Contractor invoice review

This playbook reviews one contractor invoice against governing agreements, delivery records, and prior billing history. It establishes whether the contractor identity, billing period, rates, quantities or milestone units, and currency match agreed terms, verifies that the accountable project owner accepted the billed deliverables, resolves discrepancies, collects designated finance approval for the payable amount, and records explicit accounts-payable acceptance of the handoff. The run stops before releasing funds, altering master contracts, or negotiating commercial terms; if access to accounting systems, contract storage, or task trackers is unavailable, continue using supplied intake records and manual finance entry with verified read-back rather than assuming unreachable systems can be exported.

• Capture the contractor invoice from intake records or file storage, extracting contractor legal entity name, tax identifier, invoice number, issue date, due date, billing currency, line items, quantities or hours, rates, subtotal, tax, and remittance details. Check QuickBooks Online and accounting intake records for an existing bill with matching contractor or invoice references; if potential duplicate records exist, route the findings to finance to decide whether to link to the existing bill, reuse prior approvals, hold for investigation, or decline the submission.
• Locate the governing contract or statement of work in Google Drive or supplied documents, comparing contractor legal identity, currency, rate schedules, expense rules, and milestone caps against invoice lines. Treat remittance account details on the invoice as unverified; if remittance details differ from verified vendor master records or appear on an unverified submission, require independent out-of-band finance verification before scheduling payment rather than treating matching invoice and contract text as bank authentication.
• Retrieve completed milestones or logged hours from Airtable or project records, matching each billed item against recorded deliverables and acceptance timestamps. Confirm billed units do not exceed statement-of-work caps and have not been settled on prior bills in QuickBooks Online.
• Information request. Present unconfirmed deliverables, rate variances exceeding contract terms, or undocumented expenses to the responsible project lead, requesting deliverable acceptance sign-offs or an itemized breakdown. If the project lead rejects deliverable completion or provides an amended approved count, record the revised accepted scope; if the lead confirms the billed work is unacceptable, record the rejection reasons and route the invoice to finance for formal dispute.
• Approval. Compile the reconciled bill summary showing matched contract terms, verified deliverable acceptance, net payable amount, tax handling, and any excluded or adjusted line items, and submit it to the designated finance reviewer. If the reviewer approves the payable sum, queue the bill for accounts-payable entry; if adjustments are required, prepare the requested adjustment details for contractor communication via an approved channel and recipient, or hand them to the internal owner for manual delivery; if a revised invoice or credit note is received, require final finance authorization on the revised payable amount before proceeding; if the reviewer declines the invoice, mark the case declined and notify accounts payable.
• Before writing or updating the bill in QuickBooks Online, inspect accounting records for existing bills or draft entries created during prior attempts. If existing effects are detected, reconcile their status against the approved amount; if inspection is unavailable or write results are uncertain, hold the case for finance confirmation rather than repeating automated writes. Once written, read back the bill record in QuickBooks Online to confirm line items, currency, accounts, and total match the approved payable amount.
• Approval. Present the verified bill record, approved line summary, contract references, and deliverable sign-offs to the receiving accounts-payable owner, requesting explicit confirmation of handoff acceptance into the scheduled payment queue. If the accounts-payable owner confirms acceptance, record the verified bill ID and conclude the handoff; if accounts payable declines or places the bill on hold, record the specific hold reason, responsible follow-up owner, and unresolved items before concluding the run.
• In a fictional example, contractor Apex Cloud Services submitted invoice INV-8821 for 40 hours of migration consulting at $175 per hour plus $650 for unitemized travel expenses, totaling $7,650, with updated bank remittance details on the invoice cover. Contract review confirmed the $175 hourly rate and verified 40 hours approved by the engineering director in Airtable, but the agreement required pre-approved travel receipts. The agent flagged the unverified bank details for independent finance callback verification and requested expense substantiation from the project lead, who confirmed travel was neither pre-approved nor supported by receipts. The finance reviewer approved payment for the $7,000 consulting fee while rejecting the $650 expense claim, directing an amended invoice request. The account manager delivered the notice via the approved contact email, and the contractor reissued INV-8821-R for $7,000. Finance authorized the revised $7,000 total after verifying the new submission and confirming bank verification was logged. The agent inspected QuickBooks Online, confirmed no duplicate draft existed, created the $7,000 bill, read back and verified all line items, and presented the handoff packet to the accounts-payable coordinator, who explicitly confirmed handoff acceptance into the weekly payment queue.
• A run is complete when an approved bill is verified in QuickBooks Online and explicitly accepted by the receiving accounts-payable owner, or when the invoice is declined, formally disputed, or held by finance with a documented reason and assigned follow-up owner.