Accounts Payable

Service workflow

What accounts payable support covers

Accounts payable support protects suppliers, cash control and month-end accuracy. The team keeps invoices moving while exceptions remain visible.

The service is scoped as a repeatable workflow rather than a vague promise to help. Before go-live we define the task list, exclusions, escalation triggers, systems, tone, reporting and the exact point at which an agent must stop and route to the client.

Work handled by the team

These tasks are the normal operating surface. Some clients need all of them, others start with the two or three that remove the greatest bottleneck. RHI would rather pilot a narrow process cleanly than launch a broad one that depends on guesswork.

• Receive, log and code supplier invoices.
• Match invoices to purchase orders or receipts.
• Chase approvals and missing information.
• Prepare payment-run support files.
• Respond to supplier status questions under client rules.

Workflow and handoff

Invoices move from intake to validation, matching, approval, payment preparation and archive. Exceptions are categorised so the client can fix upstream causes.

Every workflow has a visible owner at each step. If the agent can resolve it, the case closes with a reason code. If the agent cannot resolve it, the case moves with enough evidence that the next person does not have to repeat the same questions.

Channels, systems and escalation

Supplier inboxes, AP platforms and ERP workflows are the normal environment.

Finance owners receive unmatched invoices, approval blockers and duplicate-risk flags.

System access is kept as close as possible to the work being done. That usually means named accounts, role-based permissions, no local storage for sensitive files and a written rule for when screenshots, documents or customer media may be requested.

Quality, reporting and boundaries

Quality review looks at accuracy first. A warm answer that gives the wrong status, misses an escalation trigger or oversteps authority is still a failed contact. The scorecard is therefore specific to this service rather than copied from a generic customer-service template.

• Invoice cycle time.
• Approval delay rate.
• Duplicate flag rate.
• Supplier query response time.
• Exception age.

RHI does not approve payment, change bank details without client controls or provide tax/accounting advice.

Boundary breaches are treated as critical issues because they create risk for both the client and the customer. Agents are trained with examples of what to say when the customer asks for something outside scope, so routing still feels helpful.

Launch plan

Launch needs supplier master controls, approval matrix, PO rules, duplicate checks and payment-run calendar.

The monitored pilot checks whether volumes, handling time, escalation rate and quality match the assumptions. When they do, the team can scale. When they do not, the fix is made while the scope is still small enough to control.

Operating model in practice

RHI sets up accounts payable support as a controlled production process. The service has a queue, a priority rule, a knowledge source, an action list, an escalation path and a quality scorecard. Those pieces are simple, but they prevent the common failure where an outsourced team is trained on brand tone and left to discover the actual work during live contacts.

Agent training starts with the customer intent rather than the tool. The agent learns why someone contacts, what the customer is trying to achieve, what the client needs protected, and which pieces of information decide the next step. Only then does system training become useful. A person who knows which decision they are making will use the tool more accurately than someone who only knows where to click.

Supervision is visible from the first week. Team leads review samples, listen for uncertainty, compare escalation notes with client feedback and update the knowledge base when the same question appears more than once. The aim is not to punish agents for edge cases. It is to turn edge cases into written rules so the second customer gets a cleaner answer than the first.

The commercial value is measured in removed friction. Depending on the service, that may mean fewer missed calls, faster completion, fewer returned cases, better documentation, fewer avoidable escalations or a lower repeat-contact rate. RHI reports those trends alongside volume so the client can see whether the team is improving the operation rather than simply processing more work.

Useful next pages: invoice processing, bookkeeping and accounts receivable.