Who this is for. Super Admins maintaining an agent still on Collaborative Mode. See the Roles and Access.
Agent Replies holds the templates the agent uses to answer vendors, “Configure templates for automated agent replies”. It exists under Collaborative Mode, where replies come from stored templates rather than being composed per message.
Navigate to Agent Replies
On the Define capabilities step, select the AP Helpdesk tab.
In the left navigation, select Agent Replies.
Figure 1. The Agent Replies group: vendor category tabs, intent, template editor and preview.
How a template is addressed
A template is addressed by up to three selectors, narrowing from broadest to most specific.
| Selector | Example |
|---|---|
| Vendor category | Standard Vendor, only categories enabled in Vendor Categories are offered |
| Intent | Vendor has requested payment status |
| Language Match | English, shown only if multi-language templates are enabled for your tenant |
Language Match is a checkbox with a language list beside it; tick the checkbox to pick a language. Each language holds its own template set, written in that language rather than machine-translated at send time. If Language Match is not on your screen, multi-language templates are not enabled for your tenant, and a template is addressed by vendor category and intent alone.
Four per-template settings
Settings such as Insert Value and Attachments shape what a sent reply contains. Each has its own section below.
Table 1. Template configuration areas
Area |
What it does |
|---|---|
Insert Value |
Inserts record variables such as invoice number, dates, and amounts, rendered from the matched records at send time. |
Language Match |
Replies in the sender’s language, or in a fixed language you select. |
Attachments |
Includes files with the reply, such as History CSV and Payment Status CSV. |
Preview |
Renders the subject, greeting, body with variable placement, and closing as the reply would send. |
Agent Replies by Vendor Category and Intent
Collaborative Mode is being deprecated. New setups should use Governed Autonomy. For more information, see Autonomy Models.
Agent Reply templates are organized in three levels: the Vendor Category, the intent, and the reply scenario. Narrow to the right combination first, then edit the template.
Select the combination
On the Define capabilities step, select the AP Helpdesk tab, then select Agent Replies.
Select a Vendor Category tab, for example Standard Vendor. The enabled Vendor Categories appear as tabs across the top.
Select the intent from the Intent list.
In the left column, select the reply scenario.
Figure 2. The vendor category tabs and the Intent selector above the template.
Reply scenarios
Scenarios describe the record-lookup outcome the reply has to address. For a payment-status intent, the scenarios are:
All Invoices Found
Some Invoices Found
No Invoice Found
General Payment Inquiry
All Invoices Found - Multi Vendor Match
Some Invoices Found - Multi Vendor Match
No Invoice Found - Multi Vendor Match
General Payment Inquiry - Multi Vendor Match
The Multi Vendor Match variants apply when the inbound message matches more than one vendor record.
Which scenarios deserve most attention
The Some Invoices Found and No Invoice Found templates carry the most risk of a bad vendor experience, because they must explain an absence without sounding evasive or dismissive. Vendors chasing a payment are the readers most sensitive to a reply that dodges.
The Multi Vendor Match variants matter for organizations where one sender legitimately represents several vendor records, such as a shared billing office. Where that does not happen, the defaults for those variants are usually sufficient.
Work through the grid efficiently
Standard Vendor is the fallback for every supplier outside your named segments, so it sees the widest traffic. Configuring it completely and then adapting its wording per category is less work than treating each category tab as a blank slate. Most category-specific templates differ by a sentence or two rather than wholesale.
Each Vendor Category, intent, and scenario combination has its own template. A category with no configured templates has no reply content for the Agent Co-worker to use, and nothing warns you at send time. For more information, see Vendor Categories in Collaborative Mode.
Why scenarios exist
The scenario axis is what lets a template answer honestly in each data situation. All Invoices Found and No Invoice Found need genuinely different wording. One reports values, the other explains an absence, and Some Invoices Found needs both in one message. The Multi Vendor Match variants handle senders whose address matches more than one vendor record.
Customize an Agent Reply Email Template
An agent reply template has a Subject: line and a body. Both are edited in place, through Edit in the Email Template panel of the Agent Replies group.
