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Business Operations agent

Vendor onboarding

No new vendor reaches a payment run without its tax form, your checks and confirmed bank details. It gathers the paperwork and sets the vendor up, and a person confirms any new bank account.

  • $12,500 fixed
  • Live in 3 to 6 weeks
  • Yours to keep
Let’s build your agent How it works
The review screen for Vendor onboarding: four items, three done, and one (Name mismatch) waiting for the AP lead, who is asked: The W-9 and the bank letter name different companies. Call Halvorsen to confirm?
How it works

Two names on the paperwork? Someone calls before you pay.

Here’s a typical run, step by step: what automation handles, what the agent does, and the calls that stay with your team.

The workflow for Vendor onboarding, in 5 steps. It starts with “A new vendor is requested” and ends with “A vendor ready to pay”. Each step lists what automation, the agent and your team do there.
Vendor onboardingA typical run
Starts withA new vendor is requestedThe facilities manager asks to add Halvorsen Electric for a warehouse lighting job, by form or email.
Automation: Emails Halvorsen your form for the W-9, remittance address and bank details, and follows up in two days if nothing comes back.
~8h/mo

Step 1 of 5Ask for the paperwork

  • Automation

    Emails Halvorsen your form for the W-9, remittance address and bank details, and follows up in two days if nothing comes back.

    The form and the follow-up are the same for every new vendor.

Reads
  • Vendor requests
Writes
  • Email

~8 hours a month back

Where teams differLarger teams often collect all of this through a supplier portal. Email and PDFs work too.

The agent: Takes the legal name, tax ID, address and bank details off the W-9 and the bank letter, even when they arrive as a phone photo.
~12h/mo

Step 2 of 5Read what comes back

  • The agent

    Takes the legal name, tax ID, address and bank details off the W-9 and the bank letter, even when they arrive as a phone photo.

    W-9s come typed, handwritten or scanned sideways, and no two banks lay out a letter the same way.

Reads
  • Email
Writes
  • Vendor file

~12 hours a month back

Automation: Matches the name and tax ID through the IRS TIN check, looks for the vendor already in accounting, and screens the sanctions list.
The agent: Notices the bank letter says Halvorsen Electrical Services LLC while the W-9 says Halvorsen Electric Inc.
~8h/mo

Step 3 of 5Run the checks

  • Automation

    Matches the name and tax ID through the IRS TIN check, looks for the vendor already in accounting, and screens the sanctions list.

    A tax ID match, a duplicate search and a sanctions screen each come back yes or no.

  • The agent

    Notices the bank letter says Halvorsen Electrical Services LLC while the W-9 says Halvorsen Electric Inc.

    Two similar names may be one company or two, and only the paperwork itself can tell you which.

Reads
  • Accounting
  • Sanctions list
Writes
  • Vendor file

~8 hours a month back

Where teams differWhich checks run depends on where you pay. US teams use the IRS TIN check, others their own tax registry.

Automation: Anything that adds or changes a bank account waits for the AP lead, with the W-9, the bank letter and the mismatch side by side.
IfYour team: Calls Halvorsen on a number already known, not the one in the email, confirms the account and the legal name, then approves.
~3h/mo

Step 4 of 5Confirm the bank

  • Automation

    Anything that adds or changes a bank account waits for the AP lead, with the W-9, the bank letter and the mismatch side by side.

    Which changes always need a person is written down, so the hold never rests on the agent’s judgment.

  • Your teamIf it adds a bank account

    Calls Halvorsen on a number already known, not the one in the email, confirms the account and the legal name, then approves.

    A fake bank letter is a common way payment fraud starts, and a call to a known number is the standard check.

Reads
  • Vendor file
Writes
  • Vendor file

~3 hours a month back

Where teams differMany teams also verify the account through their bank, on top of the call.

Automation: Adds Halvorsen to accounting with the W-9, payment terms and bank details on file, and tells facilities it’s ready.
~5h/mo

Step 5 of 5Set it up

  • Automation

    Adds Halvorsen to accounting with the W-9, payment terms and bank details on file, and tells facilities it’s ready.

    Once the AP lead has approved, creating the record is the same fields in the same order.

Reads
  • Vendor file
Writes
  • Accounting
  • Team chat

~5 hours a month back

Ends withA vendor ready to paySet up in accounting with the W-9, terms and confirmed bank details on file, and facilities told.
Total~36h/mo

What changes

The W-9 is chased and read and the checks are run, without anyone retyping a bank letter. The AP lead confirms each new bank account with one call.

  • 4steps 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

~36 hours a month back

$21,600 a year in time

For an AP team setting up about 30 new vendors a month, at $50 an hour. We work out yours from your own volumes before you sign.

Let’s build your agent
What we customize with you

One 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 adds or changes bank details without a person

  1. Your systems

    Where the work comes in, and where the result goes.

    For this agentVendor requests from your inbox or forms, vendor records into your accounting system.

  2. Your rules

    The limits and exceptions it works to.

    For this agentWhich documents you need, the checks you run, and your standard payment terms.

  3. Your team

    Who signs off, and who covers when they’re away.

    For this agentThe AP lead for bank details, the controller for anything that looks unusual.

  4. Your channels

    Where your team hears from it.

    For this agentEmail to vendors, Slack or Teams for your team.

  5. Your output

    What it hands back, in the format you already use.

    For this agentA vendor record with every document attached, ready for the next payment run.

It sets vendors up. Reviewing a vendor’s risk and approving new software are other agents in the catalog, and paying anyone stays with your team.

What you get

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 new vendors, 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 new vendors.
The number we agree

Days from a vendor being requested to being ready to pay. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.

How we get there

Live in 3 to 6 weeks. About seven hours of your time.

We do the building. Your side: access, your vendor setup checklist and a few recent setups, and a short weekly check-in.

  1. Before kickoff

    We send the access checklist.

    You, 2 hours. Access, an owner, and your vendor setup checklist and a few recent setups.

  2. Weeks 1 to 2

    We connect your systems and set it up.

    You, 1 hour. Walk us through your rules.

  3. Weeks 2 to 4

    We test it on your past new vendors.

    You, 1 hour. Review what it flagged.

  4. Weeks 3 to 6

    It runs beside your team, then goes live.

    You, 1¼ hours. Work from the review screen.

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.

After it’s live

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.

Questions

About this agent.

What if a vendor never fills in the form?
It follows up on the schedule you set, then tells the requester who is waiting on what. Nothing is set up until the paperwork is in.
Can it handle bank changes on vendors we already have?
It can take the request and gather the paperwork, but a change to bank details always waits for a person, who calls a number you already have on file.
What about vendors outside the US?
It collects the tax form that applies, such as a W-8BEN-E, and runs the checks you use for that country.
Our process isn’t quite like this. Will it still work?
That’s the usual case. The job looks the same in most businesses, but the details never do. We map how your team does it today, then set the rules, systems and approvals to match. That’s what most of the 3 to 6 weeks are for.
How do we agree the number?
Together, before any work starts. For this agent it’s the days from a vendor being requested to being ready to pay. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.
What does it cost to run once it’s live?
Hosting and AI, paid straight to the providers, not through us. It usually runs 5x to 25x cheaper than doing the same work by hand, and we work out your figure from your real volumes before you sign.

Who checks a new vendor’s bank details today?

Tell us how your team handles new vendors today. We’ll show you this agent on examples like yours, and whether it fits the fixed price.

Let’s build your agentBack to Business Operations
New to Switchboard Agents? How it works, what’s included, and what it costs.
  • 3 to 6 weeksto live, then 30 days of tuning
  • $12,500fixed, per agent
  • Yours to keepno license fees
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