Before your organization can successfully use AP Accruals, a few technical and functional pre‑requisites need to be in place. This ensures that the solution has access to the right data, can post journals correctly to your ERP, and aligns with your internal controls.
1. Product Access and Environment
Your organization must have an active subscription that includes AP Accruals as part of the AP automation offering.
AP Accruals must be provisioned in your tenant in a supported region or environment (for example, US, Canada, or EMEA, depending on your contract).
Users who will work with AP Accruals must be able to log into the platform (direct login or SSO, depending on your security setup).
2. Connected ERP (System of Record)
AP Accruals depends on accurate and current AP and GL data from your ERP.
Before you start:
Your ERP (e.g., Workday, NetSuite, Oracle, SAP, Sage Intacct, or another supported system) must be connected to the platform.
The connection must support:
Import of key AP and GL data (vendors, entities/companies, vendor bills, purchase orders, and related financial dimensions).
Export or posting of accrual journal entries back to your ERP.
This connectivity is typically established during implementation and validated as part of initial testing.
3. Data Integration and Sync
For AP Accruals to produce correct results, your data flows must be set up and stable:
Regular data syncs must be configured so that:
Vendor master data is up to date.
Entity / company / subsidiary information is available.
Vendor bills and invoices are imported.
Purchase orders (POs) and related information are imported (if used in accrual calculations).
Data refresh schedules should be agreed (for example, daily refresh, with more frequent refreshes near month‑end if required).
This ensures that accrual calculations are always based on the latest available information.
4. User Roles and Access
AP Accruals uses role‑based access control. Before go‑live, you should decide who will play each role and assign access accordingly:
GL Manager
Configures and maintains accrual flows and rules.
Can review results and post accrual journals to the ERP.
GL Approver
Reviews and approves accruals from a business/financial perspective.
Can post approved accrual journals to the ERP.
Cannot change the underlying accrual flow configuration.
GL Agent
Works with accrual data (vendors, bills, journal entries).
Helps prepare, investigate, and reconcile accruals.
Typically cannot post journals to the ERP or change configuration.
GL Audit
Has read‑only access to AP Accruals data and activity history.
Intended for internal/external audit and oversight.
Cannot configure flows, approve accruals, or post journals.
All relevant users should be mapped to these roles before they start working in the system.
5. Entity and Vendor Master Data
AP Accruals organizes and reports accruals by entity and vendor.
To support this:
Your entities / companies / subsidiaries must be:
Defined in your ERP.
Synchronized into the platform so that each accrual journal can be associated with the correct entity.
Your vendor master must be:
Clean enough for financial reporting (no critical duplicates or missing identifiers).
Synced regularly so the platform can:
Link accruals to the correct vendors.
Group vendors into accrual groups (see below).
This is usually reviewed jointly by your finance and implementation teams.
6. Accrual Groups and Posting Design
AP Accruals uses accrual groups and posting rules to control how journals are created.
Before using the system in production, you should define:
A grouping strategy, for example:
By category (e.g., “IT & Software Accruals”, “Marketing Services Accruals”).
By department or cost center.
By region or legal entity.
For each accrual group:
A group name and description.
A designated owner (typically a finance lead or controller).
A credit account (liability / accrued expenses account) that will be used for that group.
The list or logic of vendors that belong to this group.
These decisions ensure that accruals post to the correct liability accounts and are easy to manage and review.
7. Chart of Accounts and Posting Rules
For journals created by AP Accruals to post correctly to your ERP:
Your chart of accounts (COA) must be available in the connected ERP and accessible to the platform.
Finance should decide:
Which expense (debit) accounts are in scope for AP Accruals.
Which accrual/liability (credit) accounts to use for different entities, groups, or categories.
Any special posting rules (for example, different liability accounts by region or business unit).
These rules will be configured in collaboration with your implementation team.
8. Internal Controls and Approval Hierarchy
Because AP Accruals directly affects your month‑end and year‑end financials:
You should define and document:
Who prepares and reviews accrual inputs (typically GL Agents and GL Managers).
Who provides final approval for accruals (typically GL Approvers / controllers).
Who is authorized to post accrual journals to the ERP.
Who can only view accruals (for example, audit or management).
These responsibilities should align with the system roles:
GL Manager, GL Approver, GL Agent, GL Audit.
This alignment ensures proper segregation of duties and supports audit requirements.
9. Technical and Security Setup
Depending on your organization’s standards, some additional technical pre‑requisites may apply:
User authentication:
If you use Single Sign‑On (SSO), your identity provider should be integrated and tested.
Network and security:
Any required firewall or allow‑list rules should be configured so the platform can communicate with your ERP and, if applicable, email systems.
Governance:
An internal owner (typically in Finance or IT) should be designated for AP Accruals to oversee access, configuration changes, and periodic reviews.