SmartVendor (for AP Invoices) is the Procure‑to‑Pay (P2P) automation console that:
Ingests and classifies invoice documents coming from AP mailboxes and other channels
Validates each document against a configurable checklist of AP invoice quality and compliance checks
Writes approved invoices (vendor bills) to your ERP / System of Record (SoR), either autonomously or with human review
Surfaces status and exceptions on the AP Invoices → Active Data / Documents views, so AP analysts can focus only on invoices that need attention
When do you use SmartVendor (for AP Invoices) vs AP Helpdesk?
Use SmartVendor (AP Invoices) when the primary goal is to process the invoice itself:
You want invoices to be validated automatically against a checklist (e.g., vendor match, duplicate checks, required header/line data).
You want autonomous or semi‑autonomous writing to SoR; only documents that pass all checks are eligible for auto‑write.
You need a single place to manage invoice documents, their validation status, and SoR write outcomes.
You want to suppress “duplicate effort” AP Helpdesk review tasks for straightforward invoice‑submission emails (via the “Suppress AP Helpdesk Tasks when AP Invoices Documents Added” setting).
Use AP Helpdesk when the primary goal is to handle the conversation around the invoice, not the invoice processing itself:
Email is about inquiry / dispute / status / follow‑up, not just submission of a new invoice.
You need tasks, SLAs, and workflow for AP mailbox conversations.
You care about Mailbox Intelligence and intent metrics (e.g., invoice submissions vs other intents) even when AP Invoices is doing the heavy lifting for document processing.
When AP Helpdesk and AP Invoices run together in SmartVendor:
AP Helpdesk still detects “Invoice Submission” intent and labels those emails, feeding dashboard metrics and coverage reporting.
AP Invoices handles document classification, duplicate detection, and checklist validation.
Optionally, Helpdesk tasks are suppressed for pure invoice‑submission emails once AP Invoices documents are added, to avoid duplicate work.