How Tollgate works

The worker polls the AP inbox. A PDF is stored in object storage with its SHA-256, and a job is queued. Replies to the agent's own emails are matched back to their invoice by a tag in the subject.

Pages are rendered to images for the vision model, so scans work. Every key value is then grounded against the PDF text layer. Separately, each text run is compared with the rendered pixels: text that is in the file but invisible on the page (white, microscopic, covered) is surfaced. Instruction-shaped text, the content-safety model (safety model) and the reader's own report of instructions it saw raise a quarantine.

Vendor master match, lookalike names and tax ID conflicts, verified bank account, duplicate and resubmission detection, split billing under the approval limit, line and total arithmetic, PO existence, ownership and status, currency, item on PO, price within 2% of PO, cumulative quantity against ordered and received, payment terms. Then the vendor's approved contract terms are applied: service credits from our own uptime monitoring, volume prices, price-increase caps. Money owed back is deducted, with the clause quoted in the remittance advice.

The model sees the findings, the PO, the vendor history and the email thread, and returns a plan: email the vendor for a corrected invoice, ask the budget owner whether goods arrived, request approval, open a bank change, hold, reject, or pay. Document and email text is passed as untrusted data.

Before a payment with deductions or above the auto-pay limit goes ahead, a different model recomputes what should be paid from the invoice, PO, receipts, contract and service measurements. If its figure differs, it cannot agree. Disagreement sends the payment to the CFO; concerns, to the controller. The critic can only add scrutiny.

Payment only with no open blocking findings, only to the vendor-master account, only with the approvals the amount needs (auto up to $10,000, controller up to $50,000, CFO above). Emails go only to the contact on file, never to an address printed on the invoice. Blocking findings clear only on new evidence or a person. Refusals are logged and the model re-plans.

Approvals above the limits; bank changes that need a callback to the number on file and two different approvers; contract terms the model proposed; overrides with a written justification. Every decision hands control back to the agent, which picks up where it left off.

Everything due within the week is paid; cash above the floor goes to early-payment discounts, best annual return first; the rest stays in the bank until due. The approved run produces the bank batch file.