The fully automated vendor invoice processing workflow starts when an invoice email arrives in the AP inbox and ends when the invoice is either queued for payment or routed to an approver — with no human touching the invoice between those two points for clean matches. The workflow is: email arrives → AI reads the PDF attachment and extracts structured data → ERP is queried for the matching PO and goods receipt → 3-way match is performed → clean invoices are approved and queued → discrepant invoices are routed to the correct approver with all context attached.
The Email-to-ERP Pipeline
The Gmail or Outlook trigger monitors the AP inbox for new emails with invoice attachments. The AI extraction model reads the attached PDF or structured invoice and produces a JSON record: vendor ID, invoice number, PO number, invoice date, line items with quantities and prices, and total amount. This structured record is used for the ERP query and matching — no manual data entry at any step.
The Accounts Payable 3-Way Match AI Agent runs the complete email-to-payment-approval pipeline automatically, processing every incoming vendor invoice from first email receipt through final match determination without AP staff involvement for clean invoices.