Intents & Outcomes

Who this is for. Whoever sets AP Helpdesk up, which is a Super Admin.

This step is where you decide what the agent acts on. Each row is one request the agent can recognize, and each row carries the set of outcomes it is allowed to produce for that request.

The step appears only once Turn on AP Helpdesk is selected in Settings.


Read a row

A row has three parts, left to right:

  • A chevron, which expands the row to show the outcomes behind it.

  • The intent, with a checkbox. Clear it and the agent stops acting on that request.

  • The outcome count, reading N out of N selected. Select it to choose which outcomes apply.

A count below its total, such as 3 out of 4, means an outcome has been deliberately turned off for that intent. That is the first thing to check when the agent recognizes a request but does not do what you expected with it.


The intents

Intents are written as sentences, and split by who is asking. The same question from a vendor and from an employee is two separate rows, because the agent is permitted to answer them differently.

Table 1. Intents, by who is asking.

From a vendor

From an internal sender

Vendor has requested payment status

Internal Sender has requested payment status

Vendor has requested remittance advice

Internal Sender has requested remittance advice

Vendor has requested for record update

Internal Sender has requested record update

Vendor is inquiring about a short payment

Internal Sender is inquiring about a short payment

Vendor has submitted an invoice

Not applicable

Vendor has submitted a Credit Memo

Not applicable

Not applicable

Internal Sender has requested PO Status

Two asymmetries are worth noting. Document submissions are vendor-only, because an employee submitting an invoice is handled as AP Invoices work rather than helpdesk correspondence. Purchase order status is internal-only, so a vendor asking about a purchase order does not have a matching intent and the message is raised for a person instead.


Turn an intent off

  1. Clear the checkbox beside the intent.

  2. Select Continue.

The agent still classifies mail of that kind and still reports it on the dashboard. What changes is that it stops producing an outcome, so the message reaches a person instead.

Figure 1. The Intents and Outcomes step, with one row per request.


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