Sort the AP inbox: invoices, queries and payment changes

Fields

• Sender name and address
• Subject
• Email body, with the signature
• Attachment file names (empty if none)

Questions

1. What is this email to accounts payable mainly sending or asking for? Choice

   Choose the one type that best fits the whole email, using the rules in the context. When the email asks anywhere to pay a different bank account, card or payee, choose Payment detail change.

   • New invoice A bill for goods or services to be entered, usually attached.
   • Credit note A credit or refund document from the supplier against an earlier invoice.
   • Statement A statement of account or a list of open items, with no other request.
   • Payment status question Asks whether or when an invoice was or will be paid, without saying it is overdue.
   • Payment reminder Says one or more invoices are overdue and asks for payment.
   • Invoice query Disputes or questions an amount, a price, a quantity or a line on an invoice.
   • Remittance or receipt Confirms that a payment was sent or received.
   • Payment detail change Asks, anywhere in the email, to pay a different bank account, card or payee, or says the old details should no longer be used.
   • Supplier set-up or update A new supplier form, or a change to address, tax number or contacts, with no change to bank details.
   • Internal approval or coding A colleague approving, rejecting or coding an invoice, or answering a question about one.
   • Not about a payable A newsletter, a sales pitch, or anything not about an invoice or a payment.

2. Does the message ask, even indirectly, to send payments to a different bank account, card or payee? Yes / No

   Count "our bank details have changed", "please remit to the account below", "use the new details on the attached letter", a request to pay a different company or person, an employee asking for their pay to go to a new account, and saying the old account should no longer be used. Count account details given for payment in place of the usual ones even when the word "change" is never used. Do not count bank details printed as usual in an invoice or statement footer with no request to use them instead. Yes: The message asks, however briefly or politely, for payment to go somewhere other than before. No: The message asks for no change to where payment goes.

3. Does the email ask accounts payable to make a payment outside the normal invoice process? Yes / No

   Count an urgent one-off transfer, a payment with no invoice, gift cards, or a senior person asking for a payment to be made quickly or quietly. Paying an overdue invoice, even to new details, belongs to the payment detail change question, not this one. Yes: The email asks for a payment outside the normal invoice process. No: The email asks for no payment of this kind.

4. Does the sender say supply, service or delivery will stop or is on hold because of non-payment? Yes / No

   Count an account on stop, a delivery or service held, suspended or cancelled until payment arrives. Yes: The sender says supply, service or delivery has stopped or will stop because of payment. No: No such stop or hold is mentioned.

5. Does the sender mention a collection agency, legal action, late payment interest or statutory compensation? Yes / No

   Count a debt collection agency, solicitors, court or legal action, interest added for late payment, and fixed compensation charges for late payment. Yes: The sender mentions at least one of these. No: The sender mentions none of these.

6. Does the email say the invoice it sends is a copy, a resend or a corrected version of one sent before? Yes / No

   Count "copy invoice", "resending", "duplicate", "as sent on", "revised" or "corrected invoice". Code checks whether the invoice is already in the system. Yes: The email says an invoice it sends was sent before in some form. No: The email does not say this, or sends no invoice.

7. Is there enough in the email for accounts payable to act without asking the sender for more? Yes / No

   Read the sender, subject, body and attachment names together. Enough means the supplier can be identified and the request or document is clear, for example an invoice attached or referred to, or a clear question about named invoices. Yes: Accounts payable can act on the email as it stands. No: The supplier, the invoice or the request is unclear, or an attachment the email refers to is missing from the attachment names.

Lens columns

email_type, email_type_probability, payment_details_change, payment_details_change_probability, unusual_payment_request, unusual_payment_request_probability, threatens_supply_stop, threatens_supply_stop_probability, legal_or_collection_threat, legal_or_collection_threat_probability, resent_or_copy, resent_or_copy_probability, enough_to_act, enough_to_act_probability