Universal Connector for AP & AR Products

1. Overview

1.1 What is the Universal Connector?

In simple terms, the Universal Connector is how you get your accounts payable and receivable information into Auditoria when there is no automatic, direct link to your accounting or ERP system. Instead of a live connection, you provide your data as files — much like exporting a report to a file and placing it in a shared folder — and Auditoria reads those files, checks them, and returns the processed results for your team to load into your system.

More precisely, the Universal Connector lets your organization exchange Accounts Payable (AP) and Accounts Receivable (AR) data with Auditoria when your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system has no prebuilt connector. You move data through standardized comma-separated values (CSV) or JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) templates over a secure file channel — either Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) or an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Simple Storage Service (S3) bucket. The template-driven approach keeps data consistent, reduces mapping errors, and supports back-office AP and AR automation without a custom-coded connector.

For AP Invoices, the connector also works in the other direction. Auditoria writes approved invoices and credit memos, with their attachments, to a folder your system collects from, and reads back the result of posting them to your ERP. Section 5.5 describes that loop

1.2 When should you use it?

1.3 What it supports

The Universal Connector supports AR Collections, AR Helpdesk, AP Helpdesk, and AP Invoices. The object-by-object matrix, file formats, and size limits are covered where relevant below.

AP Invoices object detail. 

Each object below is read from your Read folder. Two of them are also written back by Auditoria.

Standard fields only. Each business object has a defined set of standard fields, listed in the data mapping templates in Section 9. Any field outside that set is an extended field and requires a mapping configured during implementation.

Composite SOR. A Composite system of record combines the Universal Connector with another ERP connector — for example, vendors from Coupa and payment terms from the Universal Connector. Invoice write-back through a composite configuration is supported.

2. Prerequisites

Have the following in place before you implement. These are what you need; the interface steps for entering the details are in Section 3.3.

File transfer environment — set up one of the following:

• SFTP:

• A secure SFTP server with reliable connectivity.
• Read, Error Logs, and Processed folders that Auditoria can access, and for AP Invoices an Outbound Document folder and an Outbound Response folder.
• Credentials (host, port, username, and password) shared securely with Auditoria.

• AWS S3:

• A dedicated bucket with Read, Error Logs, and Processed paths, and an optional Attachments folder, and for AP Invoices an Outbound Document folder and an Outbound Response folder.
• Access keys and permissions meeting Auditoria’s security requirements, provisioned securely within your AWS environment.

Auditoria platform access:

• Administrator or implementation-level access to the platform.
• An active Auditoria tenant configured for your organization.
• The required Auditoria modules enabled, for example SmartVendor.

ERP readiness — your ERP or business application must be able to:

• Export the required data, such as invoices, vendors, and payments, in CSV or JSON.
• Automate and schedule exports into the Read folder.
• For AP Invoices, collect files from the Outbound Document folder and write a result file back to the Outbound Response folder.

Supported file formats:

• Size limits: JSON under 150 MB; CSV under 75 MB.

Share all credentials and access keys through secure channels only — never plaintext email. See Section 6 for the full policy.

3. How It Works

3.1 Templates and file naming

Auditoria provides a fixed template for each business object, such as Invoices, Vendors, and Payments, specifying field names, order, data types, and allowable extended fields. Download the templates and complete them with your source field mappings before you begin:

• AP data mapping template — vendor, vendor bill, purchase order, and payment objects, with line items: AP Universal Connector Data Mapping Template
• AR data mapping template — customer, invoice, payment, and credit memo objects: Generic ERP AR Data Mapping Template

Do:

• Use the exact template for the intended object.
• Fill in all required fields.
• Keep field names and order unchanged, except approved extended fields.
• Validate your export against the template before uploading.

Don’t:

• Reorder, rename, or add undocumented fields.
• Remove required columns, even unused ones.
• Save as Excel, PDF, or compressed formats.

Why this matters: Auditoria matches each file against its template automatically. A renamed column, a missing required field, or an incorrect file name fails the entire file — there is no partial load. Treat the template and naming convention as exact specifications, not guidelines.

Outbound file naming (AP Invoices)

The file number starts at 0 and increments for each additional attachment on the same document.

3.2 Folder structure

You store AP and AR data in a single root directory. Within it, the connector uses up to six folders:

• Read: Your drop-off point — the folder Auditoria monitors for new input files.
• Error Logs: Logs describing why input files were rejected or could not be processed. This is the folder previously called Write.
• Processed: Archive of files handled successfully; this doubles as your audit and compliance archive.
• Attachments (S3 only): Storage for attachments associated with ingested records.
• Outbound Document (AP Invoices only): Auditoria writes approved invoices and credit memos here, with their attachments, for your system to collect.
• Outbound Response (AP Invoices only): Your system writes the result of posting each document to your ERP here. Auditoria reads it.

