Guide for AP Managers
AP Manager is a persona in this guide, not a built-in Clerked role. AP Managers oversee the AP operation by configuring Agents, setting approval policies, managing vendors, monitoring processing metrics, and keeping the team running.
What you can do with Clerked
Clerked automates the parts of AP that used to take hours of manual work. You set up an Agent that knows how your company codes and processes invoices, and approval policies that enforce your authorization rules automatically.
- Customize the Agent so coding, matching, and extraction follow your company's conventions, without manually touching each invoice.
- Design approval policies that route invoices using conditions from your company schema.
- Configure validation checks to control how findings warn, route to review, or block supported intake stages.
- Watch Insights for processing, spend, and payment metrics when your company role includes Insights.
- Receive invoices automatically over email forwarding so the system can categorize invoices, credit memos, and other documents on intake.
- Invite users with a complete company assignment, then update existing access from the linked People record.
Your responsibilities
- Configure the Agent with the instructions your company needs.
- Set up email forwarding so invoices flow into Clerked automatically.
- Configure approval workflows so invoices route to the right approvers using your company's configured conditions.
- Configure validation checks to match your company's review and blocking rules.
- Manage your team: invite users, assign roles, and confirm the right people have the right access.
- Maintain accurate vendor records and resolve vendor matching issues.
- Monitor AP performance through dashboard metrics and processing success rates.
Your role in Clerked
AP Managers usually have the built-in Controller or Administrator company role, or a custom role created by their administrator.
| Permission | Access |
|---|---|
| View, edit, and upload invoices | Yes |
| Approve or reject invoices | Yes |
| Delete, restore, validate, and reroute invoices | Yes |
| Manage fields, Agents, and Agent Memories | Yes |
| Configure validation checks | Yes |
| Manage approval policies | Yes |
| View Insights | Administrator yes; Controller no by default |
| Manage organization users | Primary Administrator only by default |
For the full breakdown, see User Roles.
Key features you use
- Agents. Customize how the AI processes invoices for your company.
- Approval Policies. Define who approves what, based on conditions and thresholds.
- Validation. Understand and configure the rules that block bad invoices.
- Vendors. Maintain vendor records, default coding, and matching.
- Insights. Monitor configured metrics when your role includes Insights.
- Entity Users. Invite users, assign roles, manage team access.
- Email Forwarding Setup. Configure forwarding addresses for automatic invoice intake.
- Validation Notices. Review and resolve flagged issues across the team's invoices.
Daily workflow
- If your role includes Insights, open Insights and check the configured spend, operations, and payment metrics.
- Review invoices waiting for your approval in the approval queue.
- Scan flagged invoices: anything stuck on a notice that the team can clear faster with your help.
- Update the Agent instructions if new patterns have emerged (new vendors, new GL accounts, seasonal coding shifts).
- Look at processing errors. Investigate anything stuck and resolve from the invoice detail page, or re-upload a clearer document if the original was unreadable.
- Check team activity. Confirm clerks are keeping up with the queue and approvers are responding promptly.
Common tasks
Create an approval policy
Go to Approval Policies and select Create policy. Define the conditions, set the approval chain, and assign priority. See Create an approval policy for the full steps.
Update Agent instructions
Open the Agents page and edit the instructions in the markdown editor. Save your changes; new invoices use the updated instructions on their next extraction. See Writing Instructions for guidance.
Adjust a validation rule
Open Settings, select Configurations, then select Validation checks. Choose the supported disposition and fine-tuning values, then save. See Configure validation checks.
Add a user
Open Settings, select Organization, select Members, then select Invite user. Enter the email, sign-in method, primary role, company role, invoice access, inbox access, and Insights access before sending. The user can then accept the invitation.
Configure email forwarding
Set up an email address that forwards into Clerked so invoices arrive automatically. See Email Forwarding Setup.
Review dashboard metrics
When your role includes Insights, open Insights and choose a section, period, and available breakdown. The visible cards come from the company's metric configuration. See Metrics for definitions.
Manage vendors
Review and update vendor records, set default GL coding for specific vendors, and resolve vendor matching issues.
Tips
- Start with the Agent for your highest-volume vendors. Custom instructions for the top 10 vendors save the most time. See Examples.
- Set policy priorities carefully. Approval policies evaluate in priority order. Make sure specific policies have higher priority than general ones. See How Approvals Work.
- Use delegation for coverage. When approvers go on vacation, set up delegation so invoices keep moving.
- Monitor the dashboard weekly. Metrics over time reveal bottlenecks better than daily checks.
- Keep vendor records clean. Accurate vendor records improve matching accuracy and reduce duplicates.
Frequently asked questions
How do I make the Agent code consistently?
Open the Agents page and add explicit instructions for the patterns you want. See Writing Instructions and Examples.
How do approval policy priorities work?
When an invoice enters approvals, Clerked evaluates policies from highest priority (lowest number) to lowest. The first match applies. See How Approvals Work.
How do I delegate approvals?
See Delegating Approvals. You can assign a delegate with start and end dates so invoices route automatically when the original approver is unavailable.
Can I see what the Agent decided on an invoice?
Yes. Open the invoice and check the AI recommendation and field rationales and the activity log. The rationale badges explain individual coding decisions and the activity log shows every action taken on the invoice.
How do I handle a vendor that keeps getting flagged as unknown?
Confirm the vendor record exists with the right name variations in Vendors. You can also add an Agent instruction to recognize specific vendor patterns. See Vendor Matching.