Artificial intelligence is omnipresent in the workplace by now. In the digital world, agents are used to provide efficient support – including in Dynamics 365 Business Central. Until now, the Sales Order Agent has made it easier to enter sales orders from email messages. With the Payables Agent, another agent has now been introduced in the latest version of Business Central.
AI-driven agents can work autonomously, performing assigned tasks, responding to various events and inputs, checking the status of data, and resolving various errors. The Payables Agent in Business Central is designed to help simplify tedious and time-consuming tasks in accounts payable and other accounting processes. This saves time and reduces errors.
Capturing PDF attachments and creating purchase invoices
In an initial version, the agent for accounts payable can capture purchase attachments as PDF files from a Microsoft 365 mailbox to which vendors send their invoices. The agent uses these to create corresponding purchase invoices and then imports these invoice documents into Business Central for review and further processing. During processing, it uses the existing purchase history or the company’s accounting guidelines and can also assist in creating new, as yet unknown suppliers.
Once the files have been imported, they are further processed using OCR (optical character recognition) technology. The results are stored in the e-documents in Business Central and can then be validated, approved, and posted.
The Payables Agent is currently still in preview version. In the future, it will also be able to handle more complex scenarios. The agent also supports e-documents received through other channels, such as PEPPOL.