Run accounts payable in Nucleus One
An AP project assembled from verified parts: invoice fields, an upload-triggered workflow process, an approval with required-fields enforcement, and folder filing — with the design decisions that keep it working at month three.
Before you begin
- A project you administer (Project Manager)
At the end of this recipe, an invoice dropped into your AP project gets its fields, goes to the right approver — who can't approve until the amount and vendor are filled — and files itself into the vendor's folder, with every decision on the record.
This is an assembly of four standard parts: fields, intake, a workflow process, and folders. Build them in that order.
Part 1 — The fields
In the project: Settings > Fields, then + for each. A field is created by name first and typed second — open it after creation and set Data type in its properties. The AP set that earns its keep:
| Field | Data type | Property worth setting |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Text | List items with your vendor list; Allow new + Save new so the list grows itself |
| Invoice Number | Text | Required |
| Invoice Date | Date | — |
| Amount | Currency | Decimal places: 2 |
| PO Number | Text | — |
Resist inventing more until a real need appears — every field is a box someone must fill on every invoice.
Part 2 — Intake
Invoices arrive however they arrive; the project takes them several ways, all landing as documents:
- Document upload (the + menu, or drag files onto the documents area — Drag and drop files / SELECT FILES). If required fields exist, upload pauses at a Tags & Field Values step — which is exactly what you want: no invoice enters untagged.
- Document scan for paper, from a Windows desktop with the Capture Agent installed (the screen offers the download when it's missing).
- A form — a "Submit an invoice" form with Project Field inputs and an Upload control gives vendors or field staff a front door that captures clean data; see Build and submit forms.
Part 3 — The process
Settings > Workflow Processes > +, name it (say, Invoice approval), and assemble on the canvas — drag from the Toolbox, connect trigger to actions:
Trigger: Document upload — every new document in scope starts the process. (Filter it — by folder, or run invoice intake in this project exclusively — so the process sees only invoices.)
Action: Approval — the heart of it:
- Assigned to — the approver.
- Required fields for approve — set Amount, Vendor, Invoice Number. The product enforces it: "Users will only be able to approve if all specified fields have values," and the approve button stays disabled naming the missing fields. This single setting is what keeps your data trustworthy.
- Block re-entry on: After Approved — a re-uploaded duplicate can't ride the same approval twice.
- For a team rather than a person, use Group Approval instead.
From the approval's outcomes, connect what happens next:
- Approved → Folder change (file it — Part 4) and E-mail (tell accounting).
- Declined → E-mail back to the submitter, or a Task to fix and resubmit.
- The approval element also has a deadline notifications connection point — wire an E-mail action to it and slow approvals nudge automatically.
The workflow process canvas with a Document upload trigger connected to an Approval, and Folder change and E-mail actions on its outcomes
The canvas tells you what's incomplete ("No connected triggers", incomplete-element counts) — a clean canvas is a runnable process.
Part 4 — Folders and visibility
Create vendor folders (right-click in the documents area > New folder) for the Folder change action to file into. Then decide who sees what in Settings > Project Profile: AP often warrants Member access > Folders & documents = Direct assignments, so members see invoices assigned to them rather than the whole ledger — and Disallow content removal by project members is a sensible switch for financial records.
Living with it
- Approvers work from My Work and the project's Approvals list — APPROVE and DECLINE are the two buttons; a Project Manager can also DENY (an admin override that removes the approval outright).
- Month-end questions are search questions: Amount is between and including 0 and 500, Invoice Date in the quarter — and a search worth repeating is worth a template.
Success check: upload one test invoice with fields deliberately left blank. It should demand values at intake, refuse approval until Amount/Vendor/Invoice Number exist, then — approved — appear in the vendor's folder with an email in the right inbox. That round trip is the whole system working.