You choose the folder paths during setup. Once Auditoria is polling a given path, treat it as fixed: renaming or restructuring it requires re-running setup.

Enter folder paths without a leading slash unless you intend to create a nested folder. A path entered as /my-folder produces a folder named / containing my-folder, rather than my-folder at the root.

Processing schedule.

Audit trail. For audit and compliance, two distinct records exist:

• The Processed folder — the file-level archive, and the canonical audit trail when you need the actual file.
• The application audit log, in the Auditoria console — the event history, including successes, failures, and timestamps, when you need a searchable record of what happened, independent of the files.

3.3 Configuring the connection in Auditoria

Prerequisites: infrastructure and folders prepared, as described in Section 2; administrator access to Auditoria; your connection details to hand.

You set one connection type per instance — either SFTP or an S3 bucket. Provide credentials securely; never send them in plaintext email.

Set up an SFTP connection

1. Confirm the SFTP folder paths you created during infrastructure setup. The paths below are illustrative — use your own, then treat them as fixed once Auditoria is polling them:

• Root: Auditoria
• Read (ingestion): Auditoria/read
• Error Logs: Auditoria/errorlogs
• Processed (audit archive): Auditoria/processed
• Outbound Document: Auditoria/outbound-documents
• Outbound Response: Auditoria/outbound-responses

2. Sign in as an administrator and go to AP Workcenter → Super Admin → Administration → System Settings → Add new connection → Universal Connector.
3. Set Connection Type to SFTP and complete all fields.
4. Select Save.

Result: The connection is saved and appears under ERP Settings.

Figure 1. ERP Settings page with Connection Type set to SFTP. 

Set up an S3 bucket connection

1. Confirm the S3 folder paths you created during infrastructure setup, illustrative only; use your own, then treat as fixed once polled:

• Bucket root: Auditoria
• Read: Auditoria/read
• Error Logs: Auditoria/errorlogs
• Processed: Auditoria/processed
• Attachments: Auditoria/attachments
• Outbound Document: Auditoria/outbound-documents
• Outbound Response: Auditoria/outbound-responses

2. Gather the required S3 details: AWS region, bucket name, Access Key ID and Secret Access Key, the folder paths, and the at-rest encryption type.
3. Navigate as in step 2 of the SFTP procedure and set Connection Type to S3 Bucket.
4. Complete all fields. Enter a hyphen (-) only where a field genuinely does not apply.
5. Select Save.

Result: The connection is saved and appears under ERP Settings.

Figure 2. ERP Settings page with Connection Type set to S3 Bucket. 

3.4 Dimensions

Dimensions are reference values your documents are coded against — payment terms, departments, cost centres, and similar.

• One file per dimension. Each dimension has its own file in the Read folder.
• Payment Terms is the only standard dimension. Any other dimension is supported but needs its own file.
• Dimension files do not have to be sent on every sync. A sync with no dimension files succeeds and raises no error; existing values are left unchanged.
• Whenever a dimension file is received, it is treated as a full sync. The file replaces the current set of values for that dimension in full. Values absent from the file are removed.

Plan for removals. Because each dimension file is a full sync, omitting a value removes it. Make sure your export includes every value you want retained, not only the ones that changed.

4. Running the connector

4.1 The end-to-end data flow

This is the canonical description of how data moves from your ERP through the connector and back. Other sections refer to it rather than repeating it.

1. Export. Your ERP exports data using Auditoria’s CSV or JSON template, named per convention, for example INVOICES_20251118093000AM.csv.
2. Upload. Your team places the file in the Read folder. Upload to a temporary location and atomically move it into Read to avoid partial pickups.
3. Validate. The AI Agent polls Read on schedule, or on demand, validates the file name and format, and checks the contents against the template schema at both header and line levels.
4. Error path. Invalid files stay in Read; a detailed error log is written to the Error Logs folder.
5. Success path. Valid files move to Processed folder. 

Figure 3. Universal Connector end-to-end data workflow.

4.2 Sync modes

Separately from the polling schedule, described in Section 3.2, each connection runs in one of two sync modes, set during implementation:

• Incremental: Only new or changed records are processed.
• Full: All records are processed; Auditoria calculates what has changed, including deletions.

Dimension files are always treated as a full sync, regardless of the mode set here. See Section 3.4.

4.3 Monitoring day to day

Once live, follow this operating rhythm:

• Check the Error Logs folder regularly.
• Check Read after each polling cycle — a file left there after a cycle has run typically failed validation. Check the Error Logs folder for a matching entry to confirm. Review its error log, fix, and re-upload.
• Periodically verify Processed is intact and complete.
• For AP Invoices, check that your system is collecting from the Outbound Document folder and writing to the Outbound Response folder on a matching schedule.
• Review document statuses in the console. A document that stays in Active Data indefinitely usually means no response has been received.

