Prerequisites: a Finance workspace with a channel, and the email support playbook if you want vendors to keep using the address they already have.
What good looks like
1
Point the AP inbox at the channel
Every channel has an inbound email address. Forward
ap@ or invoices@ to it and vendor email arrives as tickets, with attachments intact, without asking a single supplier to change anything.Two details that matter:- Set the outbound sender so replies come from your AP address rather than a Ravenna one. Vendors filter on the address they know.
- Vendors become guest requesters. They can see their own ticket and nothing else. That is the behavior you want, and it means you do not need to think about their access.
Learn more in email support
2
Separate the two kinds of work with categories, not channels
The Finance desk handles two flows that look nothing alike:
One channel, two categories. Splitting them into separate channels means the invoice one goes unwatched during a busy month.
Learn more about choosing between channels, views, and categories
3
Let the agent take the policy questions
This is where the volume is. “Can I expense this”, “what is the per diem”, “which card do I use”, “when do reimbursements land” are all answerable from documents, and they are the requests Finance least wants to answer individually.Index the expense policy, the travel policy, the card policy, and the payment calendar as text. A scanned PDF of the policy is invisible to the agent, which is the single most common reason a Finance agent underperforms.Then set the boundary explicitly:
Answer expense and travel policy questions from the knowledge base and quote the relevant rule. Never approve an expense, confirm that something will be reimbursed, or give a figure that is not in the policy. If the answer is not documented, create a ticket for the Finance team.
Learn more in structuring knowledge for AI
4
Track invoice state with statuses you already use
Resist a custom status per accounting step. Three states cover the invoice lifecycle:
- Open, needs a human to look at it
- A pause status for invoices waiting on an internal approver or a PO match, so the SLA clock stops
- Resolved when scheduled for payment
5
Make the payment run a view
One saved view: category is Invoice, status is not resolved, due date is within the next 14 days, sorted by due date. That is the payment run, and it is current every time someone opens it.Add a second view for invoices in the pause status for more than five days. That is your list of things quietly waiting on someone internal.
Learn more about views
6
Automate the chasing, not the paying
Two workflows earn their place:
- Invoice received. Trigger on a ticket created through the email channel, set the category to Invoice, and apply the purchase approval template if the amount is above your threshold.
- Due soon and unapproved. Trigger on a due date approaching, and post to the triage channel if the approval is still pending.
Where teams get this wrong
Asking vendors to use a new address
Asking vendors to use a new address
They will not. Forward the old one.
Forgetting the outbound sender
Forgetting the outbound sender
Replies from an unfamiliar domain get filtered, and then the vendor emails again.
A status per accounting step
A status per accounting step
Twelve statuses is a taxonomy, not a workflow. Use fields and views.
Policy documents as scans
Policy documents as scans
The agent cannot read an image. This is the whole ballgame for expense questions.
Duplicate invoices
Duplicate invoices
The same invoice arrives twice from two contacts more often than you would think. Merge the tickets rather than closing one.
Learn more about merging tickets
Next
Purchase approvals
Where the invoice approval path comes from.
Email support
The full email channel setup.