AP Specialist

Claude for Excel Skills for AP Specialists

Build hands-on fluency with Claude for Excel's core capabilities: the specific skills every later lesson in this course assumes the learner already has.

Purchase Order & Spend Management

Confirm spend is approved before it happens: check that a PO exists and is within the approver's authority, flag spend that's about to occur with no PO, and track open PO commitments against budget. *(Work Package 21: see `GapSkill_Work_Package_Library.md`: skill: `po-spend-management`.)*

Invoice Intake, Digitization & Recordkeeping

Process incoming invoices from every channel (email, vendor portal, physical mail) into one consistent, accurate, findable digital record. *(Work Package 22: skill: `invoice-intake-digitization`.)*

Vendor Inquiry & Communication Management

Investigate the actual cause of a vendor's payment-status inquiry or dispute before responding, and draft a reply grounded in what the record actually shows. *(Work Package 23: skill: `vendor-inquiry-communication`.)*

Invoice Validation, GL Coding & Approval Routing

Confirm an invoice has a real approval basis, assign correct GL account/department/entity coding, and route it for any required internal approval before it's payment-eligible. *(Work Package 24: skill: `invoice-coding-validation-routing`.)*

Vendor Master Data Management

Maintain accurate vendor records and apply independent verification to any change affecting where money is sent. *(Work Package 25: skill: `vendor-master-data-management`.)*

Employee Expense Reimbursement Processing

Review employee expense claims against receipts, policy limits, and required approvals before reimbursing, catching duplicate/split submissions and anomalous spending patterns. *(Work Package 31: skill: `expense-reimbursement-processing`.)*

Accounts Payable & Vendor Payments

Perform 3-way match before payment, catch duplicate invoices, investigate and resolve genuine discrepancies, build payment runs that capture early-payment discounts without jeopardizing cash position, and route disputes separately. *(Work Package 18: skill: `accounts-payable-vendor-payments`.)*

Account & Bank Reconciliations

Tie the AP sub-ledger to the GL, reconcile the AP balance to the aging report, and place that in context against cash. *(Work Package 1: narrowed and expanded for AP Specialist scope: the sub-ledger-to-GL tie-out plus the AP-balance-to-aging reconciliation and cash-context check; does not cover bank-account reconciliation outside this AP context: see `GapSkill_Work_Package_Library.md`.)*

AP KPI Monitoring, Process Improvement & Internal Controls

Track AP KPIs (DPO, error rate, on-time payment rate, processing time) across periods, test that approval and duplicate-prevention controls are actually working, and recommend process improvements grounded in the data. *(Work Package 26: skill: `ap-kpi-internal-controls`.)*

Tax Compliance & Regulatory Reporting

Track 1099 eligibility and TIN accuracy across the vendor population, flag purchases that should have had use tax accrued, and monitor outstanding vendor payments against escheatment dormancy periods. *(Work Package 32: skill: `ap-tax-compliance-reporting`.)*