Subconsultant invoices, checked against the agreement before they bill through.

A geotechnical firm bills for borings and lab tests. A surveyor bills a phase of topographic work. Before anyone pays, someone asks whether the invoice fits the agreement and what is left of that phase's fee. Then: will the client pay it back, at what markup, and on which line of your next invoice?

In the proof of concept, AI reads copies of those old invoices next to their agreements and your prime contracts. For each one it writes a check sheet and a draft reimbursable line: what matches, what doesn't, and where the cost belongs. Nothing is approved, paid or posted. Your reviewer holds each sheet up against what your project accountant decided at the time.

Each discipline bills its own way. A surveyor may bill a lump sum per phase. A geotechnical firm usually bills field and lab work as quantities times unit rates: EJCDC's E-564, the standard agreement between an engineer and a geotechnical subconsultant, carries a schedule of rates for its analyses and tests. Others bill hours by labor classification. EJCDC's general subconsultant form, E-570, offers six standard compensation methods in its payment exhibit. Before the check can say an invoice is right, it has to know which method this agreement uses.

The prime contract decides what the client repays. A sub's cost lands in one of two places. Deltek Vantagepoint, for example, has separate account types for reimbursable consultant costs, which the client pays back, and direct consultant costs, which your fee already covers. Code a geotech invoice to the wrong one and you either bill the client twice for the same work or leave a reimbursable sitting unbilled. Whether a markup applies, and how much, comes from the prime contract, never from the sub. In Ajera, consultant markups live in the billing rate table, and an exception row can name one vendor and tick Pass Through to bill it at cost.

Public work adds rules about the sub, not only the invoice. Oregon DOT's invoice guidance says a subconsultant doing professional services, at any tier, must have approved billing rates on file and appear in the contract's breakdown of cost before it works or gets paid. It also accepts sub invoices that span different periods from the prime's, since every firm's accounting calendar is set up differently. On federal-aid contracts, 49 CFR 26.29 requires a clause that has the prime pay subcontractors within 30 days of being paid, and return their retainage within 30 days of their work being completed. Oregon also wants a Paid Summary Report within 20 days of payment for each month in which subconsultants were paid.

Approval runs by phase. One sub invoice can touch several phases, each with its own project manager. In Ajera's Vendor Invoice Approvals, a PM approves only the rows on their own phases, and a finance approver signs off on the invoice as a whole. Vantagepoint's AP Invoice Approvals can create the AP voucher once the final approval is in. So the check sheet splits every invoice by phase and shows that phase's fee under the agreement, what has been billed against it so far, and what remains: the view each PM needs before approving their rows.

What your reviewer will watch. Does each invoice follow the agreement's method and rates, and stop at the phase fee? Is every line coded reimbursable or direct the way the prime contract reads? Is the markup the one in the contract, and not a habit carried over from another job? On public jobs, is the sub in the cost breakdown at its approved rates, and is the payment deadline noted? Where a sub sent too little backup for your client, does the sheet say so instead of passing it on?

With your reviewer's yes, new subconsultant invoices get the same check for about 30 days.

Each check sheet goes to your project accountant, and every phase's PM still approves their own rows before anything is paid or billed. The AI drafts the reimbursable line; your team decides whether it goes on the next client invoice.

Nothing joins the scope until those 30 days end.