Finance integrations and automations

What this work has in common

Every process in this category ends with money moving or with a number somebody signs. That changes what a good design looks like. An approval matrix changes and the change has to be evidenced, so it lives as data with a history. A tolerance is a decision, so it is written down, and a difference inside it is recorded as accepted. Nothing is ever plugged to make a total agree.

The systems are usually an ERP such as NetSuite, a procurement or spend tool such as Coupa or Brex, a billing system such as Stripe, the bank feeds, and the inbox where invoices still arrive as PDFs. The hard part is the space between them. An approved purchase order that never reaches the ERP. A card transaction with no receipt. A payment that clears with no invoice to match it to.

The guides below cover procure to pay, accounts payable, expenses, vendor records, collections, bank reconciliation, revenue recognition and the month end close. Each one starts from the control the process has to satisfy and works back to the integration.

The recurring cost is finding a problem at close, when it is hardest to fix. Most of these builds move that check earlier: match the invoice when it arrives, chase the missing receipt in the same week, and flag the unreconciled item while somebody still remembers the transaction.