Retain logs and archived files for the period your legal, regulatory, or audit policy requires. 

5. AP/AR Examples

These examples show how data moves through the connector end to end. Use them alongside the field-level definitions in the data mapping templates, described in Section 3.1.

5.1 AR data exchange

AR follows the canonical flow in Section 4.1 — no email ingestion or AI extraction:

• Objects: Customer, invoices, payments, credit memos.
• File names: the required prefix per object, for example CUSTOMER_, INVOICES_, PAYMENTS_, CREDITMEMO_, plus JSON and CSV as file types.

5.2 AP data exchange (file workflow)

AP master and transactional data also follows the canonical flow in Section 4.1, separate from the email-ingestion capability in Section 5.3:

• Objects: Entity, Vendor, Bills, Payments, Purchase Orders.
• File names: the required object prefix plus the standard timestamp, for example ENTITY_, VENDOR_, PAYMENTS_.

5.3 AP Invoice Workflow

1. Reception. Invoices arrive at a dedicated, monitored inbox. Auditoria identifies emails with invoice attachments by sender, subject, and attachment type.
2. Extraction. The AI Agent uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to extract vendor details, invoice number, date, and due date, line items and amounts, purchase-order references, and payment terms. It also runs duplicate checks, applies coding, for example cost center and GL account, flags anomalies, and validates against business rules and schema.
3. Matching and approval. The invoice is matched against vendors, purchase orders, and item receipts synced from your Read folder, and routed through your approval SmartFlow.
4. When a user sends an approved invoice or credit memo to the system of record, Auditoria writes it to the Outbound Document folder. The Write to SOR action is what triggers the file being written; the document does not reach the Written to SOR status until your ERP confirms it. See Section 5.5.
5. What is written. For each document: a data file in CSV format and the associated attachments, named per the outbound convention in Section 3.1. Attachments are linked to the business record from within the data file
6. When it is written. Immediately — the document is placed in the Outbound Document folder as soon as it is Written to SOR
7. Resubmission. If a document is sent again — for example after a failure respons, the file is updated in the same folder(previously uploaded folder)
8. Attachments cannot be removed after a write. Once a document has been sent to SOR, its attachments are locked along with the rest of the record
9. Collecting the files. Your ERP or middleware collects from the Outbound Document folder and imports the data and attachments. Auditoria does not push to your ERP. Keep your collection schedule aligned with the outbound frequency to avoid unnecessary delay.
10. These files are not moved to the Processed folder. The Processed folder archives inbound files only.

5.5 AP Invoices — the response loop

After your ERP posts a document, your system writes the result to the Outbound Response folder. Auditoria reads that folder every hour, and on a manual sync.

Response file format. CSV only. No attachments are required or read. You may write one file covering many documents, or one file per document — both are supported. Response files are written daily with a datestamp.

After a response file is read, Auditoria moves it out of the Outbound Response folder. You do not need to clear the folder yourself. The move is not always immediate — refresh your folder view before concluding a file has been left behind.

Document status lifecycle

Editing is locked while a document is in flight. Once a document has been written to the Outbound Document folder, neither the record nor its attachments can be edited until a response is received. This prevents the record in Auditoria diverging from the file your ERP is processing.

Dashboard counts update when the response is received, not when the file is written.

6. Operations and security

For how the connector reads, validates, and archives files, see Sections 3.2 and 4.1. This section covers the operational and security responsibilities around that flow. One principle underpins the rest: each organization or business unit uses a dedicated SFTP endpoint or S3 bucket, and infrastructure is never shared across tenants.

6.1 Access controls

• Your IT or cloud administrator manages permissions for each SFTP or S3 directory.
• Grant only the read, write, and move or rename permissions that users and Auditoria service accounts require.
• Review folder access regularly to limit unauthorized exposure.
• Do not distribute credentials or access keys by email or other insecure channels.
• For AP Invoices, Auditoria additionally needs write access to the Outbound Document folder, and read and move access to the Outbound Response folder.

6.2 Isolation

• Cross-client isolation comes from dedicated infrastructure: each client provides and maintains its own SFTP server or S3 bucket, never shared with another client.
• Within your own environment, the separate Read, Error Logs, and Processed folders keep the ingestion, output, and archive stages distinct.
• SFTP servers, S3 buckets, and folders cannot be shared between different organizations or business units.

6.3 User management

The Universal Connector does not provide application-level user management or assignable roles for file processing. SFTP or S3 credentials and directory permissions govern all file access, and your IT or cloud administrators control them.

• SFTP: access is governed by SFTP user accounts and password management; only IT can add, disable, or change access.
• AWS S3: access is governed by AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) users, roles, and policies; consult your IT or security team when personnel or business needs change.

