Automate Accounts Payable and Receivable with Custom AI Agents
Autonomous AI agents read invoices from email, extract data using OCR, and create draft bills in your accounting software. For receivables, they track aging invoices and send automated, personalized follow-up emails based on client history.
The build scope depends on your existing systems. A business using QuickBooks Online with clean vendor records is a straightforward project. It becomes more complex when processing scanned PDFs with varied layouts or integrating with a custom ERP system that has a legacy API.
We built an AP/AR agent for a 25-person creative agency processing 300 vendor invoices and 150 client invoices per month. The system went live in four weeks, reducing manual data entry from 20 hours per month to under two hours of review.
What Problem Does This Solve?
Many businesses start with accounting software add-ons like Bill.com. These tools are effective for standard digital invoices but falter with complexity. They often misread line items on multi-page scanned PDFs, forcing manual correction on 15-20% of documents. Their per-invoice or per-user pricing models also penalize businesses with high transaction volumes, turning efficiency into a recurring cost.
A 15-person services firm we worked with was managing AP/AR manually with QuickBooks and Gmail. Their bookkeeper spent 10 hours every week downloading PDF invoices, keying in data, and then running aging reports to chase late payments. This manual process led to errors and delays. Last quarter, a $4,500 invoice was paid 30 days late simply because it was buried in a crowded inbox.
These off-the-shelf tools and manual workflows are rigid. They cannot handle business-specific logic. For example, they cannot automatically hold payment to a subcontractor until a specific client project milestone is marked complete in Asana or Jira. This forces you to build fragile, multi-step manual checklists outside the system, defeating the purpose of automation.
How Does It Work?
We start by deploying an AWS Lambda function connected to a dedicated inbox, like invoices@yourcompany.com. The function uses the Claude 3 Sonnet API to read incoming emails and their attachments (PDF, PNG, JPG). Claude extracts invoice number, amount, due date, and line items with over 99% accuracy on typed documents. The entire process, from email receipt to structured data extraction, completes in under 8 seconds.
The extracted data is written to a Supabase database for validation against your existing vendor list. A simple FastAPI service provides a web interface where your team can review and approve extracted data with one click. We build in custom validation rules, such as flagging all invoices over $5,000 for mandatory partner approval or cross-referencing a project code against your project management system's API before queuing for payment.
For accounts receivable, a second AWS Lambda function runs a scheduled daily job. It connects to the QuickBooks or Xero API to pull an AR aging report, identifying invoices overdue by 7, 30, and 60 days. Using the Claude API, the agent drafts personalized reminder emails that can reference the specific project name or the client’s last payment date to avoid sounding generic. The daily AR run for 200 open invoices completes in under 90 seconds.
These reminders are sent through your existing Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 account, so they come from a familiar address. Every action, from data extraction to a sent reminder, is logged with `structlog` into a Supabase table, creating a complete audit trail. The total monthly cloud cost for this entire AP/AR system is typically under $30.
What Are the Key Benefits?
Invoice Processing in Under 8 Seconds
Reduce data entry from minutes to seconds per invoice. The agent extracts, validates, and drafts a bill automatically, freeing up hours of manual work each week.
No Per-Invoice or Per-Seat Fees
We deliver the system for a one-time build cost, followed by an optional flat monthly maintenance fee. Your costs are predictable, not a penalty for growth.
Full Code Ownership in Your GitHub
You receive the complete Python source code, API documentation, and database schema. There is no vendor lock-in; your engineers can modify and extend the system.
Alerts for Low-Confidence Data
If the AI's confidence score for an extracted field falls below 95%, the system sends a Slack alert with a link for immediate manual review, preventing errors.
Connects Directly to Your Stack
Direct API integrations with QuickBooks, Xero, Asana, and your email provider. The agent works with your tools, requiring no new platforms for your team to learn.
What Does the Process Look Like?
Systems Access & Workflow Mapping (Week 1)
You provide read-only access to your accounting software and a dedicated email inbox. We map your current AP/AR process, including all approval rules and exceptions.
Core Agent Development (Week 2)
We build the Claude API pipeline for invoice extraction and the logic for AR reminders. You receive a link to a staging server to test extraction on 20 sample invoices.
Integration & Deployment (Week 3)
We connect the agent to your live accounting system and email. The system begins processing live documents in a 'dry-run' mode for your final approval before going fully live.
Monitoring & Handoff (Week 4+)
We monitor the live system for 30 days to tune accuracy and handle edge cases. You receive the full source code in your GitHub and a runbook detailing system operations.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What does a typical AP/AR agent build cost?
- Pricing depends on the number of unique invoice formats and the complexity of your approval logic. A simple system for a business using QuickBooks with standard PDF invoices is a straightforward project. Integrating with a custom ERP or handling handwritten invoices requires more development. We provide a fixed-price quote after a discovery call.
- What happens if an invoice is read incorrectly?
- The agent assigns a confidence score to every extracted field. If any score is below a 95% threshold, it flags the invoice for manual review in a simple web UI. It never blindly pushes uncertain data. This ensures a human is always in the loop for ambiguous cases, preventing errors before they happen in your accounting system.
- How is this different from a tool like Dext or Hubdoc?
- Dext and Hubdoc are excellent for receipt capture and basic invoice processing. Syntora builds agents that execute your specific business logic. For example, we can build an agent that cross-references an invoice's project code with your time-tracking system to verify billable hours before approving payment, a step that pre-built tools cannot perform.
- Can the agent handle multi-currency invoices?
- Yes. The Claude-based extraction model identifies currency symbols or codes (USD, CAD, EUR). We integrate with a real-time exchange rate API to convert all amounts to your base currency before creating the draft bill in your accounting software. The original currency and amount are always stored for auditing purposes.
- How does the agent get access to our email?
- We use secure, standard protocols like OAuth 2.0 for Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. You grant specific, limited permissions (e.g., read-only access to a single inbox) to a service account. The agent never gets access to employee mailboxes, and all credentials are stored in AWS Secrets Manager, not in the code.
- Can this system handle employee expense reports?
- While the core technology of reading receipts is similar, this build is optimized for vendor invoices and client receivables. An expense reporting system involves different logic, such as per-diem rules, mileage calculations, and multi-level manager approvals. This would be a separate, custom-scoped project. To discuss your expense process, book a discovery call at cal.com/syntora/discover.
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