Spendesk AP
Streamline and keep your supplier invoice processes under full control. Leverage clear approval flows, three-way matching, payments and automated bookkeeping to save you time and prevent fraud. Faster, more reliable and more secure – from beginning to end.
Get set up
This step is for Account Owners only.
Go to Settings > Company Rules and click on the Payment methods tab
Check that Invoices, Purchase orders & Delivery notes are enabled
If you are unable to do this, your plan may not include accounts payable features. Contact us using the support@spendesk.com email, or the chat functionality in product, to get have more information. You can also reach out to the team in charge of your account.
Submission
Submitting Purchase Orders
This step is for everyone that can raise requests and make purchases in Spendesk.
Make a New Request > Make a purchase request > Request a purchase order
Here you have 2 options:
Upload a quote or purchase order (PO) document and have Spendesk AI pre-fill the PO data including breaking down your order details into individual line items
Create a blank request and enter your purchase order details. Including the price and quantity of each of the the items in your request by clicking Split into items +
When submitting your request, toggle on Is a delivery expected so you can keep track of the status of your order
Add a Description, Cost Centre, and Expense Category and any other compulsory information
Confirm your request for this to go through your personal approval process.
Check on the status of your request by going to your Purchase Orders page. You’ll also receive an email when this has been approved
Not able to request a PO here? Raise it in Spendesk Procurement instead, instructions here.
Additional actions
Click on the links below to find out more about each feature:
For more information visit the dedicated PO help centre article here.
Looking for a procurement tool? Streamline your purchasing process with Spendesk Procurement:
Reduce unnecessary communication by up to 80%
Cut request-to-approval times in half
Automatically generate POs for over 90% of requests
Stay on top of contract renewals with smart reminders
Recording Delivery Notes
Go to Your Requests
Open the Purchase Order and click on Add delivery note
Select your delivery date, and record which items have been delivered
Note: You can attach multiple delivery notes to a single PO in order to record partial deliveries
Press Continue to submit
Scroll down in the Purchase order to see the recorded Delivery Notes attached to this PO
For more information visit the dedicated Delivery Notes help centre article here.
Submitting invoices
There are multiple ways to upload invoices to Spendesk
Forward supplier invoices to Spendesk using your unique forwarding email address. (Find out more here)
Upload invoices directly (Find out more here)
When forwarding your invoice to Spendesk users can find it in their personal Inbox, or if forwarded from an unknown/generic email in the shared Inbox (all Controllers have access)
Your Invoice information is pre-filled using Spendesk AI, and if applicable will be automatically linked to the corresponding PO and delivery notes. Check this is all correct and provide any required information to submit
The Invoice is then reviewed based on the Approval Flow you have set up in your system
For more information visit the dedicated Submitting your invoices help centre article here.
Submitting credit notes
There are multiple ways to upload credit notes to Spendesk
Forward supplier credit notes to Spendesk
Upload credit notes directly
When forwarding your credit note to Spendesk users can find it in their personal Inbox or if forwarded from an unknown/generic Email in the shared Inbox (all Controllers have access)
Your credit note information is pre-filled using Spendesk AI, and if applicable will be automatically linked to the corresponding PO and delivery notes. Check this is all correct and provide any required information to submit
The credit note is then reviewed based on the Approval Flow you have set up in your system
The finance team can then take three actions with the credit note:
Deduct a credit note from a reference invoice
Save a credit note for future applications to an invoice
Mark a credit note as refunded outside Spendesk
For more information visit the dedicated Credit Notes help centre article here.
Payment & Bookkeeping
Finance Review
The next steps are available to all Controllers.
Not sure if you’re a Controller? If you can see the Bookkeeping section then you are.
This step follows after the individual Approval Flow and is a second check of the Invoice from the Finance Team to evaluate the Invoice before it is getting paid
Go to the Invoice Tab in Spendesk to review company invoices
Here you can check:
the Due Dates on the Invoice
if it needs to be paid or can already be marked as paid via Direct Debit
the Supplier Details (IBAN, BIC)
check for the right Budget Period
etc.
