Red Pill Realities: Extensibility, Cost, and Other Important Constraints of the Payables Agent

Datahaven4Dynamics
Sep 9
7 min read

Updated: Oct 21

About the Blog Series:

Microsoft’s blue pill version of the Payables Agent looks convincing. But if you’ve worked with Business Central (and NAV before that) long enough, you know Microsoft works hard to establish a narrative when releasing new software. Sometimes the narrative holds up. Sometimes not so much.

This blog series steps outside the Microsoft narrative for the Payables Agent. Each post uncovers one of the red pill realities that you will discover if you were to use the Payables Agent in the real world.

You Cannot Create Extensions of the Payables Agent!

The Payables Agent operates as a closed system inside Business Central. Unlike the rest of the platform, it cannot be customized through AL extensions or modified to fit company-specific workflows.

💡 The practical way to think about the issue

You will have to think of the Payables Agent as a fixed-function set of features rather than an extensible module. You can configure it, but you cannot tailor or integrate it deeply with your own automation logic. Any custom validation, pre-processing, or routing must happen outside The Payables Agent.

⚙️ The technical reason(s) underlying the issue

The Payables Agent’s core functions use Microsoft-managed AI services and internal APIs that are not part of the public AL extensibility layer. The system design prevents partners or customers from injecting code at key points such as classification, extraction, or storage. The storage path remains fixed in the Business Central database, and no hooks exist for pre- or post-processing logic.

📉 The impact on AP operations

Without extensibility, organizations can’t embed their own automation or compliance rules inside The Payables Agent’s workflow. This limits opportunities to improve efficiency or align invoice handling with internal policies. As a result, AP teams depend entirely on Microsoft’s roadmap for enhancements rather than their own ability to innovate.

Future enhancement announced by Microsoft: Extensibility

Microsoft has advised us that some level of extensibility is planned for when the Payables Agent becomes generally available (in November 2025). However, we expect the Payables Agent’s AI models and mappings to continue to operate entirely under Microsoft’s control for the foreseeable future, i.e., Microsoft will not enable customers or partners to extend the AI-related features of the Payables Agent.

You can’t process purchase order (PO-based) invoices with the Payables Agent

The Payables Agent does not yet handle purchase order (PO)-based invoices that require matching to purchase orders or receipts. In most organizations, PO invoices represent the majority of AP volume and involve the most complex cases, such as partial receipts, split shipments, price variances, freight charges, and other adjustments. When these invoices arrive in the monitored mailbox, 'The Payables Agent' treats them as simple expense invoices rather than linking them to existing purchasing activity.

💡 The practical way to think about the issue

You will have to think of the Payables Agent as a tool for non-PO invoice automation only. It can create draft invoices from PDFs, but it cannot connect them to the purchase order or receiving records that drive control and accuracy in AP. Any matching or reconciliation must still be performed manually in Business Central.

⚙️ The technical reason(s) underlying the issue

The Payables Agent’s workflow focuses on creating purchase invoices directly from vendor documents. It does not query or reference existing purchase orders or receipts within the tenant. As a result, it cannot align invoice lines to ordered or received quantities or verify prices before creating the draft record.

📉 The impact on AP operations

Without PO linkage, invoices that should tie back to purchase orders may post as separate expense entries, causing reconciliation problems, duplicate postings, and audit confusion. AP teams must continue managing PO invoices through manual processes, which limits the overall efficiency and adoption of the Payables Agent.

Future enhancement announced by Microsoft: PO-based invoices

Microsoft has specifically listed the ability to process PO invoices as an upcoming feature projected to be in public preview by January 2026

Microsoft promises that the Payables Agent will use “AI to intelligently identify matching orders and order lines even when vendor invoices don't include unique references, eliminating the manual work typically required for cases like missing warehouse receipts.”

You have limited configuration options with the Payables Agent

The Payables Agent requires a dedicated Microsoft Exchange mailbox that is used exclusively for receiving vendor invoices. Every message in this inbox is automatically scanned, and any attachments are processed as potential invoices. The setup offers little flexibility, and improper handling of unread emails can disrupt intake. If a user opens an unread email before 'The Payables Agent' has processed it, the system may skip it entirely, even if it’s later marked unread again.

