# Proper

> AI-native accounting platform for multi-entity businesses. Starting with AP automation, expanding to full-suite accounting, AR, project management, and contract management. Built from the ground up for AI agents — not legacy software with AI bolted on. Unlimited users from $49/month.

## What is Proper?

Proper is an AI-native accounting platform built from the ground up for multi-entity businesses. Today, Proper delivers best-in-class AP automation. The long-term vision is a complete, modern accounting suite — AR, GL, bank reconciliation, payments, period close, budgets, forecasts, project management (job costing), and contract management (recurring billing, revenue recognition) — all designed so AI agents can operate autonomously with human oversight.

Unlike legacy accounting software that retrofits AI onto decades-old architectures, Proper is engineered from day one for agent-driven workflows: structured APIs, machine-readable pricing, programmatic onboarding, and an approval engine that lets agents process transactions while humans retain governance and control.

### Current: AP Automation

Proper's AP automation is live and production-ready. It delivers enterprise-grade approval governance through a simple interface — multi-channel approval workflows, org-tree-based data visibility, and AI-powered document processing. The platform handles the full bill lifecycle: email/upload → AI extraction → smart GL coding → multi-channel approval → QuickBooks export.

## Who is Proper for?

- Multi-entity businesses with 2+ legal entities that need data isolation between entities
- Growing companies that have outgrown Bill.com's 2-level approval limit
- Finance teams (CFOs, Controllers, AP Managers) who need approval workflows that match their org structure
- Businesses using QuickBooks Online that want AP automation without per-user pricing
- Companies frustrated with Stampli's "pick one workflow type" limitation or Quadient AP's next-day approval delays

## Key Features

### Approval Engine (Primary Differentiator)
- **Multi-channel approvals**: Bills qualify for multiple independent approval channels — each with its own qualification rules, steps, and approver groups. All channels run in parallel.
- **Cross-channel auto-approval**: When a user approves in one channel, it auto-applies to all other channels where they're a step member. One click covers all.
- **Approver inline edits**: Approvers can edit GL codes, departments, and other configurable fields directly during approval — no rejection needed for a simple coding fix.
- **Delegation and escalation**: OOO routing via delegation rules. Escalation timers for overdue approval steps.
- **Step evaluation modes**: ANY_ONE_OF (1 approval sufficient) or ALL_OF (all step members must approve).
- **Auto-export**: When all channels complete all steps, approved bills export to QuickBooks automatically.

### Invoice Capture
- **Dedicated AP email**: Each company gets a dedicated AP email address. Forward invoices and they're automatically captured, extracted, and ready for coding.
- **Multi-channel intake**: Dedicated AP email per company, team/individual inboxes, plus manual upload (PDFs, PNGs, JPGs, TIFFs, ZIPs). Magic byte validation, not extension-based.
- **AI extraction**: LLM vision model reads invoices and extracts vendor, amount, line items, tax, due date, and bill number. No templates needed — works on any invoice format.
- **Multi-page PDF splitting**: Automatic boundary detection splits multi-invoice PDFs at invoice boundaries.
- **Fuzzy vendor matching**: Exact alias match + Levenshtein/token_set_ratio matching links invoices to existing vendors automatically.
- **Duplicate detection**: Identifies potential duplicates by vendor+amount+date or bill_number+vendor before they enter the system.
- **Amount cross-validation**: Subtotal + tax ~ total, line sums ~ subtotal.

### Smart GL Coding
- **Learns from history**: Studies historical GL coding patterns and codes invoices the way your team would — down to department, class, and cost center.
- **Confidence scores**: Each suggested coding comes with a confidence score so you know exactly when to review.
- **Custom rules**: Define coding rules per vendor, GL account, or description pattern.
- **Node-based visibility**: Users only see GL accounts relevant to their org-tree node.

### Org-Tree Data Visibility
- **Nested org hierarchy**: Root > Legal Entities > Org Units. Each node represents a scope boundary.
- **Fine-grained user access**: Users are granted access to specific nodes. They see only bills, vendors, accounts, and data scoped to their nodes and descendants.
- **18 model types scoped**: Bills, vendors, accounts, classes, departments, tax codes, and more — all automatically filtered by user's node access on every database query.

