Who this is for. Super Admins standing up a new AP Helpdesk. All six steps need the update permission on Procure-to-Pay apps, which in the shipped roles only Super Admin holds. Managers cannot open the Agent Co-worker configuration. See the Roles and Access.
This article covers the order the pieces have to be built in, because several of them depend on one another and one of them cannot be changed afterwards.
An Agent Co-worker’s system of record is fixed once the agent exists. If it is wrong, the agent has to be recreated. Settle sandbox versus production, and which system of record, before anyone reaches the work scope step.
Build in this order
Several steps depend on the one before them.
Table 1. The six steps
# |
Step |
Why it comes here |
|---|---|---|
1 |
Connect the system of record |
Everything downstream reads from it. Vendors, bills, purchase orders and payments only appear once this syncs. |
2 |
Connect the mailbox |
An AP Helpdesk agent has nothing to read until a mailbox is attached. |
3 |
Create users and assign roles |
Role decides which rail entries a person sees at all, so do this before asking anyone to test. |
4 |
Create the Agent Co-worker |
Work scope and functions are chosen here. |
5 |
Configure capabilities |
Autonomy, intake, extraction, business rules and write-back for AP Invoices; sender classification, categories and processing rules for AP Helpdesk. |
6 |
Review and activate |
There is no pre-activation test run, so the review is the only check before live traffic. |
All six steps need the same update permission on Procure-to-Pay apps.
Data that must be ready
Gaps here surface as cautious agent behavior rather than errors, which makes them harder to diagnose. An agent with incomplete data reports no error. It routes more work for review.
Table 2. Data readiness
Check |
Consequence if missing |
How it presents |
|---|---|---|
Vendor master populated and current |
A vendor absent from the records cannot be matched. Their mail is treated as an unknown sender. |
Replies not sent to a vendor you know is legitimate. |
Internal domains listed |
Colleagues are classified as external senders, and the agent applies the wrong authorization scope. |
Internal requests answered as though from an outsider, or not at all. |
Bills, purchase orders and payments synced |
Matching and lookups return nothing, so the agent routes work for review that it could have completed. |
A task queue far larger than expected. |
A mailbox connected |
An AP Helpdesk agent has nothing to read. |
An empty queue and no activity at all. |
Check all four before you change an agent setting: the vendor master, bills, purchase orders and payments on their SmartVendor record tabs, the internal domains in the Internal Contacts panel, and the connected mailbox on the instance row on the Agent Co-workers page. None of the four is fixed by changing a setting.
Why the order is not negotiable
Each step uses what the step before it produced. Building out of sequence reports no error. The results are:
Configure capabilities before the system of record has synced, and the vendor and PO options you need are absent from the pickers. The connection sync runs every four hours by default, so allow for that after the connection is created.
Assign roles after asking people to test, and the pages they need are hidden by their own role rather than absent.
Create the agent before settling the system of record, and step 4 becomes irreversible against the wrong one.
Before you activate
Setup step 6, Review and activate, is the last check before live traffic. It is not the same as wizard step 6, which activates a single Agent Co-worker. There is no dry run: activation puts the agent onto live traffic immediately. Before you activate, confirm:
The work scope names the environment and system of record you intended.
The autonomy level is the one you are willing to supervise from the first day of live traffic.
Internal domains are listed, so colleagues are not classified as external senders.
At least one person who will work the queue can sign in and reach Home.