AP Payment Processing Checklist

Forward the vendor email to the AP inbox or upload the PDF directly. OCR the document into Bill.com / Ramp / Hubdoc so the invoice number, date, vendor, and total flow into the queue. Reject scans that are illegible — duplicate-pay risk is much higher when humans rekey from blurry PDFs.

Confirm vendor legal name, remit-to address, invoice number, invoice date, due date, line-item description, and total. Missing invoice number is the most common cause of duplicate payment — Bill.com will not block a re-paid invoice if the number is blank.

Tie the invoice to the PO and to the receiving document (packing slip or services-rendered confirmation). Quantities, unit prices, and totals must match within tolerance. For service vendors with no PO, route to the budget owner for a confirmation email instead.

Search the vendor in QBO / Sage Intacct / NetSuite by invoice number and by amount over the trailing 90 days. Flag suspicious matches (same amount, different invoice number) for the controller before posting.

Pull the W-9 from the vendor file. Mark 1099-eligible (services, non-corporate, >$600 YTD) in the accounting system. New vendors without a W-9 on file get blocked here — do not pay before the W-9 is received.

Send Form W-9 via the e-sign tool (DocuSign / TaxDome). On return, capture TIN, entity type, and exempt-payee code. File in the vendor record before scheduling payment — this avoids a January scramble during 1099-NEC prep.

Assign the expense account, class / department / location dimensions, and customer (if billable). Avoid dumping unfamiliar charges into Ask My Accountant — route the question to the budget owner instead. For prepaid items spanning multiple periods, code to the prepaid asset and set the amortization schedule.

Per the AP authority matrix: under $1K = manager; $1K–$10K = department head; $10K–$50K = controller; over $50K = CFO. Capital expenditures route to CFO regardless of amount. Confirm budget remaining before sending the approval request.

For invoices over $50K or any capex, escalate in Bill.com / Ramp with the PO, contract, and budget-vs-actual snapshot attached. Do not schedule payment until the CFO sign-off is captured in the audit trail.

Pull the YTD budget-vs-actual for the GL account from Fathom or the GL. If this invoice pushes the line over budget, flag in the approval request with a variance note rather than burying it.

ACH for domestic recurring vendors; wire for international or same-day; virtual card where vendor accepts (rebate revenue); paper check only as a fallback. Confirm vendor banking details with a callback to a known phone number — never use the bank info from the invoice email itself (BEC fraud).

Call the vendor at a number from the prior signed contract or a verified directory — not the number in the email requesting the change. Document the call (who answered, date, time) in the payment record. Wire fraud via spoofed banking-change emails is the single biggest AP loss vector for SMBs.

Pay on the terms (Net 30 / Net 45) — not early, not late. Take 2/10 net 30 discounts where the math beats the firm's cost of capital. ACH initiated 2 business days before due date; wires same-day; checks mailed 5 business days before.

For check runs, upload the positive-pay file (check number, amount, payee) to the bank portal before checks are mailed. Bank rejects any check presented that doesn't match the file — the primary control against altered or counterfeit checks.

Two-person release in Bill.com: AP clerk creates, controller releases. Segregation of duties is the audit hot-spot — same login creating and releasing is a finding in any SOC 1 or financial-statement audit.

Confirm the bill-pay sync from Bill.com / Ramp into QBO or Intacct cleared without errors. Spot-check that A/P decreased and cash decreased by the same amount — sync failures occasionally double-post or miss the cash side.

Within 2 business days of release, the cleared transaction should appear in the bank feed. Match it to the recorded payment. Unmatched items aging past 5 business days go on the recon exceptions list for the controller.

Attach the invoice PDF, PO, receiving doc, approval emails, and remittance advice to the vendor record. Retention: 7 years for invoices supporting tax positions; longer for fixed-asset purchases until the asset is fully depreciated and disposed.

If the vendor is 1099-eligible, confirm the payment posted to a 1099-tracked account. Catching mis-flags monthly avoids the January 1099-NEC fire drill where bookkeepers chase missing W-9s under a Jan 31 deadline.

Review 60+ and 90+ aging buckets at month-end. Open bills past due usually mean a missed approval, a held payment, or a posting error. Resolve before close — stale A/P distorts working-capital metrics and DPO.

The A/P aging total must equal the GL Accounts Payable balance at period-end. Any variance is a posting error — typically a manual JE that bypassed the sub-ledger. Document the tie-out as a workpaper for the audit file.

Pull the GL detail for the A/P account and trace any non-AP-module entries. Common culprits: manual JEs to A/P, voided bills posted to a closed period, or a sync error from Bill.com. Reverse with a corrective JE memo'd to the variance.