Updation.ai CASH Platform User Manual
Your complete guide to implementing, managing, and optimizing the Updation.ai CASH Platform — an AI-powered Accounts Payable automation platform designed specifically for dealerships.
Welcome
Welcome to Updation.ai — your AI-powered Accounts Payable automation platform designed specifically for dealerships.
This manual is your complete guide to implementing, managing, and optimizing Updation within your organization. Whether you are setting up your system for the first time, configuring user access, or processing invoices daily, this guide will walk you through each step clearly and efficiently.
Updation is built to simplify your AP workflow — from invoice intake and coding to approvals, reporting, and audit tracking. The platform is structured to support multi-level dealership operations through defined roles, permissions, and approval hierarchies, ensuring both flexibility and control.
Use this manual as:
- A step-by-step onboarding guide
- A daily operations reference
- A permissions and configuration resource
- A troubleshooting tool
Our goal is simple: help you run a faster, smarter, and more controlled AP process.
Onboarding
Your onboarding process ensures a smooth and structured transition into Updation.ai. During this phase, we configure your organization, import your financial data, establish approval workflows, and prepare your team for go-live. Each step is guided by your Implementation Manager to ensure accuracy and alignment with your dealership's processes. By the end of onboarding, your system will be fully set up and ready for daily invoice processing.
Phase 1: Kickoff & Platform Configuration
During the kickoff phase, your implementation manager will schedule an introductory call to review timelines, gather your organizational data, and set expectations. You'll need to provide:
- Organization and user information (names, roles, email addresses) — see Roles & Permissions
- Your Chart of Accounts (COA)
- Vendor list with contact and payment details
Note on GL Codes: GL codes are not required for the initial vendor upload. They can be included if you have them ready, or added at any time once your team begins using the system.
Downloadable templates include the Organization & User Information workbook, a Sample Chart of Accounts, and the Vendor Upload template. If you use DealerTrack or CDK, you can export your Chart of Accounts using the DealerTrack / CDK COA instructions.
Tip: Complete all Phase 1 tasks before moving on. Having clean, accurate data from the start prevents delays in later phases.
Phase 2: Accounting Configuration & Vendor Management
In this phase, you'll upload your Chart of Accounts and vendor list into the CASH Platform. Use the templates provided in Phase 1 to format your data. Once uploaded, the platform will validate your entries and flag any discrepancies for review.
- Download and fill out the Sample COA and Vendor Upload templates from Phase 1.
- Navigate to Settings → Onboarding to upload the COA and vendors.
- Upload your Chart of Accounts file first, then the Vendor file.
- Review any validation errors and correct them before proceeding.
Step-by-step guides cover Uploading Chart of Accounts, Uploading the Initial Vendor List, and Setting Vendor Auto Approvals.
Note: The CASH Platform uses AI-powered vendor verification to detect duplicates, flag incomplete records, and suggest corrections automatically.
Phase 3: Invoice Workflow & Automation
With your COA and vendors in place, you can now process invoices end-to-end. Upload invoices, let the platform extract and map line items to GL accounts, then route them through your approval workflows and automated alerts.
- Assign approvers to each level and set escalation rules.
- Define approval levels based on invoice amounts and organizational hierarchy.
- Upload invoices individually or in batch via PDF or image files.
- Review the AI-generated GL mappings and approve or adjust as needed.
- Confirm matched invoices against their corresponding contracts.
- Test your approval workflows with sample transactions before go-live.
Step-by-step guides cover Adding Approval Levels, Manual Invoice Upload, and Upload via Email (Contracts & Invoices).
Note: The AI engine automatically extracts data from uploaded invoices, maps them to GL accounts, and matches invoices to contracts — reducing manual data entry significantly.
Important: For security reasons, any email address used to send invoices or contracts to the platform must already exist as a user in the system. Emails received from unrecognized addresses will be rejected. Make sure all senders are added as users before going live with email-based uploads.
Phase 4: Go Live & Validation
Once all phases are complete and your team has been trained, you're ready to go live. Your implementation manager will conduct a final review to ensure everything is configured correctly and your team is comfortable with the platform.
- Complete final training sessions with all platform users.
- Validate all data — COA, vendors, contracts, and invoices — is accurate and up to date.
- Confirm approval workflows and alerts are functioning as expected.
- Switch from implementation support to ongoing platform support.
Tip: After go-live, your team can reach out to Updation support at any time for help with the platform.
Important: Always test your approval workflows and automated alerts with sample data before going live. This ensures notifications are reaching the right people and thresholds are set correctly.