Before you begin
Select the Vendor Category, intent, and reply scenario first. See Agent Replies by Vendor Category and Intent below.
Edit a template
- Select the vendor category and Intent. Language Match and its language list appear only when language-matched templates are turned on for your tenant.
- Select the scenario variant you want to change: All Invoices Found, Some Invoices Found, No Invoice Found, General Payment Inquiry, or their Multi Vendor Match equivalents.
- Select Edit, change the subject or body, and use Preview to read it back.
The subject supports variables in the same way the body does; the shipped default is Re: ${subject}, which echoes the vendor’s own subject line.
Each variant is edited separately. Rewriting All Invoices Found leaves the other seven untouched, which is often missed when the change is a piece of boilerplate that belongs in all of them, such as a signature or a disclaimer.
Edit the template
In the Email Template area, select Edit.
Edit the Subject field.
Edit the body in the editor below the subject.
Figure 3. The Email Template editor for the selected intent.
Formatting available in the body editor
The editor toolbar offers a paragraph style list, bold, italic, underline, link, numbered list, bulleted list, and clear formatting.
What makes a template work
Fixed text should suit the scenario. The template exists because this scenario needs its own wording. A No Invoice Found body that explains what was checked and what the vendor can supply is more useful than one that glosses over the absence.
Variables read best inside sentences. “Invoice {number} was paid on {date}” is clearer than a bare list bolted to a greeting.
Register matters. Vendors notice when the automated reply is stiffer or breezier than the humans they normally deal with.
The subject is what the vendor’s inbox shows. A generic one buries the reply.
The template body holds standard response text alongside record variables. Values such as invoice number, invoice date, amounts, and payment records render from the matched records at send time. See Variables and Lists in Agent Reply Templates below.
The Preview pane renders variable placement as the reply would send. See Agent Reply Template Preview below.
Variables and lists in Agent Reply templates
Agent reply templates are written with two constructs: variables, which substitute a single value, and lists, which repeat a block once per record.
Variables
A variable is written ${object.field} and is replaced with the value when the reply is generated.
Table 2. Variables in the shipped payment-status template
| Variable | Substitutes |
|---|---|
${vendor.businessName} |
The vendor’s business name |
${subject} |
The subject of the vendor’s own email |
${vendorBill.invoiceNumber} |
Invoice number |
${vendorBill.invoiceDate} |
Invoice date |
${vendorBill.total} |
Invoice amount |
${vendorBill.dueDate} |
Due date |
${vendorBill.status} |
Invoice status |
${vendorBill.amountPaid} |
Amount paid |
${vendorBill.amountRemaining} |
Amount unpaid |
${vendorBill.totalDiscountApplied} |
Total discount applied |
${vendorPayment.date} |
Payment date |
${vendorPayment.amount} |
Payment amount |
Lists
A list repeats everything between its brackets, once per record. The form is:
$LIST::foundRecords[[ … ]]Table 3. Lists in the shipped template
| List | Repeats over |
|---|---|
$LIST::foundRecords |
The invoices matched to the vendor’s request |
$LIST::records |
Other invoices billed in the past 180 days |
$LIST::payments |
The payments against one invoice |
Lists nest. In the shipped template $LIST::payments sits inside $LIST::foundRecords, so each invoice is followed by its own payments. Closing brackets are matched innermost first: ]] ]].
Rather than typing a variable by hand, use Insert Value beneath the editor: choose a Variable Type, then a Variable, and it is inserted at the cursor with the correct spelling.
Insert a variable
In Agent Replies, select the Vendor Category, intent, and reply scenario, then select Edit on the template.
Place the cursor in the body where the value should appear.
Under Insert Value, select a Variable Type.
Select a Variable. The variable is inserted at the cursor position.
Figure 4. Insert Value, where a variable type and variable are chosen.
Both lists show the placeholder --Select-- until a choice is made.
How variables render
Variables appear in the template as placeholders and resolve to record values at send time. Record-level values cover the invoice and payment fields the reply reports on, such as invoice number, invoice date, invoice amount, due date, status, amount paid, amount unpaid, and total discount applied.
