As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly approve supplier invoices.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open the accounts payable or accounting system and record the invoice as pending rather than approved or paid.
   2. Gather the original invoice, matching purchase order, goods-received note or service confirmation, supplier record and the relevant approval-limit and cost-centre rules.
   3. Remove unnecessary personal or bank information, then paste the invoice and supporting records into the prompt in clearly labelled sections.
   4. Ask the model for a recommendation using only the supplied evidence, and require it to list every mismatch, missing document and duplicate-payment warning.
   5. Compare each stated amount, supplier, invoice number, VAT figure and delivery detail against the original documents and the accounting system, correcting any extraction errors.
   6. Send the recommendation and the source documents to the authorised budget holder or finance colleague, who makes the approval decision and records it in the accounting system.

   Prompt

   You are reviewing a supplier invoice for a UK business. Do not approve, reject, send, schedule or authorise any payment. Produce a recommendation only: APPROVE FOR HUMAN AUTHORISATION, HOLD FOR REVIEW, or REJECT, followed by a short reason.
   
   Use only the evidence supplied below. Do not invent missing facts, VAT treatment, purchase orders, delivery records, supplier details or approval rules. Check for:
   1. Invoice number, invoice date, supplier name, bank details, net amount, VAT amount, gross amount and currency.
   2. Agreement between the invoice and the purchase order, including supplier, quantities, prices, VAT and total.
   3. Evidence that the goods or services were received, if provided.
   4. Duplicate invoice numbers, duplicate amounts, changed bank details, unusual urgency, unexplained charges and missing evidence.
   5. Whether the stated approval limit and cost-centre rules are met, if those rules are supplied.
   
   Return this structure:
   - Recommendation:
   - Evidence supporting it:
   - Exceptions or mismatches:
   - Missing information:
   - Checks a human must complete:
   - Confidence: low, medium or high, with a reason.
   
   An invoice may be recommended for human authorisation only when all supplied evidence matches and no material exception is present. If evidence is missing or ambiguous, recommend HOLD FOR REVIEW. Flag any bank-detail change for independent verification through a known supplier contact, not through contact details shown only on the invoice.
   
   Invoice:
   [PASTE INVOICE TEXT OR EXTRACTED DATA]
   
   Purchase order:
   [PASTE PURCHASE ORDER OR WRITE NONE]
   
   Receipt or delivery evidence:
   [PASTE RECEIPT, GOODS-RECEIVED NOTE OR WRITE NONE]
   
   Supplier and approval rules:
   [PASTE RELEVANT RULES OR WRITE NONE]

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.