Client AP Automation

Client AP Automation (when enabled) lets clients upload bills, submit expenses, Approve drafts, and read AI Payment Guidance — the same AP workflow the firm uses, with firm oversight throughout.

Key capabilities

Dedicated AP Automation page, shown only when the firm enables it
Two views: All Bills and Payment Guidance
KPI cards: Outstanding, Overdue, Needs Review, Due This Week
Status filter tabs: All Bills, Needs Review, Approved, Overdue, Paid
Upload Bill (PDF/PNG/JPG) and Submit Expense intake for AI extraction into draft bills
One-click Approve on draft bills, advancing them to the approved (forecasted) state
Bill detail slide-over with vendor, amount, balance, due date, status, number, description, and the source document
Inline document view/download for bills that carry an attachment
AI Payment Guidance that buckets bills into Pay Immediately, Pay Soon, Schedule, and Can Defer with plain-English reasoning
Contract-match flags (Over Contract / Needs Review) surfaced on guidance items
Overdue rows highlighted

How it works

A bill enters the queue by upload, expense submission, or a forwarded invoice email, where AI extracts the vendor, amounts, and line items into a draft. The client (or firm) reviews and approves it; the approved bill continues through the firm's AP process toward payment.

flowchart TD
  intake["Upload / Submit Expense / forwarded email"] --> ai["AI extraction"]
  ai --> draft["Draft bill (Needs Review)"]
  draft --> approve{"Approve?"}
  approve -->|"Yes"| approved["Approved (forecasted)"]
  approve -->|"Hold"| draft
  approved --> pay["Firm AP process -> payment"]
  guidance["Payment Guidance"] --> draft

How to use it

Open AP Automation in the portal sidebar (Money section). It appears only if your firm enabled it.
On All Bills, scan the KPI cards and use the status tabs (Needs Review, Approved, Overdue, Paid) to focus the list.
Click Upload Bill to add a PDF/PNG/JPG, or Submit Expense to use the guided expense modal — AI drafts the bill.
For a bill marked Needs Review, click Approve to advance it; open the row to see details and the source document.
Switch to Payment Guidance to see bills grouped by urgency with reasoning and contract-match flags.

Pro tips

Firm-side: enable AP Automation (Settings → Client Access) for clients who receive lots of vendor invoices — it offloads intake and first-pass approval while you keep final control.
Firm-side: keep vendor contracts current so the guidance's Over Contract / Needs Review flags are meaningful rather than noise.
Client-side: you don't need accounting knowledge — uploading or forwarding an invoice is enough; AI does the data entry.
Client-side: work the Needs Review tab first; those are the drafts waiting on a human before they can move toward payment.
Client-side: use Payment Guidance to decide what to pay now versus defer — it ranks by overdue, due-this-week, due-this-month, and deferrable.

In-depth guide

What the client can see vs. do

Action	Allowed?
View bills, metrics, and documents	Yes
Upload a bill / submit an expense	Yes (feeds AI extraction)
Approve a draft bill	Yes (draft → forecasted)
Read AI payment guidance	Yes
Record payments / edit posted bills	Firm-side

Bill statuses

Status	Label shown	Meaning
Draft	Needs Review	AI-extracted draft awaiting approval
Forecasted	Approved	Approved and scheduled in the AP plan
Received	Awaiting Payment	Approved and due to be paid
Partially paid	Partially Paid	Some payment applied
Paid / manual paid	Paid / Manual Paid	Settled (online or recorded manually)
Canceled	Canceled	Withdrawn

A row is also tagged Overdue when its due date has passed and it isn't paid or canceled.

Payment Guidance buckets

Bucket	Includes
Pay Immediately — Overdue	Bills already past due
Pay Soon — Due This Week	Bills due within seven days
Schedule — Due This Month	Bills due later this month
Can Defer	Lower-priority bills that can wait

Each item carries the balance, due date, a short reasoning line, and a contract-match badge when the bill is Over Contract or Needs Review.

Access control

Gate: the whole page is gated by the firm's AP Automation setting (off by default).
When off: the sidebar entry is hidden and clients view bills read-only under Invoices & Bills instead.
When on: the upload, expense, and approve actions become available to client-portal users.

How firm-side data flows in

Shared records: intake (uploads, expenses, forwarded emails) and AI extraction populate the same bill records the firm sees in the Books AP workspace, so a client approval is immediately visible to the firm.
Larger policies: tiered routing, thresholds, and the firm's Pending Approvals queue are handled by the firm's AP Approval Workflow; this page is the client's entry point into that process.

Edge cases

No business selected: the page shows "No business selected."
No bills: the list shows "No bills yet." (or "No bills match your filters." when a filter/search is active).
No guidance: the Payment Guidance view shows "No recommendations available." when there's nothing to rank.