When reviewing the invoice that is connected to purchase orders and delivery notes, a matching callout will appear to show if this invoice fully or partially matches the PO amount
You can click directly into the PO from here to review in more detail
Once you are happy with the invoice you can confirm this is ready to be paid.
After the Finance Review you can also start with your preparation in the Bookkeeping part to export the invoice to your Accounting System
Schedule Payment
This step is available to all Controllers.
Go to the Schedule page and select the invoice to schedule
Select the invoice, and select how you’d like to pay
Directly from Spendesk - available for national invoices (all customers) and international invoices (available for Euro accounts, GBP accounts soon)
Using external tools - Export your payments via CSV or XML allowing you to pay via your external Bank Account or Accounting System
When you have prepared the payment and selected to pay via the Spendesk Wallet, the Invoices will move to the Confirm Page
Confirm Payment from Spendesk Wallet
By default this is done by the Account Owner (but there is options to allow selected Controllers too).
When the invoice is ready to be paid, or scheduled for payment (EEA customers only), go to the Confirm page
To execute the Wire Transfers (Instantly or on the set Date/Due Dates) the payments need to be confirmed
It can be done on Desktop or Mobile
You can either select which payments to confirm or confirm all Scheduled Payments at once
By default this task is assigned to the Account Owner of the Entity
If you like to Delegate this right to selected other Controllers you can find on how to do that in our Help Center
Bookkeep
This step is available to all Controllers.
After the Invoices have been accepted in the Finance Review step and sent to Schedule, the payable will appear in your Bookkeeping for you to prepare and export
Each invoice will have had data pre-filled using Spendesk AI, or using your own bespoke company rules
Export invoices to your accounting tool with a single click along with the rest of your card payments and expense claims
Top Tips for smarter AP
Approval workflows
Create approval flows that ensure the right stakeholders review invoices before they reach finance for approval and payment. This helps eliminate bottlenecks and strengthens your overall invoice management process.
Approval flows can be based upon cost centre, spend type (e.g. invoices), expense categories and custom fields, allowing you to tailor approval workflows specifically for invoices.
Automated Bookkeeping rules
Reduce the time spent preparing payables by up to 40% with new rule-based automation to pre-fill payable data based on your chosen rules.
Set up your bookkeeping auto-population based on your suppliers, or add even more conditions that affect the rest of the invoices coding to ensure they match your business needs.
For example, when Supplier is X, set and amount is Y then the Expense account should be Z.
3 way match
Prevent fraud and overpayments by maintaining accuracy across your accounts payable process with comprehensive data matching and real-time discrepancy alerts.
During the “Review” stage, details from purchase orders, delivery notes, and invoices are automatically compared, matched, and pre-filled. If any inconsistencies are detected, Controllers are immediately notified, giving them the visibility needed to address issues before payment. This ensures that only accurate invoices are approved and suppliers are paid correctly.
Forwarding your supplier invoices & credit notes
Each Spendesk entity has its own dedicated email address for receiving invoices.
Spendesk users can forward their own invoices to this address, and the invoices will automatically be assigned to the user who sent them.
Alternatively, you can use a shared generic company inbox (e.g., invoices@companyname.com) to collect and then forward supplier invoices. If the forwarding email address is not associated with a Spendesk user, the invoices will be placed in the shared Spendesk inbox, where they will be automatically assigned to the correct user and PO (if applicable).
Capture all your invoices - no matter how they are paid
The Spendesk invoice process can be used not only for invoices that need to be paid, but also for those that have already been paid (e.g., via direct debit or externally).
This ensures you have a centralised system to collect all invoices, regardless of how they were paid. You’ll benefit from full approval capabilities for audit purposes, and have a single tool to prepare and export everything to your accounting system.