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Client AP Automation

AP Automation is the optional bills workspace in the DayZero client portal (the /client shell). When the firm turns it on, a client can upload vendor invoices, submit expenses, approve draft bills, and see AI-ranked payment guidance — participating in accounts payable without any bookkeeping background. It's the same AP pipeline firm bookkeepers use, and the firm keeps oversight. Firm staff can preview it through Client View.

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 the firm's email pipeline, where AI extracts the vendor, amounts, and line items into a draft. The client (or firm) reviews and approves it; the approved bill flows through the rest of 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

  1. Open AP Automation in the portal sidebar (Money section). It appears only if your firm enabled it.
  2. On All Bills, scan the KPI cards and use the status tabs (Needs Review, Approved, Overdue, Paid) to focus the list.
  3. Click Upload Bill to add a PDF/PNG/JPG, or Submit Expense to use the guided expense modal — AI drafts the bill.
  4. For a bill marked Needs Review, click Approve to advance it; open the row to see details and the source document.
  5. 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 slice of that pipeline.

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.