The Financial Controller AI Agent is a smart tool that automatically reminds employees, on behalf of Finance teams, to submit missing expense documents or complete pending approvals directly in the Payhawk Web Portal or Mobile App, or through communication channels like Slack (MS Teams coming soon).
The AI Agent chases employees at specified times (for example, at month-end) and can be used for individual entities or multiple entities within a group.
For enhanced user experience, you can also enable the smart expense note to automatically generate notes for your company's expenses.
If you are unsure exactly what the Financial Controller AI Agent can do for you, you can ask it directly.
Common challenges in expense management
Finance Teams often struggle with manual receipt chasing, delayed approvals, and compliance oversight, which can slow down the month-end closing process. The Payhawk Financial Controller AI Agent tackles these challenges by automating expense tracking, receipt collection, and approval workflows, which significantly reduce manual follow-ups during and at the end of the month.
Key functionalities
The Financial Controller AI Agent helps streamline processes and improve efficiency in various cases.
Functionality | Capability |
Automatic chasing | The Financial Controller AI Agent:
|
Chasing in an additional communication channel | Connecting Payhawk to the communication channel will enable a new application for all workspace users in the chat from where the users will be able to interact with Payhawk and do their jobs directly from there. For more information, see the guide for employees on setting up the the communication channel connection. |
Approval process enhancements |
|
Submit expenses where you work |
|
Smart assistance | While the Financial Controller AI Agent cannot directly answer everyday how‑to and general questions, it will redirect you to the Payments AI Agent if such questions are asked. The Payments Agent will then reply to you directly by using information from the Payhawk Help Center. If you request an action handled by another Payhawk AI Agent, the Financial Controller AI Agent will let you know which AI Agent can assist. That AI Agent will then message you directly so you can complete the task. For example, if you ask the Financial Controller AI Agent to book a trip to Vienna, it will explain that the Travel AI Agent handles travel bookings. The Travel AI Agent will then message you to continue the conversation and help arrange the trip. |
How the Financial Controller AI Agent works for Finance teams
By using the Financial Controller AI Agent, Finance teams can streamline processes and enhance efficiency through:
Real-time updates for both submitters and approvers, ensuring transparency and faster decision-making.
Automated follow-ups across multiple channels, such as email, comments, push notifications, and chat, to keep expenses on track.
Improved workflow oversight, accelerating month-end close and reducing bottlenecks.
How the Financial Controller AI Agent works for employees
Both in the Payhawk product (Web Portal and Mobile App) and in the communication channel, employees can seamlessly act on Payhawk smart reminders and do the following:
Receive smart reminders for missing documents, pending expense submissions, and approvals.
Submit and approve expenses directly in the chat.
Enter all required details, such as categories and custom fields, through a conversational chat flow without switching apps.
Reminder schedules
By default, the Financial Controller AI Agent sends consolidated reminders during working days to employees for submitting and approving expenses. Instead of notifying you about each expense individually, the Agent groups all pending items into a single bulk reminder at the scheduled time, giving you a clear overview of everything that needs your attention. A reminder that would fall on a non-working day (weekend or public holiday in the country of incorporation of the business entity) moves to the next available slot.
Default cadence
The Financial Controller AI Agent follows a defined chasing schedule that determines how often employees receive bulk reminders. By default, the AI Agent adjusts reminder frequency based on the urgency of the pending expenses:
During the month, reminders are sent at regular intervals, with the AI Agent grouping all pending items into each notification.
When approaching month-end, the reminder frequency increases to ensure all expenses are submitted and approved on time.
After month-end, follow-up reminders continue for a few days for any remaining unresolved items.
The AI Agent also adapts its tone and persistence throughout the month, becoming more direct as deadlines approach.
Reminder type | What’s included | Reminder schedule (local time) | Notes |
Offline card payments to submit | All card expenses with missing documents or pending submission. Examples:
| 10:00 AM:
| Cards used at the point of sale (POS). Each reminder lists all expenses currently awaiting your action, so you can review and submit them in one go. |
Online card payments to submit | All card expenses with missing documents or pending submission. Examples:
| 10:00 AM:
| More lenient due to receipts sitting in inboxes or vendor apps. Each reminder lists all expenses currently awaiting your action, so you can review and submit them in one go. |
Expenses to approve | All submitted expenses awaiting your approval. | 4:00 PM:
| Each reminder lists all pending approval requests, allowing you to review and approve them in bulk. |
End-of-month | All pending submissions and approvals. | 11:00 AM:
| Ensures timely month-end reporting. |
Custom cadence
You can also set up your own reminder schedule either through conversing with the AI Agent in the communication channel or in the Payhawk Web Portal as described below:
In the Payhawk Web Portal, go to Settings > AI Office > Financial Controller Agent > Configure.
Turn off the Default cadence option.
Click on the Customize link. This will redirect you to a conversation with the Financial Controller AI Agent in the Payhawk Web Portal.
Tell the AI Agent how often you want the it to send reminders to your employees.
To revert to the default reminder frequency, you can either communicate with the AI Agent or follow the steps in the Payhawk Web Portal:
In the Payhawk Web Portal, go to Settings > AI Office > Financial Controller Agent > Configure.
Turn on the Default cadence option.
In the dialog that opens, click on Switch to default to confirm.
When an employee has activated online receipt and invoice fetching and authenticated with the vendor's portal, the Financial Controller AI Agent first attempts to retrieve the receipt automatically before sending a reminder to upload it manually. For more information, see the article about using the Financial Controller AI Agent for online receipt and invoice fetching.
Accessing the Financial Controller AI Agent
The Financial Controller AI Agent comes out of the box and is included in both the Payhawk mobile app and Web Portal.
The AI Agent will be accessible in the communication channel only if a Payhawk Administrator at your company has enabled the communication channel in the Payhawk Web Portal from Settings > AI Office.
To fully utilize the Payhawk-Slack integration, employees must first authenticate, granting the communication channel access to their expense data. For more information, see the employee guide for setting up the Slack connection.
Processing your data
For more information about how Payhawk processes personal data for the Financial Controller AI Agent feature, see the following resources:
Global Privacy Policy - Covers personal data for which Payhawk acts as a Controller.
Data Processing Addendum - Covers personal data for which Payhawk acts as a Processor.