Finance & Accounting Operations

Accounts Payable (AP) Management

Invoices matched, approved and paid on terms, with duplicates stopped before payment.

An outsourced payables function covering invoice capture, three-way matching, exception handling, GST and TDS validation and payment run preparation. We prepare and control; your authorised signatories release the funds.

Typical turnaround
Transition runs three to six weeks, covering the control review, vendor master clean-up and workflow setup before the process goes live. Once operating, invoices are typically validated and matched within one to two working days of receipt, with exceptions raised the same day. Payment runs follow your calendar, most commonly weekly or fortnightly. Timelines extend where the vendor master requires substantial remediation or where approvals are distributed across multiple sites.
Service code
ART-APM-013
Engagement models
Monthly retainer · Per-invoice transaction pricing · Fixed fee vendor master clean-up project
Delivery
Virtual, secure document exchange

Indicative fee from

₹40,000

Indicative monthly fee for up to 400 vendor invoices per month for a single entity with a standard approval workflow. Final fee is confirmed after a volume, workflow and vendor master assessment. Vendor master clean-up and historical duplicate review are quoted separately.

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  • Engagement letter issued before work begins
  • Named engagement lead and defined reporting cadence
  • Confidentiality and access controls on all workpapers
  • Fee adjusted if the confirmed scope is smaller

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Description

Accounts payable rarely fails loudly. It fails as a set of small, recurring costs that never appear as a line item. A supplier invoice sits in an individual mailbox for three weeks and is booked in the wrong period, so the month-end liability is understated. The same invoice is submitted twice, once by email and once with the delivery challan, and is paid twice, and the second payment is discovered a year later during a vendor statement reconciliation, if at all. An early-settlement discount lapses because nobody sequenced the payment run against it. Input tax credit is claimed on an invoice that never appeared in GSTR-2B, and the reversal with interest arrives later.

Two exposures deserve particular attention in the Indian context. The first is Section 43B(h) of the Income-tax Act, which disallows a deduction for amounts payable to a micro or small enterprise registered under the MSMED Act 2006 where payment is not made within the statutory period, with the deduction deferred to the year of actual payment. That converts a routine payables delay into a current-year tax cost, and it requires the vendor master to identify MSME status correctly in the first place. The second is payment fraud. Vendor bank detail change requests arriving by email, often impersonating a genuine supplier, remain one of the most effective attacks on finance functions, and the control that stops them is procedural rather than technical.

What the engagement covers

Invoices are captured into a single controlled intake rather than into personal mailboxes, then validated for statutory particulars, purchase order reference, tax treatment and duplicate risk. Three-way matching runs across purchase order, goods receipt note and invoice for goods, with two-way matching against approved service acceptance where no receipt exists, applied within tolerance rules you set. Exceptions are held and routed to a named owner rather than pushed through to keep a payment run on schedule, because a matching exception that is approved to save time is precisely how leakage occurs. Duplicate detection runs beyond exact-match logic to catch transposed invoice numbers, alternate vendor codes for the same entity, and same-value same-date submissions across different channels. Tax validation covers GST classification, reverse charge identification, and TDS section and rate mapping including the interaction between section 194Q and section 206C(1H). GSTR-2B is matched against the purchase register each period so credit exposure is known before the return is filed rather than after.

Where the control boundary sits

We prepare payment runs; we do not release them. The payment proposal is assembled against due dates, agreed terms, available discounts, MSME statutory deadlines and cash availability, with supporting documentation attached for each line, and it goes to your authorised signatories for release under your delegation of authority. Vendor master changes, particularly bank detail changes, follow a defined verification procedure requiring independent confirmation on a previously recorded contact rather than on the contact details supplied with the request. That separation of preparation from authorisation is deliberate, and we will not accept a scope that removes it.

How the virtual delivery model works here

The function runs remotely inside your accounting or ERP environment with role-restricted access, on a fixed weekly and monthly calendar. Vendor queries are handled through a shared payables inbox with defined response expectations, which removes a persistent interruption load from your finance team. Month-end close support covers accrual identification for goods received but not invoiced, goods receipt and invoice receipt clearing account analysis, and vendor statement reconciliation. Personal and vendor data is processed under documented arrangements consistent with your obligations under the DPDP Act 2023.

Who this is built for

Companies whose vendor volume has outgrown informal approval by email. Multi-location businesses where invoices arrive at sites rather than at head office. Groups needing consistent payables control across entities. Finance teams under audit or diligence scrutiny on unrecorded liabilities, MSME compliance or input tax credit.

