Expense Reimbursement

Finance / AUTOMATE.md

Sort incoming expense reports by employee name in the ledger and file into folders.

This is the whole automation. Run it as it is, or change any word, including the tools it names.

  • Every invoice coded or held same day
  • No invoice paid without an approval trail
  • Duplicate submissions blocked at intake
  • Due dates met without a manual chase

How it runs

  1. 1. Delivers to

    SpreadsheetsFiles

  2. 2. You decide

    Approve each time, or let the steps you trust run. Your choice.

Why finance teams set this up

Invoices arrive as email attachments, scanned pages, and photographs taken at the counter, and they get keyed by hand because nobody trusts the extraction enough to post from it directly. What gets skipped is the coding, the cost center, and the approval that would let the invoice be paid on terms. The person absorbing the delay is the accounts payable clerk, and the consequence is either a duplicate payment or a missed due date that only shows up in the aging report weeks later.

See the whole job: Invoice processing

Use it as is. Or make it yours.

Edit it the way you would edit a note to a colleague. It follows the new version from the next run.

  • Change when it runs

    Move it to another day or time, or start it when something arrives, like a new email.

  • Add your own rules

    Limits, exceptions and what good looks like go in the same file, in plain words.

  • Decide what waits for you

    Mark the steps that need your OK, and let the rest run.

You stay in charge.
At every step.

It does the checking. You approve what gets paid and posted.

  • Nothing paid or posted on its own

    Payments, journals and approvals stay with you. It prepares them and flags what doesn't match.

  • Undo what you don't want

    Every step is recorded, and a file it changed can be put back.

  • Only the books you open to it

    Each automation reaches only the folders and systems you connect for it.

Expense Reimbursement

Approve before it updates the sheet and moves the files?

ReviewApprove

Before you download.

Where does it run?
On your Mac or Windows computer, in the background. It keeps working after you close its window, and only reaches the folders and apps you connect for each automation.
How does it connect to our CRM and other tools?
Through each app's own connection where it offers one, signed in once by you, or by using the app in a browser the way you would. Each automation gets only the connections you give it, and the tools a page names are examples you can swap for your own.
Does it run when my computer is asleep?
It keeps your computer awake while a job runs and just before a scheduled one. While the computer is closed or off, nothing runs; when it wakes, it checks the inbox, calendar and other sources it watches for anything that arrived meanwhile.
How does my team use it?
Each person who runs automations installs the app. Keep a project in a shared folder, such as Google Drive or a network drive, and teammates can open it and follow every run, while one person owns it and runs it.
Do I need anyone technical to set it up?
No. Download the app, add an automation in plain words, and connect only what that job needs. Nothing runs until you switch it on.

Already have tools for this? Here is the difference.

Rules in your accounting software

Coding recurring transactions the same way every time.

They can't read an unusual invoice, ask the requester a question or explain why a match failed.

Flowchart automation tools

Moving data between apps at high volume.

Every exception becomes another branch someone has to build, test and maintain.

AI chat assistants

Explaining a document when you paste it in.

Nothing happens until you come back and ask again, and the procedure lives in a chat.

AUTOMATE.md

Your routine, written in plain words. It runs on its own, follows your rules, handles the exceptions a flowchart can't, and asks you when it matters. The file stays yours, whichever AI model runs it.

Other setups for the same job.

Duplicate Invoice ID Check

When a new invoice lands in the intake folder, compare it to the ones already booked and email the AP clerk any match on vendor, amount, and number.

When a new invoice lands in the intake folder

Expense Reconciliation

Match uploaded receipts to bank transactions and archive in named folders.

Invoice pre-check

Pre-check each invoice that arrives at invoices@acme.inc: match it to its purchase order, file it in Expenses, and flag anything unusual for my review.

Each new invoice

Vendor Invoice Sorting

Sort incoming vendor files into document folders based on type and name.

Start with one job.
Make it your own.

macOS — coming soon
  1. 1

    Get the app

    It runs on your computer, next to your files.

  2. 2

    Add the automation

    Paste the instructions into the app, or save them as a file next to your work.

  3. 3

    Try it, then turn it on

    Run it once and check the result. It only runs on its own once you switch it on.

macOS — coming soon