Operational Excellence
Operational Excellence provides practical guidance for maintaining an efficient, compliant, and scalable financial operation within Updation. The resources in this section are designed to help accounting teams, controllers, office managers, and approvers establish consistent processes, reduce manual work, improve visibility, and maximize the value of the platform.
Whether you are reviewing invoices, managing vendors, monitoring approvals, or preparing for month-end activities, these guides offer recommendations and checklists based on industry best practices.
Best Practices Checklist
Recommended procedures for user management, vendor maintenance, invoice processing, approvals, payments, reporting, and fraud prevention. Available as a downloadable PDF (Updation-Best-Practices-Checklist.pdf).
Monthly Review Checklist
A recurring review framework to help ensure invoices, vendors, contracts, users, and approval workflows remain accurate and up to date.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
A collection of common process issues and operational pitfalls that can lead to delays, duplicate work, compliance concerns, or unnecessary spend.
Following these recommendations will help your organization maintain accurate data, streamline approvals, improve vendor oversight, and support stronger financial controls across all locations.
Contract Management
Contract Management is an ongoing process throughout the life of the platform — not a one-time onboarding step. As new vendor agreements are signed, renewed, or replaced, upload them into the CASH Platform so contract terms stay current and invoice matching remains accurate.
- Upload new or updated contracts — the platform will extract terms, dates, and amounts.
- Review the AI-extracted contract details and confirm or adjust as needed.
- Invoices from the associated vendor will automatically match against the active contract.
- Review and create automated alerts for contracts to stay ahead of renewals, expirations, and key milestones.
Step-by-step guides cover Manual Contract Upload and configuring Automated Alerts for contracts.
Administration
Administrative tasks in Updation cover user management, visibility rules, and alert configuration. These controls determine who can access which parts of the platform and how notifications are routed across your organization.
Creating New Users
Add users through Settings → Users → Add User. Assign each user a role (see Roles & Permissions) and, when applicable, restrict their access to specific dealerships or entities using Visibility Rules.
Editing a User
Open Settings → Users, locate the user, and update their profile, role, or visibility assignments. Changes take effect immediately on the user's next login.
Deactivating a User
Deactivating a user removes their access to the platform while preserving their historical activity for audit purposes. Deactivate users promptly when they leave the organization or change roles.
Visibility Rules
Visibility Rules define which dealerships, entities, or vendor groups each user can see. Use them to enforce data segmentation across multi-location dealer groups. Rules are configured in Settings → Administration → Visibility Rules.
Alert Editing
Configure system-wide alerts for invoice approvals, contract expirations, statement discrepancies, and other operational events. Alerts can be routed to individuals, roles, or distribution lists, with escalation paths for time-sensitive items.
Daily Operations
Daily Operations covers the day-to-day activities your team performs in Updation — reviewing the dashboard, processing invoices, approving items, and pulling reports.
Dashboard Overview
The Dashboard provides an at-a-glance summary of your daily operations: invoices pending review, approvals awaiting action, upcoming contract renewals, and key spend metrics. Use it as your starting point each day.
Reporting
Reporting includes vendor spending analytics, approval turnaround times, contract performance, and audit-ready exports. Reports can be filtered by date range, dealership, vendor, or GL account and exported to Excel or PDF.
Invoices
The Invoices workflow covers submission, AI extraction, GL mapping, approval routing, and final confirmation. Invoices can be uploaded manually or forwarded via email from registered users.
Invoice Processing
Upload invoices individually or in batch. The AI engine extracts vendor, amount, invoice number, dates, and line items, then suggests GL account mappings based on your Chart of Accounts and historical coding patterns. Review and confirm the extracted data before routing for approval.
Approval Process
Invoices route through the approval levels you configured in Phase 3. Approvers receive notifications and can approve, reject, or request changes directly from the platform or via email. Rejected invoices return to the submitter with comments. Fully approved invoices are ready for payment or export to your accounting system.
Statements
Statement reconciliation ensures the invoices you've processed match the statements your vendors send. Regular reconciliation catches missing invoices, duplicates, and pricing discrepancies before they become disputes.
Adding a Vendor Statement
Upload the vendor statement through Statements → Add Statement. The platform will match line items against processed invoices and highlight any exceptions.
Reviewing Vendor Statements
Review matched, unmatched, and disputed line items. Approve reconciled statements or flag items that require follow-up with the vendor.
Manual Statement Reconciliation
For statements that require manual review, use the reconciliation workspace to match individual line items, add notes, and record adjustments. All reconciliation activity is logged for audit purposes.
Contacts
For questions about the platform, contact your Implementation Manager or reach the Updation support team at hello@updation.com. Our office is located at 6901 S Pierce St #315, Littleton, CO 80128, and operates on Mountain Standard Time (MST).