Engagement models

Monthly retainer · Per-invoice transaction pricing · Fixed fee vendor master clean-up project

Expected turnaround

Transition runs three to six weeks, covering the control review, vendor master clean-up and workflow setup before the process goes live. Once operating, invoices are typically validated and matched within one to two working days of receipt, with exceptions raised the same day. Payment runs follow your calendar, most commonly weekly or fortnightly. Timelines extend where the vendor master requires substantial remediation or where approvals are distributed across multiple sites.

Scope of Work

  • Centralised invoice intake through a controlled channel, with logging, indexing and acknowledgement so no supplier invoice sits unrecorded in an individual mailbox
  • Invoice validation for statutory particulars, GST identification numbers, purchase order reference, place of supply, tax rate and supporting documentation completeness
  • Three-way matching across purchase order, goods receipt note and invoice, and two-way matching against documented service acceptance where no goods receipt exists
  • Tolerance rule application on quantity and price variance, with exceptions held and routed to a named approver rather than released to preserve a payment schedule
  • Duplicate payment detection covering exact matches, transposed and reformatted invoice numbers, duplicate vendor codes for a single entity and same-value same-date submissions
  • Vendor master hygiene including deduplication, dormant record review, MSME registration and status capture, and controlled change management for bank detail amendments
  • GSTR-2B versus purchase register matching each period, with mismatch categorisation, supplier follow-up lists and a documented input tax credit exposure position
  • TDS determination covering section and rate mapping, threshold monitoring, the interaction between sections 194Q and 206C(1H), and lower-deduction certificate application
  • MSMED Act 2006 payment tracking with vendor-wise ageing against statutory deadlines, and reporting on Section 43B(h) disallowance exposure ahead of year end
  • Payment run preparation sequenced on due dates, negotiated terms, available early-settlement discounts and cash availability, with full documentation attached per line
  • Accrual and clearing account support at close, covering goods received but not invoiced, goods receipt and invoice receipt clearing analysis and unrecorded liability review
  • Vendor statement reconciliation and query handling through a shared payables inbox with defined response expectations and an escalation path for unresolved items

Key Deliverables

Payment Run Pack

The payment proposal for each cycle, sequenced by due date, terms and discount opportunity, with matched supporting documentation per line, ready for your signatories to authorise.

AP Ageing and DPO Dashboard

Payables ageing by bucket and vendor, days payable outstanding, discounts captured and forgone, and invoices held in exception, reported monthly against the opening baseline.

Exception and Hold Register

Every invoice held for a matching, tax or documentation exception, with reason, value, assigned approver and age, so nothing sits in limbo without a visible owner.

Duplicate Detection Report

Flagged potential duplicate submissions and payments with the matching logic that surfaced each one, and the disposition applied after review.

Vendor Master Audit Report

Findings on duplicate records, incomplete tax registration data, dormant vendors, missing MSME status and bank detail changes made during the period, with remediation actions.

GST and TDS Compliance Pack

GSTR-2B against purchase register matching output with categorised mismatches and supplier follow-up lists, alongside the TDS deduction summary by section for return preparation.

MSME Ageing and Exposure Report

Vendor-wise ageing against MSMED Act timelines with the invoices approaching or past the statutory window, and the resulting Section 43B(h) disallowance exposure quantified.

How the Engagement Runs

Current state and control review

We map how invoices currently arrive, who approves what, where the matching evidence lives and where the control gaps sit. Vendor master data, open payables ageing and MSME status coverage are assessed. The phase closes with a findings note and a proposed workflow.

Policy, DOA and workflow design

Approval hierarchy, delegation of authority limits, matching tolerances, exception routing, payment calendar and vendor onboarding requirements are agreed with your controller. Bank detail change verification procedure is documented explicitly. Nothing goes live until the authority matrix is signed.

Vendor master clean-up and transition

Duplicate records are merged, tax registration and MSME status are completed, dormant vendors are deactivated and bank details are verified through the new procedure. Access is provisioned and the intake channel goes live, with a parallel run while the transition settles.

Processing cycle operation

Invoices are captured, validated, matched and coded to the agreed calendar. Exceptions are routed to named approvers with the evidence attached, and duplicate detection runs before each payment cycle rather than after. Vendor queries are handled through the shared inbox.

Payment run preparation and release

The payment proposal is assembled against due dates, discounts, MSME deadlines and cash position, with documentation attached per line. It goes to your authorised signatories, who release the funds. We never hold payment authorisation rights.

Close support and periodic review

At close we support accrual identification, clearing account analysis and vendor statement reconciliation. A periodic review covers ageing, discounts forgone, exception volumes, duplicate findings and MSME exposure, with process fixes proposed for whatever keeps recurring.

What You Gain

Duplicate payments stopped upstream

Detection runs before the payment file is prepared rather than during a later reconciliation, which is the difference between preventing an outflow and attempting to recover one.

