Localized reading guide
pay-the-billsPurpose, usage and source
Works the bill pile from the AP inbox all the way to a staged payment run — reads and codes every bill, then checks the cash position before a dollar is committed, then stages the run for one-click approval and keeps the books tidy for close. Coding and paying are two separate decisions with two separate approvals, and the cash check sits between them on purpose. Runs on the ledger (MYOB, NetSuite, QuickBooks, Xero, or Zoho Books) and a mail connector (Gmail or M365), deepens with Expensify and Ramp, and works from uploaded PDFs or phone photos with the run sheet exported for manual entry. Use it when the owner says "pay the bills," "the bills are piling up," "what do I owe," "who needs to get paid this week," "can I afford to pay these," or forwards a stack of vendor invoices.
Source retrieved:
- Source repository
- anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins
- SKILL.md
small-business/skills/pay-the-bills/SKILL.md- Repository stars
- 34,049
- Repository updated
- 2026-10-30
- Categories
- Development
- Last collected
License: Apache-2.0
Workflow excerpts are reading aids, not executable instructions from Codez. No third-party Skill was run to produce this page.
The purpose and workflow passages below are upstream material, organized and translated for reading. They are distinct from the separately labeled Codez editorial analysis.
What this Skill does
Works the bill pile from the AP inbox all the way to a staged payment run — reads and codes every bill, then checks the cash position before a dollar is committed, then stages the run for one-click approval and keeps the books tidy for close. Coding and paying are two separate decisions with two separate approvals, and the cash check sits between them on purpose. Runs on the ledger (MYOB, NetSuite, QuickBooks, Xero, or Zoho Books) and a mail connector (Gmail or M365), deepens with Expensify and Ramp, and works from uploaded PDFs or phone photos with the run sheet exported for manual entry. Use it when the owner says "pay the bills," "the bills are piling up," "what do I owe," "who needs to get paid this week," "can I afford to pay these," or forwards a stack of vendor invoices.
How the upstream workflow works
Step 1 — Read and code the bills (ap-processor)
Goes in: the AP inbox, uploaded PDFs and phone photos, card and expense feeds. Comes out: deduped bills with vendor, amount, due date, and line detail; each coded to an account, class, and job; PO and receiving matches run; exceptions named. ap-processor owns the dedupe, the extraction, the coding rules, and the three-way match. Do not second-guess any of it here. Gate one — the coding approval. Nothing is written to the ledger until the owner says yes. State the count, the total dollars, which ledger the entries land in, and that they land as unpaid bills awaiting payment, not as payments.
Step 3 — Stage the payment run (ap-processor)
Only now, and only with the cash picture on screen, does ap-processor propose which bills to pay: grouped by vendor, with the total leaving the account, the date, any early-pay discounts and what they are worth, and anything late enough to risk a stop-ship. Gate two — the payment approval. This is a separate decision from Step 1, not a continuation of it. Approving the coding is not approving the spend, and merging the two gates is how a plugin loses an owner's trust permanently. Say the total out loud before asking. The owner approves or trims the list. The command never widens it, and nothing auto-pays, including recurring bills approved a hundred times before. Recurrence is not consent.
Step 2 — Check the cash before anything is committed (cash-flow-snapshot)
Run this before staging any payment run. Always. No exception. Invoke cash-flow-snapshot, handing it the staged payables from Step 1 so the forecast runs on real numbers instead of a guess. Goes in: the approved coded bills, with their due dates and amounts. Comes out: a 30/60/90-day forecast with confidence bands, and named risks.
Requirements and setup
No short requirements passage was selected from this file. This does not mean the Skill has no dependencies. Check the repository setup instructions and referenced files.
Limits and quality checks
No separate limits passage was selected from this file. This does not mean the Skill is safe for every input or environment. Review the complete source and validate your own result.
Start with a safe trial
- Check the supported host and the repository installation instructions. Keep the Skill directory and its referenced scripts, assets and documentation together; SKILL.md alone may omit dependencies.
- Give the agent your real input, desired output and acceptance criteria. Invocation syntax and available tools depend on the host; this site does not assume a universal install command.
- Try the source workflow in a disposable project or on a copy. Review operations that change files, remote services or billable resources before allowing them.
- Validate the output against the source quality checks and your own requirements. A successful trigger or a high repository Star count does not establish a correct result.
Read further in the source
- Pay The Bills
- Step 1 — Read and code the bills (ap-processor)
- Step 2 — Check the cash before anything is committed (cash-flow-snapshot)
- Step 3 — Stage the payment run (ap-processor)
- Step 4 — Leave the books ready for close (month-end-prep)
- Fallback path
- What not to do
- Output
- After the run
- Using a tool that isn't listed
Related Skills
Translation and scope
This reading guide selects passages from the pinned upstream SKILL.md. Translation is assisted. It is not a complete manual or a claim of tested compatibility. Read the original and its referenced files before use.
This introduction refers to the pinned version below; current repository activity and collection time are shown separately.
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- Source retrieved
- Source commit
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