Department
Finance
The agent-run finance back office
Nine finance workflows, each proven on its own page, become one finance function under one set of oversight roles, one exception owner and one audit trail, so work crosses between them on the record. This page describes that pattern and names who holds each gate.
The short answer
Short answer
An agent-run finance back office is several finance workflows, each run by agents, joined into one function under named oversight roles, one exception owner and one audit trail.
Agents carry the work between billing, receivables, reconciliation, close and reporting; a named person holds every gate, and nothing pays, posts or approves on its own.
Today
What goes wrong between finance workflows today?
Several finance workflows each run well alone, and a person fills every gap between them. The invoice leaves the billing run in one place, the follow-up is worked from another, and somebody re-keys what crosses over. An exception escalates into whichever workflow's inbox raised it, and the call falls to whoever is closest, since no role owns it. Nothing records what ran across the function.
Who is an agent-run finance back office for?
Owners, finance leads and controllers at companies that have already run at least one finance workflow on an agent, and now want the next workflows to hand off on the record instead of through a person. If no finance workflow has run yet, begin with one, tested against the checklist for agent readiness.
Which workflows make up the function, and who holds each gate?
Each workflow below has its own page and works alone. The function is what the nine become once their outputs pass between them on the record, under one set of named roles.
| Area | Workflow | Passes on | Gate holder |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billing | Monthly client billing | The issued invoices, which become the follow-up list | The billing owner signs off on every run before anything leaves |
| Receivables | AR follow-up | Follow-up worked against the invoices billing issued | The finance owner, for any message beyond the authorized tier or any change to an account's standing |
| Reconciliation | Daily reconciliation | An agreed state, handed to the close | The finance owner decides each difference the rules cannot resolve |
| Close | Month-end close | Drafted entries with support attached | The controller signs off on every entry and the close package |
| Payables | Invoice intake | Matched and coded invoices, into the committed-items view | A named approver for exceptions; payment approval stays with a person |
| Expenses | Expense reports | Checked expense lines, into the committed-items view | The named approver, for every exception and everything above the threshold you set |
| Cash | Cash position | A position read from the committed-items view | The finance owner reviews it before it is circulated or acted on |
| Budget | Budget variance | Breaches read from the same view | The budget owner named for each line decides each breach |
| Audit file | Audit documentation | The support every other workflow files as it runs | The documentation owner reviews the pack and every gap before anything leaves |
How it works, step by step
01
Composes
Monthly client billing on autopilot, with sign-off on every run produces the invoices, and AR follow-up that never forgets sequences the follow-up on them. The function supplies the recorded handoff between the two.
02
Carries
Cross-system reconciliation on a daily cycle hands its agreed state to Automating month-end close, so the close opens on a matched position.
03
Feeds
Invoice intake and exception triage and Expense report processing and policy checks land in one committed-items view. Cash position reporting that builds itself and Budget variance monitoring and alerts both read from it.
04
Files
Each of those workflows writes its support as it runs into Audit documentation that stays ready year-round, so readiness falls out of the function.
05
Human gate
Each gate the component workflows set out has a named oversight role holding it, and anything no written rule covers waits for someone. Nothing in the function pays, posts, invoices, approves, reimburses, reallocates, writes off, certifies or contacts a customer on its own. In the COSO Internal Control Integrated Framework, segregation of duties is typically built into the selection and development of control activities. Here the split falls between the agent that prepares an item and the person who authorizes it. Any workflow can be pulled back and worked by hand, since its rules and records belong to you.
06
Owns
One named exception owner receives what no rule can decide across every workflow, so an escalation has one destination.
07
Trails
Every work order, routing and human decision sits in one trail, so any cycle can be traced to what ran and who made each decision.
Guardrails
What does the function never do on its own?
It acts on money and records only through a person
Paying, posting, invoicing, approving, reimbursing, reallocating, writing off, certifying and contacting a customer each stop at the named holder of that gate.
It names a gap as a gap. A source that cannot be read is reported as unread, and a signal no rule covers is held for a person, never filled in or estimated.
It settles roles before the first exception
The NIST AI Risk Management Framework asks organizations to define and differentiate roles and responsibilities for human-AI configurations and oversight of AI systems. The function names the role that decides each kind of exception up front, so who makes the call is known before it arrives.
It keeps the manual route open
Any workflow can be taken back and worked by hand, because its rules and records are yours.
Where this fits
Department / AI Department
This is the Department tier, Tier 3, entered through the AI Department door: see Tier 3 / AI Department. Several agents run one finance function while people oversee it, with a management layer that runs every task as a work order. Mercury's tiers grow by steps: one workflow earns its place first, a role gathers several, and a whole function comes last. This page sits at the top of those steps, as a direction the work can take; nothing here promises it. The receivables role, The AR clerk as an AI Employee, is the step below, and the agent-run operations back office applies the same shape to operations. How It Works sets out each gate and the oversight role that holds it. The full set of finance pages sits in the use cases hub.
Related reading
- Automating month-end close: the close, from reconciliation through the period to the controller's sign-off.
- Invoice intake and exception triage: payables intake, matching and routing.
- What an agent-run department actually looks like: the department shape, defined once for every function.
Tier 3 / Transform
How It Works
Questions, answered
No. A named person holds each gate the component workflows define, anything outside a written rule waits for someone to decide it, and the function pays, posts, invoices, approves, reimburses, reallocates, writes off, certifies and contacts nobody on its own. Any workflow can be taken back and worked by hand, since its rules and records belong to you.
AI Opportunity Audit · Finance
Find the finance workflow that proves first
Name the two finance workflows where a person carries the output of one into the next, and the audit finds which proves first.
Related use cases
Back to Use Cases
Department
What an agent-run department actually looks like
The phrase covers everything from one chatbot to an org chart with no people. The shape is several agents on one function, a management layer
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AI Employee
Finance
The AR clerk as an AI Employee
Follow-up, payment tracking and the receivables report are one role on paper and three interruptions in practice. This is how an agent holds the seam
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Department
Operations
The agent-run operations back office
Mercury Digital builds custom AI agents that run back-office work for mid-size businesses: close, AP, approvals and reporting, with named human oversight.
Learn More