💡 The practical way to think about the issue

You will have to think of the Payables Agent inbox as a sealed processing channel. Assign strict ownership and avoid giving users direct Outlook access. The inbox should not be used for general communication, marketing emails, or vendor correspondence. Establish clear procedures for how invoices are submitted, whether vendors send them directly or internal staff forward them to 'The Payables' Agent.

⚙️ The technical reason(s) underlying the issue

The Payables Agent’s automation relies on Microsoft Graph APIs that read and flag unread messages in the dedicated mailbox. Once a message is marked as “read,” it falls outside the AI workflow and is not picked up automatically. The Payables Agent’s configuration options are limited to basic mailbox linking, rule setup, and the ability to map a few standard Business Central fields. It cannot interact with custom fields or extensions, and its schema is fixed within Microsoft’s AI framework.

📉 The impact on AP operations

Poor inbox control can lead to skipped invoices, duplicate processing, or wasted AI activity on irrelevant attachments. Direct vendor access increases spam and false positives, while manual forwarding can strip metadata and trigger duplicates. In both cases, AP staff spend extra time reviewing or cleaning up errors that could have been avoided with tighter intake governance.

You can’t run the Payables Agent across multiple companies

The Payables Agent must be configured separately for each Business Central company, even within the same tenant. Each entity needs its own monitored inbox, setup parameters, and e-document mappings. Nothing about the configuration is shared across companies, which creates unnecessary duplication and confusion for shared-services teams.

💡 The practical way to think about the issue

You will have to think of each company’s Payables Agent as a standalone deployment. If your organization operates multiple legal entities, plan for separate mailboxes, configurations, and user permissions. There is currently no consolidated dashboard or shared queue to manage invoices across entities.

⚙️ The technical reason(s) underlying the issue

The Payables Agent is bound to the company context in Business Central. Its email intake, storage, and configuration settings are scoped at the company level rather than the tenant level. The product does not support cross-company data sharing, nor does it include routing logic to move documents between companies.

📉 The impact on AP operations

For organizations running centralized or shared-services accounting, the design increases administrative overhead and creates opportunities for error. Invoices can land in the wrong inbox with no easy way to redirect them, leading to duplicate work and posting risks. Teams lose efficiency as they juggle multiple environments that function as isolated silos.

You can’t easily calculate how much it will cost to use the Payables Agent

The true cost of Microsoft’s Payables Agent is difficult to predict. Although there is no separate user license fee, the service consumes Copilot Credits for each AI action, such as data extraction, classification, and exception handling. In addition, PDF storage counts toward your Business Central database capacity, which adds a separate cost element as invoice volumes grow.

💡 The practical way to think about the issue

You will have to think of the Payables Agent as a metered utility rather than a fixed-price feature. Each invoice consumes a variable number of credits based on its complexity and the number of AI steps performed. Simpler, single-page invoices may cost pennies; complex, multi-page or error-prone invoices can cost many times more. On top of that, database storage for PDFs accumulates over time and can require paid capacity expansions.

⚙️ The technical reason(s) underlying the issue

The Payables Agent relies on Microsoft’s Copilot billing model, where each discrete AI interaction deducts credits from a shared tenant pool. The specific credit count per action is not exposed in Business Central, and Microsoft does not publish a predictable cost curve by document type. Meanwhile, invoice PDFs are stored within the Business Central database, consuming the same capacity used for transactional data. Once the included limit is exceeded, additional storage must be purchased.

📉 The impact on AP operations

Without transparency into credit usage or storage growth, controllers struggle to forecast total cost of ownership. Real-world spend becomes clear only after production deployment, when actual invoice volume, layout quality, and exception rates are known. Budget overruns can occur quietly as usage expands, making it essential for AP and IT teams to monitor both Copilot Credit consumption and storage usage from the start.

The Result:

Each red pill reality in this blog series exposes the limitations of the Payables Agent. We offer Datahaven 365 to help you unify documents, data, and workflows throughout Business Central—not just AP. The result is complete visibility, faster approvals, and automation that scales with the complexity of your business.

Check out the other Blogs in this Series:

About the Author:

About Brad Bimson As the CEO of Datahaven 365, Brad is passionate about helping companies streamline their processes leading to savings in time, costs, and improved customer service. Brad wants to connect w/ Microsoft Dynamics users, partners & ISVs who want to leverage Dynamics.