Accounts Payable Operations release notes

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 4 minutes to read
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    Summary of Accounts Payable Operations release notes - Yokohama Release

    The ServiceNow® Accounts Payable Operations (APO) application streamlines the analysis and processing of invoices and invoice cases for Accounts Payable specialists. The Yokohama release introduces significant enhancements leveraging generative AI, machine learning, and tax engine integration to improve accuracy, compliance, and operational efficiency. This release also integrates agentic workflows to automate resolution of invoice inquiries, reducing manual agent workload.

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    Key Features

    • AI-Powered Document Classification: Automatically classifies email attachments into invoices, credit memos, or supporting documents based on AI confidence scores for error-free data extraction.
    • Tax Engine Integration: Validates supplier-provided tax against system-calculated tax at the invoice line level, ensuring regulatory compliance and enabling straight-through processing with exception handling and manual revalidation.
    • Generative AI Line Mapping and Data Extraction: Uses GPT-4o-driven Now Assist skills to improve purchase order and invoice line mapping accuracy and reduce manual effort in invoice data extraction.
    • Agentic Workflows: Automates resolution of invoice inquiry cases raised by employees and suppliers, significantly minimizing human intervention and efficiently handling high volumes of inquiries.
    • Accounts Payable Operations Properties Page: Provides a centralized configuration hub for administrators to control invoice line mapping, ingestion APIs, and exception management parameters.
    • Supplier Collaboration Portal: Enables supplier contacts to view invoices and inquiry cases associated with their accounts, supporting multiple supplier assignments per contact.
    • Multi-language Support and Summarization: Now Assist panel supports invoice case summarization in multiple languages and offers real-time AI assistance and content translation capabilities.
    • Fallback for Document Intelligence Downtime: Allows manual invoice creation when AI-based Document Intelligence services are unavailable, maintaining business continuity.
    • Role-based Access to Generative AI Features: Introduces a new requester role for controlled access to AI-powered APO capabilities, requiring explicit assignment by customers.

    Important Upgrade and Activation Information

    • Upgrading to Yokohama requires configuring the Tax Code reference field to enable the exception engine to validate taxes correctly.
    • Accounts Payable Operations is available for installation via the ServiceNow Store; customers must request the app through the store to activate.
    • Administrators should activate AI skills such as purchase order line mapping and invoice data extraction within the AI Admin Hub console to leverage generative AI benefits.
    • Localization supports multiple languages, but the default Document Intelligence model is English-only; multi-language invoice processing requires additional model training.

    What ServiceNow Customers Can Expect

    With the Yokohama release of Accounts Payable Operations, customers gain enhanced automation and AI-driven accuracy in invoice processing, reducing manual errors and operational costs. The integration with enterprise-grade tax engines ensures compliance and straight-through processing, while agentic workflows and Now Assist AI capabilities accelerate invoice inquiry resolution and data extraction. The flexible properties configuration and supplier collaboration portal empower administrators and suppliers to efficiently manage invoice-related activities. Overall, customers can expect faster, more accurate, and more compliant accounts payable operations with reduced human workload and improved user experience.

    The ServiceNow® Accounts Payable Operations application enables Accounts Payable specialists to analyze and process invoice and invoice cases. The generative AI capabilities are leveraged in invoice line mapping with purchase order line mapping. The Accounts Payable Operations was enhanced and updated in the Yokohama release.

