AP Portal Automation

Some customers only accept invoices through an AP portal like Coupa or SAP Ariba. For those customers, sending the invoice in Tabs is also submitting it: when you click Send, Tabs submits the invoice to the customer’s portal and tracks it until the buyer approves it. Your team steps in only when a submission needs review.

This page covers getting Tabs access to your portals, connecting customers, tracking submissions, and fixing or canceling them.

How it works

Tabs gets access to each portal your customers use.
Each customer that requires a portal is connected to it in their billing settings.
When you send an invoice to a connected customer, Tabs submits it to their portal.
The invoice’s portal status updates as the buyer works through it.
If the portal rejects the invoice or the buyer raises a question, the invoice moves to Needs review with the reason. You fix it, and Tabs submits again.

Credit memos are not submitted.

Set up

Before you invite Tabs: two-factor authentication

Tabs signs in to each portal as the user you invite, with no person present, and stores the credentials encrypted. If the portal requires two-factor authentication, that user has to use a method Tabs can store:

Authenticator app: a six-digit code that changes every 30 seconds, set up by scanning a QR code or entering a setup key.
Passkey

Text-message codes, phone calls, codes sent by email, and push approvals (Duo, Okta Verify) all go to a person, so Tabs can’t use them. The invite email is only for the invite, not for verifying sign-in.

This is a hard requirement. If the Tabs user can’t use an authenticator app or passkey, Tabs can’t submit to that portal. In the portal’s admin or security settings, allow one of the two for the Tabs user and remove any required phone number. If you can’t find how to do this for a new user, tell your CSM before inviting Tabs.

Onboarding

Send your CSM the list. Every customer that currently requires a portal, and which portal each one uses.
Give Tabs access. Invite the email address your CSM provides as a user on each portal, with permission to submit invoices.
Tabs confirms access. Once Tabs can sign in, the portal appears under Settings → AP portals with its login URL and status.
Tabs connects your customers. Our team takes the list from step 1 and connects each customer to their portal. Invoices you send to those customers from then on are submitted.

Connect a new customer

Open Customers → [customer] → Billing settings, find the AP portal section, turn on Submit invoices to an AP portal, choose the portal, and click Activate. An invoice for a customer who isn’t connected is never submitted.

Don’t see the customer’s portal in the dropdown? Tabs doesn’t have access to it yet. Invite Tabs to that portal and tell your CSM. Do this as soon as a buyer names a portal, not after the first invoice bounces.

Keep or stop the invoice email

By default, a portal customer still gets the invoice by email as well as the portal submission. Many buyers only want the portal copy. To stop the email, change the customer’s invoice email delivery to send to you. Invoice emails and reminders then go to you instead, and the portal submission is unaffected.

Track submissions

Statuses

Status	What it means
In progress	Tabs is submitting the invoice to the portal.
Submitted	The invoice is in the portal, waiting on the buyer.
Approved	The buyer approved the invoice for payment.
Needs review	The submission is blocked or was rejected. The reason is on the invoice.
Canceling	The invoice was voided or reverted to draft after it reached the portal, and Tabs is removing it.
Canceled	The submission was stopped or removed.

On the Billing page

The Billing page in the sidebar is where you check portal status across invoices.

AP Portal Status shows where each invoice’s submission stands. AP Portal shows which portal it went to. Invoices for customers without a portal show a dash.
To see only portal invoices, or only one status, use the AP Portal and AP Portal Status filters.

When something needs your attention, an AP Portal needs attention card appears at the top of the page with a count. Click it to filter the list to those invoices, then open each one to see what’s wrong. When nothing needs review, the card disappears.

On the invoice

Open any invoice from the Billing page.

The header shows AP Portal and the current status badge, next to the invoice status.
The summary shows which portal the invoice goes to.
When the submission needs review, a banner at the top states the reason and has a Resubmit button.

Every status change, with its reason when there is one, is also recorded in the invoice’s activity log and the customer’s collections activity.

When something changes

A submission needs review

Needs review is where every problem surfaces, including outright rejections. These aren’t common. The usual causes are a PO number that doesn’t match the buyer’s PO, a field the portal requires that the invoice is missing, or a question from the buyer.

The banner on the invoice says what’s wrong. How you fix it depends on whether the invoice itself has to change.

The invoice has to change (wrong PO, missing field, wrong amount):

Revert the invoice to draft. This cancels the current submission.
Make the edit.
Send the invoice again. Sending creates a new submission.

The invoice is correct (the buyer had a question you’ve answered, or something was fixed on the portal side): click Resubmit on the banner. The submission goes back to In progress.

Tabs doesn’t resubmit on its own, and the Collections Agent doesn’t resolve rejections with your buyer.

Voiding, reverting, or canceling

Voiding an invoice, reverting it to draft, or choosing Cancel portal submission from the invoice’s More actions menu all cancel the submission. The last one leaves the invoice itself as it is. What canceling means depends on how far the submission got:

Status when you cancel	What happens
In progress	Tabs stops before the invoice reaches the portal. The submission moves straight to Canceled.
Submitted	The invoice is already in the portal. It moves to Canceling while Tabs removes it from the portal, then Canceled.
Needs review	If the invoice never reached the portal, Tabs stops the submission. If it did, Tabs removes it from the portal. Either way it ends as Canceled.
Approved	Not canceled. Once a buyer has approved an invoice, Tabs leaves it in the portal. Work it out with the buyer directly.

Sending the invoice again always starts a new submission.

Changing a customer’s portal

Turning off Submit invoices to an AP portal, or switching the customer to another portal, applies to invoices you send from then on. Submissions already in flight are not canceled. Cancel them from the invoice if needed.

If a portal shows Disconnected under Settings → AP portals, Tabs has lost access and can’t submit to it until access is restored.

FAQ

Which portals are supported? The common ones, including Coupa, SAP Ariba, Oracle, Taulia, Tipalti, Tungsten, and Zip. Tabs works most portals through the browser the same way your team does, so if your customer uses one not on that list and you can give Tabs access, we can usually add it. Ask your CSM.

Are portal status and invoice status the same thing? No. They are tracked separately. Approved in the portal doesn’t mark the invoice paid in Tabs. The invoice stays open until the payment arrives and is matched.

Can I submit an invoice myself? Yes. You’re then responsible for tracking that submission. Tabs still submits on send, so cancel the Tabs submission from More actions to avoid a duplicate.

Where do I need to step in?

Onboarding. Give Tabs access to each portal, including two-factor authentication Tabs can use, and send the list of customers you currently submit to portals.
New customers. Connect them in billing settings. If they use a portal Tabs isn’t on yet, give Tabs access first.
Needs review. Fix the cause and resubmit, or revert, edit, and send again.
Disconnected portals. If access changes on the portal side, for example a reset password or a new sign-in requirement, you may need to help restore Tabs’ access.