Values resolve from the system of record within the sender’s authorization scope. An External sender’s reply can only carry values from records tied to their matched vendor.
Repeating list values
List variables render a block once per record. Payment records, for example, repeat a line per payment showing the payment date and payment amount.
A vendor who asks about one invoice and a vendor who pastes twenty into a spreadsheet both get complete answers from the same template, because the list does the scaling. This is why a scenario template rarely needs invoice-count-specific wording.
Placement
Single-value variables read best inside sentences, where a person would state the fact.
List variables belong on their own lines or in their own block, since they expand to unknown length.
A scenario that may have no value for a field should not carry that field’s variable. A No Invoice Found template with invoice-field variables has nothing to resolve them from.
The Preview pane renders the template with the variables in position.
Attachments
A reply can carry generated attachments, selected per template.
Table 4. Generated attachments
Attachment |
Format |
|---|---|
History CSV |
CSV |
Payment Status CSV |
CSV |
Remittance Advice PDF |
These are produced at send time from the vendor’s own records, and appear on the draft marked Generated. An attachment is often the better answer to a long list. A vendor asking about twenty invoices can read a CSV more readily than twenty repeated blocks.
Attachments on Agent Replies
Attaching a report to an Agent Reply saves the vendor a follow-up email. Include a history or payment-status file with the reply so the vendor gets the detail alongside the answer.
Attachments are set per reply scenario rather than per intent, so a scenario with nothing to report need not carry a file.
Add attachments
Select the Vendor Category, intent, and reply scenario.
Scroll to Attachments.
Select each file to include with the reply. The options available depend on the intent. See Attachment availability by intent below.
Figure 5. The Attachments options on an Agent Reply.
Attachment availability by intent
Attachment options depend on the intent, because each report only makes sense against certain questions.
Table 5. Attachment availability by intent
Intent |
Available attachments |
Note |
|---|---|---|
Payment status |
History CSV, Payment Status CSV, Remittance Advice PDF |
The payment-status file covers the invoices the reply reports on. |
Remittance advice |
Remittance Advice PDF |
None. |
PO status |
PO status file |
Available for Internal Senders only. Purchase order detail is internal data, so the attachment does not go to vendors. |
When an attachment helps
A payment-status answer covering many invoices is more useful with the CSV than as prose alone, because the vendor is likely to reconcile against it.
A No Invoice Found reply with an empty payment-status file attached is less useful than the same reply without one. The setting is therefore per scenario rather than per intent.
Date values inside reply attachments follow the Agent Co-worker date format. For more information, see AP Helpdesk Processing and Automation in Collaborative Mode.
Attachment content resolves within the sender’s authorization scope, the same as body variables. An External sender’s file carries only their matched vendor’s records.
Language matching for Agent Replies
Language matching lets the Agent Co-worker answer a vendor in the language they wrote in, rather than always replying in one fixed language. It is set per Vendor Category and intent, alongside the reply template, so a payment-status reply can match the sender’s language while a banking-detail reply stays in whatever language your fraud-review process works in.
Configure language matching
Select the Vendor Category tab and the intent.
Select Language Match to match the reply language to the inbound message.
To reply in a fixed language instead, leave Language Match cleared and select the language from the Language list beside it.
Figure 6. The Language Match control on the Agent Replies group.
Field descriptions
Language Match makes the agent follow the language of the inbound message. Cleared, the Language list beside it sets one fixed reply language.
Table 6. Language matching field descriptions
Field |
Description |
Default |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Language Match |
Matches the reply language to the inbound message. |
Cleared |
When no template is saved for the detected language, the reply falls back to the default template. |
Language list |
The fixed language the reply uses. |
English |
The list holds 48 languages, from English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic through to Basque, Georgian, Maltese, and Welsh. Languages that already have saved templates are listed first, with the template count beside the name. The list is available only while Language Match is ticked. Ticking it also resets the selection to English. |
Choose between matching and fixed
Language Match suits an international vendor base where suppliers write in their own language and expect an answer in kind. It removes the need to pick a single language that will be wrong for someone.
