your team has to learn. We confirm the systems, access and approval path in the written design, and access is granted through your own controls, limited to what the design calls for.
What you get
A working agent and everything behind it.
- A written design and approval matrix
- The agent deployed in your cloud and model accounts
- An audit log and a monthly report on activity, approvals and exceptions
- Source code and runbook in your Git
How it's measured
Four measures, baselined before anything is built.
We size the agent on these measures in the Opportunity Scan and design. After go-live, the monthly report tracks the same measures against your baseline.
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01
Hours returned
Time your team spends receiving, keying, coding and chasing approvals today, and how much of it the agent takes on.
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02
Cycle time
How long an invoice takes from received to approved and ready for payment, and how long a new vendor takes to set up.
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03
Risk and leakage
What slips today: late fees, invoices sitting unapproved and bank detail changes that need a second look.
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04
Cost against the alternative
The fixed-fee build and monthly run compared with hiring, outsourcing or leaving payables as they are.
Agent or AP software
How this differs from AP automation software.
Is an AP agent just old software with new branding? It's a fair question. Invoice capture, matching rules and approval workflows have been around for years, and AP automation products handle them well for many teams. The difference is less about the technology and more about what you buy, where it works and who runs it.
| Question | AP automation software | A governed AP agent |
|---|---|---|
| What you buy | A software product and its workflow | A service built and run around your workflow |
| Where the work happens | In the product, connected to your accounting system | In your accounting system, AP inbox and approval tool |
| Who runs it | Your team, with the vendor's support | We do, every month: monitoring, tuning and updates |
| Fits best when | Your process fits the way the product works | Invoices vary, exceptions are common or the work spans several systems |
| Ownership | Licensed from the vendor | Source code in your Git, running in your accounts |
If a packaged product already fits your process and your team has time to run it, that may be the simpler answer. For how agents compare with RPA bots and chatbots, see governed AI agents, explained.
Questions
What CFOs and controllers ask first.
Pricing follows the standard model: a fixed-fee build and a monthly run.
Will the agent ever release a payment?
No. Finance approves every payment and the agent never releases funds. It prepares, codes and routes invoices, and a person in finance decides what is paid.
What happens when a vendor changes its bank details?
The change stops for a person. Finance reviews it, with the request and evidence attached, before anything is updated.
Do we have to change our accounting system?
No. The agent works in your ERP or accounting system, your AP inbox and your approval tool. We confirm the systems and access in the written design.
Is this just AP automation software with new branding?
Some of the building blocks are familiar. What's different is that the agent handles varied invoices, works in the systems you already run, follows approval rules written before it's built, and is operated by us every month. You own the code and the accounts it runs on.
How do we know it's working?
We baseline hours returned, cycle time, risk and leakage, and cost against the alternative during design. The monthly report shows those measures, every approval and every exception against that baseline.
What does it cost?
A fixed fee to build and a monthly subscription to run, sized in the Opportunity Scan against the agent's business case. Hosting and model costs run in your own accounts with no markup.
Does this replace our AP team?
No. It takes receiving, keying and chasing approvals off their plate. Your team still owns the rules, approves what matters and handles anything unusual.
Go deeper
How we govern, build and run every agent.
How it works
Scan, design, build and run, with a fixed-fee build, a monthly subscription and a report against your baseline.
See the engagement modelClaude session vs. production agent
Why an invoice coded in someone's chat session isn't the same as an agent running in production.
See the side by sideManaged Intelligence Opportunity Scan
See what your payables process is really costing.
In 30 minutes, we'll walk through how invoices and new vendors move today, where finance approves, and what an agent would change. No commitment to build.