Vendor inquiries
Where’s my payment? Did you get my invoice? Answered from your ledger, in your words, with the remittance attached once it’s paid. Bank changes and disputes go to your AP lead.
The answer is in the ledger. Now the vendor gets it too.
Here’s a typical run, step by step: what automation handles, what the agent does, and the calls that stay with your team.
Step 1 of 5Read the email
The agent
Reads the email from Quillon Couriers: they want to know when INV-8821 for $3,460 will be paid, and attached a statement.
Vendors ask the same thing a dozen ways, often with the invoice number buried in a statement.
- AP inbox
- AP log
~14 hours a month back
Step 2 of 5Look it up
Automation
Looks up INV-8821 in accounting: received September 12, approved, and in Thursday’s payment run.
Status, approval and payment run are fields in accounting. Finding them is a lookup.
- Accounting
- AP log
~12 hours a month back
Where teams differPayment runs differ: weekly for some teams, twice a month for others, with checks on their own schedule.
Step 3 of 5Write the reply
The agent
Writes back that INV-8821 is approved and goes out in Thursday’s run, in the wording your AP team uses.
The reply has to answer this vendor’s exact question, not paste a status code.
- AP log
~16 hours a month back
Where teams differHow much a vendor hears varies: the run date for some, just “approved” for others until the remittance goes.
Step 4 of 5Hold the risky ones
Automation
Stops the Ostrander Metals email asking to be paid into a new bank account, and sends it to the AP lead with the vendor record.
Bank changes are on your list of topics that never get an automatic reply.
Your teamIf bank details change
Calls Ostrander on the number already on file to confirm the change, or marks the email as a likely scam.
Fake bank-change emails are a common fraud. A call to a known number is the check that works.
- AP log
- Vendor records
~4 hours a month back
Step 5 of 5Send and log
Automation
Sends the reply from your AP address and logs the question and the answer on the vendor’s record.
A finished reply goes out from one address and is logged in one place. No choice is left in it.
- AP log
- Vendor records
~6 hours a month back
What changes
Vendors hear where their invoice stands from the ledger itself. The AP lead picks up only bank changes, disputes and anything the ledger can’t answer.
- 3steps automated
- 2steps for the agent
- 1call kept with your team
Pick any step to see what happens there and why it sits in that lane.
What it could be worth
~52 hours a month back
$28,100 a year in time
For an AP team answering about 600 vendor emails a month, at $45 an hour. We work out yours from your own volumes before you sign.
Let’s build your agentOne proven agent, plugged into how you work.
Every team does this job a little differently, so we set these five with the people who do it today. We’ve done this in dozens of businesses, so we know where teams usually differ and ask about those first.
The agent
Same for every client- Follows the same proven steps
- A person on every exception
- Every decision logged
- Tested on your past work first
- Never changes a vendor’s bank details
-
Your systems
Where the work comes in, and where the result goes.
For this agentYour AP inbox or vendor portal, with invoices and payments from your accounting system.
-
Your rules
The limits and exceptions it works to.
For this agentWhat it may tell a vendor, like payment run dates, and the topics that always go to a person.
-
Your team
Who signs off, and who covers when they’re away.
For this agentThe AP lead for bank changes and disputes, the controller for requests to pay early.
-
Your channels
Where your team hears from it.
For this agentReplies from your AP address, Slack or Teams when something is held.
-
Your output
What it hands back, in the format you already use.
For this agentA reply with the invoice’s status and the remittance attached, logged on the vendor.
Setting up new vendors and matching their invoices to purchase orders are other agents in the catalog. Paying anyone early stays with your team.
The agent, and everything that keeps it working.
- The agentRunning on your systems, under your rules.
- The review screenWhere the exceptions land for your AP lead and team.
- Your rulebookYour limits, exceptions and who signs off, in one place, often for the first time.
- A test reportYour past vendor emails, run through it and checked against the number.
- The runbookHow it works, what to check, and what to do if it stops.
- 30 days of tuningAfter it goes live, through a full month of your real vendor emails.
Vendor emails still waiting for an answer at the end of each day. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.
Live in 3 to 6 weeks. About seven hours of your time.
We do the building. Your side: access, three months of emails from your AP inbox and the replies your team sent, and a short weekly check-in.
Then 30 days of tuning, with a short check-in each week, about two hours of yours. At day 30 we show you the number and hand everything over.
It keeps running whether or not we stay.
It runs in your accounts
Your cloud, your systems, and an AI account in your name, billed by the provider at their rates.
Changes in the first 30 days are included
A new rule, a changed limit, someone new signing off. That’s what tuning is for.
After that, your call
Your team edits the rulebook, the care plan covers it, or a bigger change is quoted first.
About this agent.
What if a vendor asks to change their bank details?
Will it tell a vendor when they’ll be paid?
Does it work with a vendor portal?
Our process isn’t quite like this. Will it still work?
How do we agree the number?
What does it cost to run once it’s live?
Who answers “where’s my payment?” today?
Tell us how your team handles vendor emails today. We’ll show you this agent on examples like yours, and whether it fits the fixed price.
- 3 to 6 weeksto live, then 30 days of tuning
- $12,500fixed, per agent
- Yours to keepno license fees