Bill Scanning, GL Coding & Approval

Scan every incoming vendor bill, auto-identify the right GL accounts, route through your approval layer, and post to your accounting tools — hands-free.

Category: Accounts Payable

Bill processing is the AP grind that never ends: a bill lands in the inbox, someone keys the vendor and amounts into the accounting system, hunts for the right GL account and cost center, chases an approver, and finally posts it. Every bill is a small data-entry project, and at volume the backlog — and the coding errors — pile up.

This OCTA Core workflow captures each bill the moment it arrives, reads it with OCR and AI to extract every field, identifies the correct GL accounts and cost centers from your chart of accounts, routes the coded bill through your approval layer, and posts the approved entry straight to your accounting tools. The team stops keying bills and starts handling only the exceptions.

The result: bills coded consistently, approvals that never stall in an inbox, and an AP ledger that stays current instead of catching up at month-end.

How it works

Each node maps to a step in the OCTA Core automation canvas. Amber-accented steps are AI-powered.

  1. Bill Received and Scanned (TRIGGER) — WHEN a bill arrives: OCTA captures each incoming vendor bill — from your AP inbox, a connected supplier portal, or an upload — and runs OCR to digitise it the moment it lands. PDFs, scans, and email attachments are all supported.
  2. Extract Bill Data (AI AGENT) — Powered by OCTA Intelligence: OCTA's AI reads the scanned bill and extracts the vendor, invoice number, dates, line items, taxes, and totals — handling varied layouts without a fixed template. Extracted fields are validated against the vendor master before moving on.
  3. Identify GL Accounts (AI AGENT) — Auto-coding: OCTA proposes the correct GL accounts and cost centers for each line — learning from your chart of accounts and how similar bills were coded before. Confident codes are applied automatically; ambiguous lines are flagged for a quick human confirmation.
  4. Approval Layer (CONDITION) — Route for sign-off: The coded bill is routed through your approval rules — by amount, vendor, category, or cost center. Bills within policy can auto-approve; anything above a threshold or outside policy is sent to the right approver before posting.
  5. Reviewer Notified and Tracked (COMMUNICATE): Approvers are notified on their preferred channel with the bill, the proposed coding, and the reason it needs review. They approve, reject, or adjust the coding — with reminders and backup escalation so nothing stalls.
  6. Posted to Accounting Tools (SYNC): Approved, coded bills are written back to your accounting system or ERP — with the GL accounts, cost centers, and period populated and an audit reference attached. No manual journal entry, no duplicate posting risk.

About the AI Coding

OCTA's AI does not rely on rigid templates or keyword rules. It reads each bill in context and learns how your team actually codes spend — which vendors map to which GL accounts, how recurring bills are split, which cost centers apply. The more bills it processes, the higher its auto-coding rate climbs and the fewer lines land in the review queue.

What You Can Customize

  • Capture source: Pull bills from your AP inbox, a connected supplier portal, or manual upload — or any combination.
  • Coding confidence: Set the confidence threshold above which OCTA applies a GL code automatically versus flagging it for confirmation.
  • Approval rules: Define your approval layer by amount, vendor, category, or cost center, with auto-approve below your policy thresholds.
  • Reviewer routing: Assign approvers by band or category and configure reminders and backup escalation for stalled bills.
  • Accounting sync mapping: Map coded bills to your accounting system's chart of accounts, cost centers, and period. Works with any connected ERP or accounting tool.

Prerequisites

  • OCTA Core receiving bills via AP inbox, supplier portal, or upload.
  • Accounting system or ERP connected, with chart of accounts and cost centers available to sync.
  • Vendor master data available for extraction validation.
  • Approval rules decided — thresholds by amount, vendor, category, or cost center.
  • Approver and backup-approver roles assigned in OCTA.

Setup Instructions

  1. Connect your bill source and accounting tool: Go to OCTA Core → Apps → Integrations and connect the source where bills arrive plus your accounting system or ERP. Confirm your chart of accounts and cost centers are syncing.
  2. Configure capture and OCR: In the workflow builder, open the Bill Received and Scanned node. Select your sources and confirm OCR is enabled for the bill formats you receive.
  3. Tune data extraction: In the Extract Bill Data node, confirm the fields OCTA pulls and set validation against your vendor master so mismatches are caught early.
  4. Set up GL coding: In the Identify GL Accounts node, connect your chart of accounts and set the coding confidence threshold above which codes apply automatically.
  5. Define your approval layer: In the Approval Layer node, configure your rules — auto-approve below policy, route above threshold — and assign approvers by band or category.
  6. Map your posting fields: In the ERP Sync node, map coded bills to your accounting system's GL accounts, cost centers, and period. Test with a single bill before activating.
  7. Activate and monitor: Set the workflow to Active. Run a shadow test with a handful of bills to validate extraction and coding before full production. Monitor run history in OCTA Core → Automations → History.

Use Case

Built for AP teams drowning in bill entry — businesses processing high volumes of vendor invoices across many GL accounts and cost centers, where manual coding is slow, inconsistent, and a constant source of month-end cleanup.

Teams running this workflow report the bulk of bills coded and posted without a human touching them, while the review queue shrinks to the genuinely ambiguous lines. Coding gets more consistent because the AI applies the same logic every time, approvals stop waiting in inboxes, and the AP ledger reflects reality instead of a backlog.

If your AP team spends its days keying bills and chasing approvals, this workflow turns bill processing from a queue into a background process.

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