### QuickBooks Integration
- **One-click connection**: OAuth 2.0 flow with encrypted token storage.
- **10 entity types synced**: Accounts, vendors, customers, classes, departments, tax codes + components, items, currencies, exchange rates, payment terms.
- **Delta sync**: Only syncs changes since last sync, using 3-tier parallel Temporal workflows.
- **Auto-export**: Approved bills export to QuickBooks Online automatically.

### Audit Trail
- **Append-only log**: Every action recorded — who did what, when, with before/after diffs.
- **Actor types**: User, system, AI agent, webhook.
- **Cursor-based pagination**: Rich filtering for compliance and review.

## Pricing

Proper uses flat per-org pricing with unlimited users. No per-seat fees.

- **Starter**: $49/month — 500 invoices included, 2 legal entities, then $0.10 per invoice
- **Growth**: $149/month — 1,500 invoices included, 5 legal entities, then $0.10 per invoice
- **Business**: $349/month — 5,000 invoices included, 20 legal entities, then $0.07 per invoice

Annual billing saves 20%.

### Why unlimited users matters
Bill.com charges $45–79 per user/month. A 5-person AP team costs $225–395/month on Bill.com before any invoices are processed. On Proper, the same team costs $49/month total.

## Integrations

- QuickBooks Online (available — full two-way sync)
- Xero (available)
- NetSuite (coming soon)
- Sage 50/100/300 (available)

## How Proper compares to alternatives

### vs Bill.com
Bill.com limits approvals to 2 levels, charges per-user ($45–89/user/month), and has no entity-level data isolation. Proper offers unlimited multi-channel approvals, org-tree data visibility, approver inline edits, and unlimited users — starting at $49/month flat.

### vs Stampli
Stampli forces you to choose either predefined OR dynamic workflows for your entire account. Stampli has no access control or data visibility features (their #1 G2 complaint). Proper supports both workflow types per channel and was built around node-based data isolation.

### vs Quadient AP (Beanworks)
Quadient AP updates approval status once per day, meaning a 5-step workflow takes 5+ days. Rejections restart from step 1 only. Proper processes approvals instantly, supports rejection to any step, and includes delegation and escalation.

### vs Tipalti
Tipalti targets enterprise with custom pricing, $4,000–5,000 implementation fees, and complex setup. Proper offers comparable approval governance with self-service setup in under 30 minutes and transparent pricing.

### vs spreadsheets and email
Industry average cost of processing an invoice manually: $12–15. Proper reduces this to $0.07–0.10 per invoice with full audit trail, approval governance, and ERP integration.

## Platform Roadmap

Proper is building in phases toward a complete AI-native business operations platform:

- **Phase 1 (Current)**: AP Automation — live and production-ready. Multi-channel approvals, AI document processing, QuickBooks sync.
- **Phase 2**: Full Accounting Suite — AR, general ledger, bank reconciliation, payments, period close, fixed assets, budgets, and forecasts.
- **Phase 3**: Project Management (job costing) + Contract Management (recurring billing, revenue recognition).
- **Phase 4**: Agent-first ERP — MCP integration, LLM validation layer, fully autonomous accounting with human-in-the-loop governance.

### For AI Agents

Proper is designed to be consumed by AI agents, not just humans:

- **Structured API**: Every feature is API-first. Agents can submit invoices, trigger approvals, query GL data, and export to ERPs programmatically.
- **Approval governance as guardrails**: Agents can process high-volume transactions autonomously while the multi-channel approval engine ensures human oversight on policy-defined thresholds.
- **Machine-readable pricing**: Per-invoice pricing ($0.07–$0.10/invoice) aligns with agent-native purchasing — no opaque enterprise quotes.
- **Automatable onboarding**: Self-service setup in under 30 minutes. No implementation fees, no sales calls required.
- **Audit trail for trust**: Append-only logs with actor type tracking (user, system, AI agent, webhook) so agents and humans can verify every action.

## Contact

- Website: https://www.runproper.com
- Email: info@runproper.com