The Payables Agent reads vendor invoices that arrive as PDF attachments in a mailbox, extracts the invoice details, and builds a purchase invoice draft for you to review. When you confirm the draft, the agent turns it into an unposted purchase invoice. It never posts anything on its own.
Version 29.0 (2026 release wave 2) improved how the agent matches invoice lines to purchase orders, and the agent has offered a free trial since update 28.3. This guide covers activation, mailbox setup, review policies, purchase order matching, and what to watch on cost.
When to Use This
The agent fits companies that receive a steady flow of PDF invoices by email and spend time keying them in. It works best when vendors already exist in Business Central and you have purchase invoice history, because the agent uses that history to suggest G/L accounts, items, and dimensions.
It is a poor fit if most of your invoices arrive as Peppol or other structured e-documents. Those already come in through E-Documents without OCR.
Prerequisites
Before you start:
- Country and language. The agent is validated in English for Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It runs in other countries and languages, but results can vary.
- Configuration rights. You need the Configure All Agents system permission (ID 9665) or Can Configure on the agent’s user access list.
- A Microsoft 365 mailbox. A shared mailbox works best. You need Read and manage (Full Access) permission on it, and Exchange can take a few hours to apply new permissions.
- Billing. Set up consumption billing for the environment in the Business Central admin center. The agent uses Copilot Credits.
- Sandbox only: open Extension Management, select Payables Agent, and turn on Allow HttpClient Requests.
Step 1: Turn On the Capability
- Look for the Payables Agent icon in the top navigation of your Role Center.
- If it isn’t there, search for Copilot & agent capabilities using
Alt + Q. - Under Generally available, turn on Payables Agent.
Step 2: Prepare the Mailbox
Use a dedicated shared mailbox for invoices, for example [email protected]. Don’t share it with the Sales Order Agent, and don’t let users work in it from Outlook. The agent picks up unread email, and a user who opens or moves a message can take it away from the agent.
Keep the mailbox internal if you can. Vendors send invoices to your normal accounts payable address, and the AP team forwards real invoices to the agent mailbox. That gives a person the first look at every invoice, which helps catch fraud.
If several companies share one mailbox, set up Outlook rules that move each company’s invoices into a subfolder. Each company’s agent then monitors its own subfolder.
Step 3: Try It with Trial Mode
Trial mode processes up to 50 invoices without using billable credits. It is available in production environments where the agent has never been activated.
- Select Payables Agent > Activate in the Role Center navigation.
- In the Try the Payables Agent section of the Configure the Payables Agent guide, select Select file and upload a PDF invoice, or select Try some sample invoices.
- Watch the agent’s progress in the task pane on the right.
After 50 invoices, the agent switches to full mode on its own and starts using credits. The trial counter is replaced with a Cost section that shows credits used.
Step 4: Configure and Activate
- Select Payables Agent > Activate, or Configure Payables Agent if trial mode is already running.
- Turn on Active.
- Select Manage user access and add the people who review invoices. Select Can configure only for users who should change the setup.
- Check that the agent’s language is a supported English locale.
- Select the Go to next card arrow (
Ctrl + Right arrow) to move through the remaining cards.
Monitor incoming information card:
- Turn on Monitor incoming information and select the Mailbox checkbox.
- Set Email account to the invoice mailbox.
- Optionally set Folder to a subfolder. Leave it blank to monitor the whole mailbox.
Document processing card:
Set Email review to one of three options:
| Option | What happens |
|---|---|
| Manage per sender (recommended) | Known senders with an Approve policy, authenticated internal senders, and mail in a monitored subfolder are processed without review. Senders with a Reject policy are skipped. Everyone else needs human review first. |
| Never | Every email is processed without review |
| Always | Every email needs review before processing |
Select Manage known senders to set Approve or Reject per sender. With an internal-only mailbox and forwarding from the AP team, Manage per sender keeps review steps to a minimum.
Use Configure additional fields if your purchase invoice lines carry fields from extensions that the draft page doesn’t show. The agent then fills them from matched invoice history.
- Select Update.
Step 5: Prepare Purchase Order Matching
This step is optional, but it matters if many invoices relate to purchase orders.
Price tolerance:
- Search for Purchases & Payables Setup.
- Set E-Document Matching Difference % to the price difference you accept, for example
2.
A larger difference shows as a Price difference warning on the draft. It doesn’t block anything.
Receipt on Invoice:
- Open the Vendor Card for a vendor that invoices before goods are formally received, typically service vendors.
- Set Receipt on Invoice to Automatic.
With Automatic, new eligible purchase orders for the vendor get Receipt on Invoice turned on, so posting the invoice receives and invoices the matched quantity in one step. Manual leaves it off, and a user can turn it on per order or line. Existing vendors aren’t changed by the upgrade.
Receipt on Invoice isn’t available for lines with item tracking, for locations with directed put-away and pick, or for lines that already have posted receipts.
Step 6: Review Drafts
When the agent needs input, a badge appears on the Payables Agent icon.
- Select the icon and open a task under Needs Attention.
- Select Review to open the Purchase document draft.
- Check the fields the agent filled. Each one has a tip that explains the agent’s reasoning.
- For order lines, check Order line match and Warnings. Use Match to order lines to correct a match.
- Select Confirm. The agent finalizes the draft as an unposted purchase invoice.
- Open the invoice from Purchase Invoices and post it through your normal process.
If the agent can’t identify the vendor, type an instruction such as Create vendor using OCR data in the Give instructions to the agent box. The new vendor is created with Blocked set to All, so it can’t be used until someone checks the bank details and unblocks it.
The matching warnings come from Business Central validation, not from AI confidence:
| Warning | Blocks finalization? |
|---|---|
| Unit of measure information is missing | Yes |
| Exceeds quantity received | No, but receipts must cover the quantity before posting |
| Exceeds remaining to invoice | No, but fix it before posting |
| Over-receipt | No |
| Price difference | No |
Step 7: Keep Credit Use Under Control
- Select Payables Agent > Configure.
- Check the Cost section for total credits used.
When credits run out, the agent stops processing but stays active. When credits come back, it processes every unread email that piled up in the meantime. If you are testing, turn off Active before credits run out, and clear old emails from the mailbox before you turn it back on.
Limits
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Attachments per email | 10 (emails with more are skipped) |
| Pages per PDF | 10 |
| PDF size | 5 MB |
| Emails per day | 100 |
| Invoices per day | 500 |
| Agents per company | 1 |
Emails without a PDF attachment aren’t processed. They show up as tasks that need manual attention.
Agent Permissions
The agent has its own user account. Search for Agents and open PAYABLES AGENT - [COMPANY] to see it. By default it has the PAYABLES AG. – RUN permission set. If your extensions add fields the agent needs, copy that set, extend the copy, and add it under Agent Permission Sets. Set the agent’s State to disabled before you change permissions, and enable it again afterward.
To learn how purchase orders and receipts work before the agent matches against them, see How to Set Up and Use Purchase Orders in Business Central.