Supplier ledger

The supplier ledger keeps a history of the supplier documents your bots read: invoices, credit notes and statements. Each new document is compared with what that supplier sent before. If something changed that should not have, such as the bank account, you are warned before anyone pays.

1. Switch it on

The supplier ledger is on plans that include Supplier ledger. Only a company admin can set it up and see it.

1. Go to Settings › Automation › Supplier ledger.
2. Turn on Keep a supplier ledger.
3. Set Keep documents for (in months). Older documents, their lines and statement rows are deleted. A supplier and its bank accounts are deleted this long after its last document.
4. Choose whether to Also keep documents that failed validation. A document that failed validation is always compared, so a changed bank account on it is still flagged. This only decides whether it is also kept.
5. Set Flag price increases above (%). 0 flags every increase.
6. Click Save.

Switching it off stops anything new being recorded. Documents already kept stay until they reach the end of the period you set.

2. Get documents into it

Your processes record documents. On an Extract invoice, Extract credit note or Extract statement step, switch on the supplier history option, or add a Record in the supplier history step after the extraction. The check never fails the step; its answer is put in {supplierCheck} so your process can act on it, for example by sending a flagged invoice to a person.

The option only shows on a step when your company has the ledger on.

3. What it checks

A supplier is recognised by its VAT number, then its registration number, then its name. Never by its bank account, because the bank account is what is being checked. Each document is compared with that supplier's history for:

• Bank account: changed, not yet approved, or the same account used by another supplier.
• Identity: VAT or registration number changed, or not valid.
• Duplicate invoice: the same invoice recorded before.
• Price increase above your threshold.
• Terms: payment terms, currency or tax rate changed.
• Statements: documents the statement lists that you never received, amounts that differ, recorded invoices missing from it, and an opening balance that does not follow on from the last statement.

4. Findings

Each problem is a finding, marked critical, warn or info. Open Supplier findings from the menu (or Findings on the Suppliers page) to see what is waiting. Critical comes first: a changed bank account is a reason not to pay today.

• Accept a finding when the change is real and expected.
• Dismiss it when it does not matter.
• On a bank-account finding, click Check the account.

Some findings close by themselves, for example when the bank account they are about is approved.

5. Approving a bank account

Every bank account printed on a supplier's documents is listed under Bank accounts as Approved, Waiting for approval or Rejected — do not pay. A new one waits until someone approves it.

1. Confirm the account with the supplier first. Call them on a number you already hold, never one printed on the invoice.
2. Click Show full number if you need it. Viewing it is recorded in the audit log.
3. Click Approve or reject.

Someone other than the person whose bot recorded the document must approve. In a company with only one user, that person can approve with a typed confirmation.

6. The Suppliers page

Open Suppliers from the menu. Each supplier shows its VAT and registration numbers, when it was first seen and last recorded, its findings, its bank accounts, its Price history, and the documents recorded from it, newest first.

7. Alerts

Critical findings, such as a changed bank account, a bank account shared with another supplier, a changed identifier or a duplicate invoice, alert someone straight away rather than waiting for a digest. Choose how you hear about them in Settings › Notifications under Supplier ledger. See Notifications and channels.