Supplier payment queries get an answer the same day, straight from the ledger

The AI reads each supplier email, looks up the invoices and payments in SAP and replies with the facts. Disputes reach your payables team with a draft reply.

Used day to day by
  • Payables team
  • Financial controllers

How it runs with AI

The AI reads each supplier email as it arrives, finds the invoices it mentions in SAP and replies the same day with the payment date, the bank reference and any TDS deducted. When an invoice is on hold or the supplier disputes an amount, the payables team gets the case with the facts gathered and a draft reply.

How it is done today

Suppliers email the payables mailbox to ask when an invoice will be paid or why a payment came in short. Someone looks up each invoice in SAP, traces the payment and works out the deductions, often after a call to the plant that received the goods. Replies take days, and suppliers write again in the meantime.

Step by step

Where the work happens, what the AI does, and where it hands over to a person.

  1. Step 1, AI

    Reads every supplier email in the payables mailbox

    Needs to know: Registered vendor emails

    In Outlook

  2. Step 2, AI

    Picks out the supplier, the invoices and the question

    Needs to know: Vendor codes by supplier

    In Outlook , SAP S/4HANA

  3. Step 3, AI

    Looks up the invoices and payments in SAP

    Needs to know: Hold reasons, Deduction rules

    In SAP S/4HANA

  4. Step 4, AI

    Replies the same day with the facts from the ledger

    Needs to know: Approved reply wording, Payables contact person

    In Outlook

    Exception to step 4

    Sends held invoices and disputes to the payables team with a draft reply

  5. Step 5, Person

    Settles the held invoice with the plant and the supplier

    In SAP S/4HANA , Outlook

What stays with a person

  • Settles the held invoice with the plant and the supplier

Apps in this example

  • Outlook
  • SAP S/4HANA

The same flow works with the apps you use.

This fits you if

  • Your payables mailbox gets more than 300 supplier emails a month
  • Most of them ask when an invoice will be paid or why a payment came in short
  • Invoices are posted in SAP at several plants or entities
  • Suppliers often write a second time before they hear back

What to watch for

  • The assistant states only what SAP shows, such as posted invoices, approved payment runs, bank references and deductions. Requests to pay early or to release a held invoice go to your payables team, who decide
  • The assistant replies only to email addresses registered for that vendor in SAP, so each supplier sees just its own account
  • Requests to change bank details go straight to the payables team for a call-back check, since they are a common route for fraud
  • Every reply says it comes from an automated assistant and names a person in payables to contact

Read more

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