Edit

Share via

Process vendor invoices with Payables Agent (preview)

[This article is prerelease documentation and is subject to change.]

This article explains how to use Payables Agent to process vendor invoices received via email. The Payables Agent uses AI to analyze incoming invoices, create drafts for review, and reduce manual corrections.

The agent monitors a designated mailbox for email from vendors or employees with attached PDF invoices. When it detects an email, it starts to create a purchase invoice and keeps you informed and involved from your role center in Business Central. Learn more in Payables Agent overview.

Important

Supported languages

The agent is validated and supported in English (EN) in the following locales: Australia (AU), Canada (CA), United Kingdom (UK), United States (US). While it can be used in other languages, it might not function as intended. Language quality might vary based on the user's interaction or system settings, which might impact accuracy and the user experience. Learn more about geographic and language availability at Copilot international availability.

Prerequisites

Payables Agent is activated, and you have permission to use it. Learn more in Set up Payables Agent.

Get started

You collaborate with Payables Agent to process invoices using the Tasks tab in the Copilot pane. To access this tab, select Shows Payables Agent icon. Payable Agent on the upper right of the navigation menu. A red circle with a number on the icon indicates the tasks that need attention.

Shows the agents task view with steps

The Shows the task view icon Tasks tab opens in the Copilot pane to display tasks recently created by the agent. Tasks that require attention—like reviewing vendor information—are at the top of the list.

For each invoice, the agent adds a task to track, review, and follow up on until the agent creates the purchase invoice. Each task has multiple steps that create a timeline of the process.

Tip

Hover over the Shows Payables Agent icon. Payable Agent icon in the role or select the Show summary for Agent icon Show summary for Payables Agent in the Task tab to get an overview of the agent's key performance indicators (KPIs) summarizing the impact of the agent's work in your organization. For example, view the number of sales quotes or orders created by the agent, the time saved by your team, and the total number of sales orders created.

Review and assist

The agent does most of the work autonomously, but it asks for user input when needed to move through the process. For example:

  • Review and confirm the vendor information.
  • Review and confirm the purchase invoice document draft.
  • Help the agent get unblocked, like by providing missing data.

Learn more about the Payables Agent and its process flow in Payables Agent process flow.

Steps that need intervention appear under Needs Attention in the Tasks tab. To review a step, follow these instructions:

  1. In the Task tab, select the step requesting review or assistance.

    The task timeline opens, focused on the selected step. The timeline displays each step of a task, past and present, in chronological order.

  2. Select Review for the step.

    The Tasks tab switches to Review mode, and the review content appears in the main display area.

  3. Review the contents and make changes as needed.

  4. When you're satisfied with the content and want the process to continue, select Confirm in the Review pane.

    If you want to complete the task yourself, select Stop to halt the agent's processing of this task. Learn more in Stop a task,

After confirmation, the agent continues with the task. When a new notification appears on the Payables Agent icon after some time, follow the same flow to review and confirm the results.

Reviewing drafts from the Inbound E-Documents page

To understand how the Payables Agent drafted the purchase invoice document, you can also go directly to the Inbound E-Documents page and open a purchase document draft.

Business Central helps you focus your review by highlighting the fields that benefit most from your attention, reducing the review effort and minimizing risk of inaccuracy.

Fields that are recommended for review display an [info] information icon.

When you select this icon or use the Alt+I keyboard shortcut on the field, Business Central reveals why the Payables Agent chose that specific field value. This information helps you determine whether a better value would be more appropriate.

You can quickly replace or correct any fields that the Payables Agent didn’t quite get right.

To complete the review and elevate the draft to a purchase invoice document, choose the Finalize draft action.

Important

Fields recommended for review are provided as a convenience, and you aren't required to inspect all of them. Always review the entire purchase document draft, especially if you're new to the Payables Agent and are learning the limitations of how the agent works with your data.

Note

While reviewing a purchase document draft, you can't use Copilot’s Autofill feature.

Stop a task

Most steps of a task include a Stop button that lets you terminate the process. When you select Stop, a task isn't terminated immediately—you're asked to confirm before the task is stopped.

Before you stop a task, consider the following behavior:

  • Stopped tasks can't be restarted.
  • Stopping the task might leave some results incomplete or unwanted, and it might require follow-up actions. Follow up actions depend on where in the process the task was stopped.
  • Stopped tasks aren't deleted immediately. You can still explore a task's timeline until it's deleted, typically by an administrator.

Payables Agent overview
Set up Payables Agent
FAQ for Payables Agent
Configure Copilot and agent capabilities