A fixed language suits organizations whose vendor correspondence is contractually or operationally in one language, and teams that want every outbound reply reviewable without translation.
One trade-off applies to matching: the template’s fixed text was written in one language, but the composed reply renders in the matched one. Selecting a language machine-translates the whole template, subject and body, from the English source, so you see a fully translated draft rather than half-translated text. Edit it if you want, then save: the result is stored as a separate template for that language, and at send time the agent uses the saved per-language template as it stands.
The setting sits beside the reply template, so it is configured per Vendor Category and intent rather than once for the whole Agent Co-worker.
Agent Reply Template Preview
The preview pane renders the reply as the Agent Co-worker would compose it, so you can confirm the subject, the wording, and that variables sit in the right places.
Every Collaborative Mode reply goes through human review before it is sent, but a template defect caught in the preview is fixed once. Caught in review, it recurs on every draft until someone traces it back.
This article covers Collaborative Mode templates. Governed Autonomy replies are composed from guidance rather than authored as fixed text, and are previewed differently.
Review the preview
Select the Vendor Category, intent, and reply scenario.
Read the Preview pane on the right of the template editor.
What to check
The generated subject line.
The greeting and the vendor reference.
The body wording and the order in which record values appear.
Variable placement, including where repeating list values render one block per record.
Any standard notes and the closing.
That the wording is honest for the scenario: a Some Invoices Found preview should visibly address both the found and the missing invoices.
Each scenario has its own template
The preview shows one Vendor Category, intent, and scenario combination at a time, so checking the All Invoices Found template says nothing about the No Invoice Found one. The not-found scenarios are where wording problems bite hardest.
The preview shows variable placeholders in position. Record values resolve at send time from the system of record, within the sender’s authorization scope, so the preview reflects structure and wording rather than a specific vendor’s data.
Under Governed Autonomy, replies are composed from response guidance rather than fixed templates. For more information, see Create and Manage AP Helpdesk Processing Rules.
Collaborative Response Orchestration
Collaborative Mode is being deprecated. New setups should use Governed Autonomy, where replies are composed against the whole message rather than from a single template, and information gaps surface as Answer actions on the task. For more information, see Autonomy Models.
Collaborative Response Orchestration checks a template-based draft against the email it answers, and surfaces anything the draft leaves unaddressed.
CRO exists because of a structural limit of templates: a template answers the scenario it was written for, but a vendor email often raises several matters at once. A payment-status template answers the payment question and silently ignores the address-change request two lines below it.
Agent Replies exists only under Collaborative Mode, so nothing in this section has a Governed Autonomy counterpart.
Enable CRO
On the Define capabilities step, select the AP Helpdesk tab, then select Processing & Automation.
Select Collaborative Response Orchestration (CRO).
What the setting does
When enabled, the AI Agent performs a gap analysis comparing processed emails against template-based reply drafts so that every topic the email raises is covered. Users can optionally review and resolve identified gaps via the CRO interface prior to sending.
Work with identified gaps
Reviewing gaps is optional. The draft can be sent without resolving them. CRO is an aid to the reviewer rather than a gate: it points at what the template missed, and the reviewer decides whether the gap matters for this message.
Where reviewers routinely send drafts with unresolved gaps, either the flagged gaps are noise or multi-part vendor emails are being half-answered and generating follow-up traffic. A sample of sent-with-gaps replies distinguishes the two.
The CRO interface opens from the agent’s reply draft in the task review. When the gap analysis finds something unaddressed on an open task assigned to you, the draft carries a banner reading This draft may be incomplete with a Review & Complete button; the button opens a Collaborative Response Orchestration window showing the AI Agent Reply Draft on the left and, on the right, a Missing Information list and a Gap Questions panel with a text box for each question. Generate Completed Draft rewrites the reply from the answers, and the rewritten draft can be declined, edited, or accepted.
CRO has no direct Governed Autonomy equivalent, because the problem it patches does not exist there. Replies are composed against the full message rather than picked from a template. For more information, see Maintain Agent Co-workers.