6.4 Backup and disaster recovery

Auditoria does not back up or restore the customer SFTP or S3 directories, including Read, Error Logs, Processed, and Attachments, Outbound Document, and Outbound Response. Backup, retention, and disaster recovery remain your responsibility:

• Schedule regular backups of all directories in the deployment.
• Retain Error Logs and Processed contents for audit and compliance. 
• Restore lost or deleted files through your internal data management team, using your own backup solutions.
• The Outbound Document folder holds the only file-level record of what was sent to your ERP, and it is never archived to the Processed folder.

7. Troubleshooting

8. FAQ

What is the Universal Connector? A file-based integration, over SFTP or AWS S3, that ingests standardized CSV or JSON into Auditoria on a schedule or on demand. It does not push data into your ERP.

When should I use it? When your ERP can export CSV or JSON and you want a prescriptive, template-driven batch integration — typically when no native connector exists.

What ERPs are supported? Any ERP that can produce or consume flat files in Auditoria’s required format

Which products, objects, and record types are supported? See Section 1.3, “What it supports.” Line items are supported for Bills/Invoices, Payments, and Purchase Orders, Credit Memos, Contracts, and Item Receipts.

How to tell whether a file failed. A file left in Read has either failed validation or is waiting for the next polling cycle. To tell the difference, check the Error Logs folder — a file that failed has a corresponding log entry. If there is no entry, the file has not been picked up yet.

Who hosts and maintains the file infrastructure by default? The client provides the SFTP server or S3 bucket, folders, and credentials.

Can Auditoria host SFTP instead? Not standard — possible only with case-by-case approval.

Can multiple clients share one file endpoint (multi-tenant)? No. Each client needs a dedicated SFTP endpoint or S3 bucket.

What file formats and size limits apply? CSV or JSON only; no compressed formats. JSON under 150 MB, CSV under 75 MB, as described in Section 2.

Can we change the folder structure, fields, or file types? No. The connector is intentionally prescriptive — this is what keeps the integration low-maintenance and error-resistant.

How must files be named? <PREFIX>_<yyyyMMddhhmmssAM/PM>.<ext>, prefix one of ENTITY, CUSTOMER, INVOICES, PAYMENTS, VENDOR, as described in Section 3.1.

Can I send multiple files for the same record type in one cycle? Yes.

Are custom or extended fields allowed? Use Auditoria’s templates exactly, including field names, order, and data types. Extended fields are supported as provided in the templates, for example cost center, GL account, division, entity, and location.

Where do I get the templates? See Section 9.

How often does ingestion run, and can I schedule it? Every 4 hours by default; can be triggered on demand. The Outbound Response folder is read every hour. 

What sync modes are supported? Incremental, which processes only new or changed records, and Full, which processes all records with deltas and deletions calculated by Auditoria. See Section 4.2.

What happens if an ID is reused or a file is re-sent? The existing record is updated.

Do you push results back into the ERP? No. Auditoria writes only error logs to the Error Logs folder, and, for AP Invoices, documents to the Outbound Document folder for your pickup.

Where can we find audit logs? Two places, for two purposes: the Processed folder, for the actual archived files, and the application audit log in the console, for the event history. See Section 3.2, “Processing schedule and audit trail.”

What is the best practice to avoid partial pickups? Upload to a temporary location, then atomically move/rename the file into Read once it’s complete.

What if I hit a problem? See Section 7, Troubleshooting.

Does AP Invoices work alongside AP Helpdesk? Yes. AP Invoices is supported as a standalone configuration and in combination with AP Helpdesk.

Does AP Invoices work with a Composite system of record? Yes, including write-back. See Section 1.3.

9. Data Mapping Templates

The data cycle. Your ERP produces the data, Auditoria reads and checks it and hands back the results, and your team loads those results into the ERP. Auditoria acts on files only: it reads from and writes to the file location you set up, and it never writes to your ERP directly.

Field types.

Fields also exist at two levels: header-level, meaning the transaction as a whole, such as invoice number, total, and due date, and line-level, meaning individual items, such as line description and line amount. Standard and extended fields can all appear at either level.

Auditoria provides a standardized data mapping template for each product area. Each template defines the fields, field types, and file structure your exported CSV or JSON files must follow. Download the current templates and complete them with your source field names before you begin:

• AP data mapping template — vendor, vendor bill, purchase order, and payment objects, credit memos, contracts, item receipts with line items: AP Universal Connector Data Mapping Template
• AR data mapping template — customer, invoice, payment, and credit memo objects: Universal ERP AR Data Mapping Template 
• Upload & Response Templates - Invoices & Credit memos Data Mapping templates along with Response folders

10. Terminology

11. Support

For more information or assistance, contact Auditoria at support@auditoria.ai. You can:

• Submit and track support requests through the Auditoria Support Portal.
• Email technical questions, troubleshooting steps, or general inquiries to the same address.