All case studiesThe droid that runs bills & approvals

Bills, handled before they’re late.

A droid that owns the inbound side of the books: it captures every incoming bill, matches it to the purchase order, routes it to the right approver, schedules the payment, and flags the duplicates and odd charges before a cent goes out — so nothing’s paid twice, late, or unseen.

0 late fees
every bill captured and scheduled on time
Auto-matched
invoices reconciled to POs without manual keying
Every anomaly
duplicates and odd charges caught before payment
Does
Captures bills, routes approvals, schedules pay
Where
Growing startup, ~30 people
Reaches people on
Slack, email
Works inside
Gmail, QuickBooks
Runs
On every bill + a weekly pay run
The situation

Bills aren't hard — they just need handling, promptly, every time.

Bills arrived everywhere — the AP inbox, a forwarded email, a PDF in someone’s DMs — and getting them keyed in, matched to a purchase order, and approved was a manual relay that stalled the moment one person was busy. Approvals sat in inboxes; the occasional duplicate or inflated charge slipped through unchecked.

The result was late fees on bills nobody saw in time and the nagging worry that something had been paid twice. None of it was complicated — it just needed doing, promptly and every time, which is precisely what a busy 30-person company can’t guarantee by hand.

Isometric accounts-payable scene: an in-tray of bills, an invoice matched to a purchase order, an approval stamp and a payment calendar
How it works

How the droid took it on.

Rather than relay bills by hand, the team handed payables over. The moment a bill lands the droid captures it, matches it to its PO, routes the approval, and schedules payment — holding anything duplicate or odd before it’s paid.

TASK#198Bills & approvalsstanding
trigger
Any vendor bill landing in the AP inbox
also
A weekly pay run and AP digest
scope
Every incoming invoice
runs as
A contained droid action per bill
memory
Each vendor's normal amounts, terms, and PO history

Set up once, in plain language — “capture every bill, match it to its PO, route it to the right approver, schedule it on time, and stop anything duplicate or odd before it's paid.” The droid turned that into a standing job — the AP clerk a 30-person company hasn't hired.

Every incoming bill trips the same loop:

Ongoing handling

How it ran, bill after bill.

Here’s a week of payables as it actually unfolded — down to how it reached for each app. Only the one anomaly ever needed the controller.

  1. Mon 9:40ambill · Acme Hosting
    • Gmail
    • QuickBooks

    Captured a $2,400 bill, matched it to its PO, entered it, and routed it for one-tap approval.

  2. Mon 2:15pmapproval · Acme Hosting
    • QuickBooks
    • Slack

    Once approved, scheduled the payment for the due date and logged the sign-off.

  3. Tue 10:30amduplicate · Globex
    • QuickBooks
    • Slack

    Caught a re-sent invoice number and held the duplicate before it could be paid twice.

  4. Wed 11:00amanomaly · Vendor Xescalated
    • QuickBooks
    • Slack

    Held a bill ~3× the vendor's norm with no PO and escalated it to the controller.

  5. Fri 4:00pmweekly pay run
    • QuickBooks

    Batched 11 approved, scheduled bills ($31k) and queued the payments — zero late.

  6. Fri 4:05pmAP digest

    The week reconciled — 11 scheduled, 1 duplicate held, 1 anomaly escalated, 2 awaiting approval.

See it in action

One week, bill by bill.

Incoming bills, an approval, and the weekly pay run land on the left. Watch the droid pick up each one and work it across the inbox and the ledger — pulling in a human only for the charge that doesn't add up.

Bills used to land in five different places and stall until someone chased the approval. Now every one is captured, matched to its PO, and routed the moment it arrives — and I trust that nothing's paid late, twice, or without a second look. It's the AP clerk we hadn't hired.
Rachel S.Controller, 30-person startup

An illustrative workflow based on real product mechanics. Tool names and behaviour reflect how a droid actually triggers on events and calls connected apps; figures are directional.

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Workflow brief
I'm the controller at a growing 30-person startup, and bills arrive everywhere — the AP inbox, forwarded emails, PDFs in DMs. Getting them keyed in, matched to a PO, and approved is a manual relay that stalls whenever someone's busy. Approvals sit in inboxes, the odd duplicate or inflated charge slips through, and we get late fees on bills nobody saw in time.

Own accounts payable. Apps/channels: Gmail (the AP inbox where bills land), QuickBooks (bills, the ledger, payment scheduling), Slack #finance (approvals and the digest).

Run on every incoming bill, plus a weekly pay run and digest. For each bill:
1. Read it and extract the vendor, amount, due date, and line items.
2. Match it to its purchase order and enter it as a draft bill, coded to the right account.
3. If it's over the approval threshold, route it to the right approver in Slack with one-tap approve.
4. Once approved, schedule the payment for the due date (not early) and log the approval for the audit trail.

Use judgment on what's clean: route and schedule the normal bills, hold and flag any duplicate invoice number before it's paid twice, and for an anomaly — a charge well above the vendor's norm or with no PO — hold it and bring in the controller. On the weekly pay run, batch the approved, scheduled bills and post an AP digest. Remember each vendor's normal amounts, terms, and PO history.

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