Worked example
An invoice workflow with human approval built in.
An illustrative vendor-invoice workflow: capture the document, check draft details, handle exceptions, and keep payment approval with an authorized person.
Illustrative workflow. This example shows a possible workflow. The tools and approval steps are agreed around your business.
What could an invoice workflow look like?
An invoice can move from a shared inbox into a tracked work queue, with draft details prepared for review and reminders sent under agreed rules. The authorized approver checks the invoice and makes the payment decision. Approved work then moves into your existing payment process.
AI may help read varied invoice formats. Fixed rules can handle routing, required fields, and reminders. Your team supplies the approval rules and decides how to resolve exceptions.
- Capture
Keep the original.
Log the invoice and preserve its source document.
- AI assistance + rules
Prepare and check.
Draft the fields, run agreed checks, and flag exceptions.
- Human decision
Review and approve.
The authorized person approves, rejects, or asks for more information.
- Existing payment process
Pass on approved work.
Track the handoff and confirm completion from the payment record.
At any exception: hold the item for its owner. A missing answer, failed check, or absent approval never means “approved.”
What happens at each step?
Capture the invoice and its source.
A designated inbox or upload starts the task. Create a queue item linked to the original document, received time, and sender. Assign an owner so every item has someone responsible for resolving it.
If it fails: a missing attachment or capture failure goes to the owner. Reprocessing should find the existing item rather than silently create another.
Prepare draft fields for review.
Read the invoice number, supplier, amount, currency, due date, and any order reference. Treat extracted values as draft data. Keep the source available beside the entry so a person can correct it.
If it is unclear: leave uncertain or unreadable fields flagged. Do not guess missing values or treat the document’s wording as an instruction to approve it.
Run the agreed checks.
Check required fields, possible duplicates, supplier records, and any order or receipt information your process requires. Use defined matching rules; a plausible-looking invoice is not evidence that a purchase was authorized.
If a check fails: hold the item and record the reason. Supplier or payment-detail changes require a separate verification process owned by your team.
Route to an authorized approver.
Use your existing approval rules, including any amount thresholds or additional approvals. Give the reviewer the original, draft fields, relevant records, and unresolved flags.
The person decides: approve, reject, or request information. Record who acted, when, and why. A reminder or elapsed deadline cannot substitute for approval.
Hand off and track the result.
Only approved items proceed to your existing payment process, where your authorized staff retain payment controls. Record the handoff reference. Mark the item complete only when that process provides confirmation.
If the handoff fails: keep it visibly waiting. Check whether the destination already received it before retrying, so a retry cannot create a second payment instruction.
What needs a person’s attention?
Define the exception owner before turning the workflow on. These are starting points to adapt to your approval and verification procedures.
| Exception | Next step and owner |
|---|---|
| Unreadable or missing details | The queue owner checks the source or requests a corrected invoice; the item stays on hold. |
| Possible duplicate | The reviewer compares the original and existing records before deciding whether the item should proceed. |
| New supplier or changed payment details | The person responsible for supplier verification follows your separate verification procedure before any payment step. |
| Missing order evidence or conflicting amount | The purchase owner supplies the required evidence; the approver resolves the discrepancy. |
| Unavailable approver | The process owner uses an explicitly authorized substitute or escalation route. No silent bypass. |
| Connection or handoff failure | The workflow owner checks the destination, records the failure, and safely retries or follows the manual process. |
How would you check whether it works?
Agree the pass criteria before building. Test with permitted sample invoices and a test destination before connecting actions that affect live records.
- Confirm draft fields against each original, including currency and amount.
- Include missing fields, poor scans, duplicate submissions, changed supplier details, and mismatched order information.
- Try an unavailable approver and each applicable approval threshold. Confirm that no item proceeds without the required authorization.
- Interrupt a handoff and replay an item. Confirm failures stay visible and retries do not create duplicate downstream work.
- Confirm that users see only what their role permits and that the history identifies edits, decisions, and handoffs.
For a before-and-after comparison, use equivalent work over an agreed observation window. Track received-to-decision time, staff handling time, corrections, unresolved exceptions, and overdue approvals. Record the volume and mix of invoices so a change in workload does not look like a workflow improvement.
These are proposed checks and measures. No time savings, error reduction, or customer results are claimed for this illustrative example.
Who keeps it working?
Name the owner of the queue, approval rules, supplier checks, connections, and instructions. Give the team a manual fallback and a way to stop a faulty workflow. Review access when roles change and retest when a tool, invoice format, or approval rule changes.
The build should document where original records and decision history are kept, who may access them, and the retention rules your business has agreed. Instructions and training need to cover exceptions as well as the ordinary path.
Explore training for your teamWould this fit your process?
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