Key takeaways
- The Payables Agent in Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP automates end-to-end invoice processing across diverse supplier formats and systems.
- Built-in compliance and tax verification reduce risk and manual review while ensuring accuracy and control.
- Embedded AI helps finance teams shift focus from data entry to strategy, simplifying shared service operations.
Accounts payable (AP) has typically operated as a high-volume transactional team, often managed for efficiency and compliance. But this is changing. Given advancements in AI-based automation, AP is poised to evolve into a more strategic part of the finance function, with a focus on important priorities like working capital management, supplier relationships, and touchless operations. This demo shows how the Payables Agent in Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP will help support this shift.
What it shows
This demo shows how the Payables Agent, part of Oracle Fusion Cloud Financial Management, works behind the scenes to automate one of finance’s most repetitive workflows: invoice processing. It eliminates manual effort by automatically ingesting and processing supplier invoices, including compliance checks, and routing for final approval. Here’s how it works.
Suppliers send invoices through any delivery channel including email, upload, or system-to-system connection, and using virtually any format including images, documents, PDFs, spreadsheets, XML, and JSON. The Payables Agent, using Oracle’s Document IO Agent and large language models, automatically reads, classifies, and extracts invoice information without requiring suppliers to adopt special templates or change invoicing formats.
Next, you’ll see the Payables Agent pass one invoice through a team of specialized worker agents:
- First, the Document IO Agent captures and validates invoice data.
- Next, the Compliance and Control Agent checks for anomalies like unusually large amounts, mismatched currencies, or duplicates.
- Finally, that same agent confirms that taxes are applied correctly.
Once these steps are complete, the Payables Agent automatically generates distribution entries and splits expenses according to business rules or historical allocation patterns—in this case, dividing a charge between two offices. Finally, the Payables Agent automatically routes the invoice for approval.
Why it matters
For finance leaders, this demo illustrates how embedded AI can help address long-standing concerns, including:
- Manual invoice entry and validation: Manually processing invoices consumes valuable time and creates opportunities for human error. The Payables Agent replaces manual effort with automation that scales across suppliers, languages, and document types. Automated document handling speeds invoice processing, strengthens compliance, and promotes visibility. Together these improvements all contribute to visibility and the touchless automation of downstream processes.
- Shared service center efficiency: Automation enables teams to process more invoices without increasing headcount or sacrificing accuracy. AP teams can increase their focus on exceptions, analytics, and continuous improvement, including working capital management and vendor management initiatives.
- Inter-company automation and trading partner management: Industry standards for invoice interchange (e.g., ANSI X12 or UBL-based XML documents) often require custom setups between trading partners. The Payables Agent can help remove the friction of setting up new trading partners by automatically reconciling data and format differences. This means less cost and effort for finance, IT, and suppliers.
- Integrating AI into core workflows: Because the Payables Agent is embedded in Oracle Financial Management, there’s no need for separate AI projects, custom integrations, or supplier retraining. It works natively as part of Oracle Accounts Payable, preserving visibility and human oversight. Notably, there is no additional subscription cost required.
- Reduction in working capital: AP organizations that rely on manual processing spend resources shuffling paper, rekeying invoice data, and correcting errors. In contrast, AP invoice automation, especially when used in conjunction with Oracle B2B banking partners, creates opportunities to improve cash management, expand margins, and increase collaboration with suppliers.
The bottom line
The Payables Agent shows how embedded AI can transform a traditionally manual finance function into a streamlined process that delivers more value. At an operational level, it reduces friction with suppliers, improves data accuracy, and strengthens compliance. By improving data quality, cycle time, and error rates, it is a key enabler of touchless processing in downstream finance functions. When coupled with Oracle’s B2B and Payment Agent, the Payables Agent can also enable the automation necessary to shift AP’s function to more valuable and strategic priorities, including efforts to improve working capital and profit margin.
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