    Accounts Payable Operations highlights for the Yokohama release

    • Leverage Accounts payable document classification skill to classify email attachments into invoice, credit memo, or supporting documents based on the AI recommended confidence score resulting in error free invoice data extraction.
    • Validate supplier provided tax against a system-calculated tax by integrating an enterprise-grade tax engine resulting in straight-through processing of invoice while improving accuracy, compliance, and operational efficiency
    • Introduced Agentic workflow in Accounts Payable Operations to resolve invoice inquiry cases raised by employees and suppliers thereby significantly reducing the involvement of human agents.
    • The ServiceNow® Now Assist offers generative AI purchase order line-mapping to improve accuracy and reduce manual work.
    • Experience the new generative AI skill for invoice data extraction, designed to enhance accuracy and reduce manual effort.
    • Leverage AI-powered GPT-4o-driven invoice data extraction with Document Intelligence for improved accuracy and reduced manual effort.
    • Get instant, real-time assistance from generative AI to summarize invoice case details through the Now Assist panel.
    • Use the Accounts Payable Operations properties page to control the configuration of APO properties.
    Important:
    Accounts Payable Operations is available in the ServiceNow Store. For details, see the "Activation information" section of these release notes.

    Important information for upgrading Accounts Payable Operations to Yokohama

    If you’re upgrading from a previous release, you must configure the reference field in the Tax Code [sn_fin_tax_code] table. The exception engine validates the invoice using the tax code and raises exceptions if necessary.

    New in the Yokohama release

    Tax Engine Integration
    The tax engine integration framework validates supplier-provided tax against system tax at invoice line level, maintains compliance with regional and global tax regulations. This integration triggers automatic tax validation, handles exceptions for tax variance and missing data, enables manual revalidation and rolling up of system tax.
    Using Supplier Collaboration Portal in APO
    In the supplier collaboration portal home page, the supplier contact can choose to view invoice and inquiry cases associated with their account.
    Supplier contacts can be assigned with multiple suppliers.
    Set APO properties
    The one-stop property page provides great flexibility and ease of configuration to users with admin roles. AP admin and integrator use the APO properties page to set the parameters that control the invoice line mapping, invoice ingestion API, and exception management. Depending on the invoice line-mapping properties set, AP admin and integrator can choose to review and confirm the invoice line mapping results generated by rule-based engine and Now Assist.
    Using Playbook in Accounts Payable Operations
    Playbook activity card displays updated invoice statuses. AP specialist reviews and acts on the mapping recommendations by Now Assist.
    ServiceNow Otto for Accounts Payable Operations (APO)
    Activate the purchase order line-mapping skill in the AI Admin Hub console to enable automatic mapping of invoice lines with purchase order lines using Now Assist.
    Activate the invoice data extraction skill in the AI Admin Hub console to leverage GPT-4o capabilities in extracting invoice information using Document Intelligence and reducing the manual effort.
    Generate invoice case summarization in multiple languages with the multi-language support in the Now Assist console.
    With the Now Assist panel, you can get assistance from generative AI to solve invoice case-related issues faster.
    As a fulfiller, you can learn about the details of a purchase order and its associated cases from record summarization generated by Now Assist.
    Take advantage of the translation capabilities available in the Now Assist for user-generated content.
    A new requester role is added to access Now Assist Accounts Payable Operations features powered by generative AI. Customers need to explicitly grant these roles to users for access to GenAI features and capabilities.
    Use agentic workflows in Accounts Payable Operations to resolve invoice inquiry cases raised by employees and suppliers. These workflows also help track associated invoice records efficiently. With an agentic workflow, you can process a high volume of invoice inquiries that come through email attachments to significantly reduce the workload of human agents.

    Changed in this release

    Work with invoices
    • Invoice line statuses are updated as:
      • PO matching error to Mapping error
      • PO matching completed to Mapping complete
      • Matching error to Mapping error
      • Review mapping
    Invoice ingestion process when Document Intelligence is unavailable
    Accounts Payable Operations integration with Document Intelligence enables AP admin to create invoice manually when DocIntel is down. The capture invoice details activity card displays the Create invoice option.

    Activation information

    Install Accounts Payable Operations by requesting it from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.

    Localization information

    Accounts Payable Operations supports multiple languages. The current DocIntel model is trained to extract invoices in the English language only. If you want to process an invoice in the multiple languages supported by DocIntel, you must train the DocIntel model.