AP approval brief in Slack for new Ramp bills

Build me an AP approval brief workflow anchored on Ramp, with Slack as the approval surface.

Trigger: poll Ramp for new bills. Whenever a new bill arrives, run the agent.

For each new bill, the agent should:

1. Call Ramp Get Bill on the triggering bill ID to fetch full bill detail (amount, currency, line items, due date, memo, vendor ID, entity, attachment links, deep link to the bill in Ramp).

2. Call Ramp Get Vendor on the bill's vendor ID to retrieve vendor name, category, contacts, and bank account info.

3. Call Ramp List Bills filtered to the same vendor for the last 12 months to compute: total YTD spend with this vendor, total spend over the last 12 months, count of past bills, and average invoice size. If there are no prior bills, treat this as a first time vendor.

Then assemble an approver brief covering: vendor name and category; current invoice amount and due date; whether this is a first time vendor; YTD spend with this vendor and 12 month spend; average invoice size and how the current invoice compares (flag if more than 25 percent above the historical average); and a recommended action chosen from: Approve (typical amount, established vendor), Hold for manager review (first time vendor, missing bank info, or amount more than 25 percent above average), or Flag as anomaly (amount more than 100 percent above average, duplicate of a recent bill, or vendor in a sensitive category).

Post the brief to a #bill-approvals Slack channel using Slack Send a Message. Format it cleanly with the vendor name as the headline, the recommendation prominent at the top, the supporting numbers in a compact list, and a direct link back to the bill in Ramp so the approver can review and approve inside Ramp.

Important: do not attempt to approve the bill via the Ramp API. There is no approve bill operation. The workflow stops at producing the brief. Approval happens by a human inside Ramp.

Make the Slack channel, the anomaly threshold (default 25 percent), and the lookback window (default 12 months) easy to change.

What does this prompt do?

Watches Ramp for new bills and pulls the full invoice details the moment one lands.
Looks up the vendor and the last 12 months of bills with that vendor to compute year to date spend and average invoice size.
Flags first time vendors and bills that are more than 25 percent above the vendor's historical average.
Posts a clean approver brief to your bill approvals Slack channel with a recommended action: approve, hold for manager review, or flag as anomaly.

What do I need to use this?

A Ramp account with bills enabled and permission to read bills and vendors.
A Slack workspace and a channel for AP approvals (for example, #bill-approvals).
A rough sense of your normal invoice ranges so you can tune the anomaly threshold.

How can I customize it?

Change the Slack channel, or route different vendor categories to different channels or DMs.
Adjust the anomaly threshold (default is 25 percent above the vendor's historical average) or the lookback window (default 12 months).
Add fields to the brief, such as GL code, entity, due date urgency, or a link straight to the bill in Ramp.

FAQs

Will the workflow approve bills in Ramp for me?

No. Approvals stay in Ramp where your policies and audit trail live. The workflow just produces the brief so the approver has full context before clicking through.

How does it know what is unusual?

It compares the new invoice to the vendor's average invoice over the last 12 months and flags anything more than 25 percent above that average. First time vendors are called out separately.

What if a vendor has no history?

The brief marks it as a first time vendor and recommends holding for manager review so you can confirm the vendor and amount before paying.

Can I change which Slack channel it posts to?

Yes. Pick any channel your Slack account can post to. You can also route bills above a certain amount to a different channel or to a specific approver.

Does this work if my team uses Ramp Bill Pay alongside cards?

Yes. The workflow only reacts to new bills, so card transactions and reimbursements are not affected.

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