Overview of Accounts Payable (AP) Configuration Options in Brightflag Overview of Accounts Payable (AP) Configuration Options in Brightflag

Overview of Accounts Payable (AP) Configuration Options in Brightflag

To facilitate invoice payments, Brightflag provides multiple Accounts Payable (AP) export options to integrate with your AP system efficiently.

📌 Key Features:
✔️ Customizable AP routing based on jurisdictions, entities, or business units.
✔️ Multiple export options to fit your company’s AP process.
✔️ Automated payment status updates through AP Reverse Feed.


🔹 AP Integration Methods in Brightflag

Brightflag offers three primary methods to integrate with your Accounts Payable system:

1️⃣ API Integration (Automated AP Processing)

📌 Best For: Companies looking for fully automated invoice processing.

  • Invoices are automatically sent to your AP system via API for faster processing.
  • Requires initial engineering setup between Brightflag and your IT team.
  • Supports error handling between Brightflag and your AP system.

💡 Tip: This is preferable to SFTP automation, as it allows for real-time error transmission between systems.


2️⃣ AP Email Integration

📌 Best For: Companies preferring manual invoice processing via email.

  • Upon final approval, an email with the original invoice PDF is sent to a designated AP email address.
  • The AP team manually processes the invoice for payment.

📌 Key Benefit: No technical setup required—simple email-based integration.


3️⃣ AP Batch Export (Bulk Invoice Processing)

📌 Best For: Companies looking to process multiple invoices in bulk.

Approved invoices are grouped into a batch and sent to AP for bulk payment processing.

Key Benefits:

  • Increases efficiency by processing invoices in groups.
  • Simplifies payment tracking and auditing.
  • Each batch is tagged with a unique ID and timestamp for easy reference.

🔹 AP Batch Export Methods

Brightflag supports three ways to export AP batches:

Export Type Description Best For
Manual Export An admin downloads the batch file from Brightflag. Small businesses or companies with manual AP workflows.
Scheduled Email Export A recurring batch file is automatically sent via email to the AP team. Mid-size companies with a dedicated AP email for invoice processing.
Scheduled SFTP Export The batch file is automatically sent to a secure SFTP server. Large enterprises requiring automated uploads to payment systems.

📌 Note: Brightflag can host the SFTP server or allow integration with your existing SFTP setup.


🔹 What’s Included in an AP Batch Export?

Each AP batch can include the following information:

Export Component Details Use Case
Batch File (.csv/.xlsx/.xml/.data) Contains invoice details (invoice number, subtotal, law firm, legal entity, tax data, etc.). Used by AP teams for bulk payment processing.
Original Invoice PDFs PDFs of vendor-submitted invoices. Required in APAC & EMEA for tax audit records.
Invoice Summary PDFs Auto-generated invoice summaries with approval history. Helps AP teams with OCR processing & record-keeping.

🔹 Tracking Invoice Payments: AP Reverse Feed

💰 How to Track Payments in Brightflag?

  • Vendors often ask when their invoices will be paid.
  • The AP Reverse Feed enables your AP team to send invoice status updates to Brightflag.
  • Updates include:
    New Invoice Status: (e.g., Paid ➡️ "Paid" in Brightflag, Void ➡️ "Rejected" in Brightflag)
    Payment Note: (e.g., Payment Date, Payment Reference)

🔄 How it Works:
1️⃣ Your AP team sends the invoice status feed to an SFTP server or via our API.
2️⃣ Brightflag automatically updates invoice statuses in the system.

📌 Benefit: Reduces manual tracking inquiries and ensures vendors have real-time payment updates.