AP that approves itself (when it should)
The approval rules that separate a real AP automation from a glorified mailbox — and how to pick yours.
Most AP tools promise automation and then ask a human to click through every bill. That's not automation, that's expensive email.
The rule that changes everything
Auto-approve bills from trusted suppliers, under a threshold, coded to accounts that historically match.
Say that out loud to a finance lead and they'll nod. But it's surprisingly hard to implement in most tools because the three conditions live in three different systems.
What Synced does
When a bill hits the inbox:
- It matches the supplier against your last 12 months of purchase history.
- It checks the amount against the per-supplier threshold.
- It proposes a GL code and tracking category based on recent similar bills.
If all three check out with high confidence — it's approved, posted, and scheduled for payment. If any one of them doesn't — a human sees it.
The numbers
Across our customer base, 60–80% of bills meet those criteria once tuned. Those are the bills your team was clicking through and not adding value to.
What you still control
- Thresholds per supplier and category
- Which accounts can ever be auto-approved
- Who gets notified when an auto-approval happens
It's your policy. Synced just executes it.