Tax deductions preserved

MSME payment tracking against statutory deadlines protects deductibility under Section 43B(h), removing a year-end tax cost that is entirely avoidable with visibility.

Input tax credit reconciled monthly

Matching GSTR-2B to the purchase register each period surfaces credit at risk while supplier correction is still achievable, instead of at annual return preparation.

Liabilities recorded in period

Controlled intake and accrual review mean goods received but not invoiced is quantified rather than discovered, which removes a recurring audit finding on unrecorded liabilities.

Payment fraud path closed

Bank detail changes require independent verification on previously recorded contacts, which blocks the impersonation route that fraudulent vendor change requests depend on.

Vendor queries off your desk

A managed payables inbox with defined response expectations absorbs the interruption load, while suppliers get consistent answers about invoice and payment status.

Industries We Serve With This Engagement

Manufacturing and IndustrialRetail and E-commerceHospitality and RestaurantsHealthcare and HospitalsConstruction and Real EstateLogistics and WarehousingTechnology and SaaSEducation and Institutions

Frequently Asked Questions

No, and we would decline a scope that required it. We prepare the payment run with supporting documentation attached per line, and your authorised signatories release funds under your delegation of authority. Preparation and authorisation must sit with different parties; that separation is the primary control protecting a payables function, and outsourcing should strengthen it rather than dissolve it. Where a client wants operational convenience, the practical answer is a well-structured proposal file and a maker-checker approval workflow inside your banking platform, not shared credentials.

Exact matching on vendor, invoice number and amount catches the obvious cases and misses most real ones. The duplicates that get paid are the ones where the invoice number was entered with a transposition or a different prefix, where the same supplier exists twice in the vendor master under slightly different names, where a scanned copy is submitted after the original, or where the same amount and date appears through a different channel. Detection therefore runs on fuzzy invoice number matching, vendor entity grouping across codes, and same-value same-period screening, and it runs before the payment file is prepared rather than during a later reconciliation.

It starts in the vendor master. MSME registration status has to be captured and periodically refreshed from vendor declarations and Udyam registration details, because an incorrect classification defeats the control regardless of how good the payment discipline is. Each qualifying invoice is then aged against the statutory payment window, and vendors approaching the deadline are prioritised in the payment run. Reporting quantifies invoices past the window and the resulting deduction disallowance exposure ahead of year end rather than at assessment. This is process support, not a tax opinion; specific positions should be confirmed with your tax adviser.

The mismatch is categorised and pursued rather than absorbed. The common causes are a supplier who has not filed, a supplier who filed against a wrong GST identification number, a value or tax mismatch, or a timing difference across periods, and each requires a different response. We run the match each period, issue supplier-wise follow-up lists, and report the credit at risk with its ageing so a decision on claiming or deferring can be taken with evidence. Catching this monthly matters, because a supplier is far more likely to correct a recent filing than one from three quarters ago.

We work inside your existing environment with role-restricted access rather than introducing a parallel system. That commonly means SAP, Oracle NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics, Odoo, Tally, Zoho Books, QuickBooks or Xero, along with any invoice capture or workflow tool already licensed. Where no workflow tool exists, we can operate a structured intake and approval process using controlled shared storage and defined logging, which is adequate at moderate volume. During the control review we confirm what roles can be provisioned, since some deployments restrict external access and the process is designed around that constraint.

Section and rate mapping is applied at invoice validation, using vendor category, the nature of the payment and the applicable threshold, with cumulative threshold monitoring across the year so a deduction obligation is not missed on the invoice that crosses the limit. Lower or nil deduction certificates are recorded against the vendor with their validity period and applied automatically until expiry. Where sections 194Q and 206C(1H) both potentially apply on a transaction, the position is determined and documented rather than left to the person entering the invoice. The deduction summary supports your return preparation.

Three to six weeks is typical from access provisioning to going live. The variable is almost always vendor master condition. Where duplicate records, missing tax registration details and absent MSME status have to be remediated first, that work sits on the critical path, because a payables process built on unreliable vendor data will reproduce the same errors faster. We run a parallel period during transition so your team retains visibility while the workflow settles, and existing open items are triaged into the new process rather than being left in a legacy queue.

We do, through a shared payables inbox operating with defined response expectations. Suppliers get consistent answers on invoice receipt, matching status, exception reasons and expected payment date, which removes a substantial and unpredictable interruption load from your finance team. Anything requiring a commercial decision, such as a disputed price, a contract interpretation or a request to accelerate payment outside terms, is escalated to your named owner with the full history attached. We do not make commitments to suppliers on payment timing that fall outside the agreed calendar.

Related engagements

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