Zero new AP hires at 4,000+ bills a month.
Saronic builds autonomous surface vessels. Its engines, waterjets, batteries and sensors are long-lead equipment, billed as deposits, milestones and partial shipments. Kos works its AP inbox: every bill checked against its PO, coded and drafted in NetSuite for the team to approve.
- Industry
- Defense hardware
- Product
- Procure-to-pay
- ERP
- NetSuite, less than a year old
- Volume
- 4,000+ bills a month
- New POs
- 80–100 a day
- Before Kos
- AP clerks, 10 minutes a bill
The Situation
Long-lead parts, billed on their own schedule.
Saronic orders engines, waterjets, batteries and sensors months before a vessel is ready to take them, on a NetSuite instance less than a year old. Each long-lead PO bills as a deposit, then milestones, then partial shipments with freight split across lines. About 800 emails a week hit the AP inbox, the three-way match broke on every exception, and each one landed on a person.
- per bill, down from 10 by hand
- 3 min
- accuracy on every check, from vendor to GL code
- 99%+
- bills a month from one inbox
- 4,000+
Saronic, 2026. About four FTEs of AP capacity returned.
Before Kos
- AP clerks keyed every bill, about 10 minutes each
- Deposits and milestones tracked in a spreadsheet beside the PO
- Partial shipments and split freight broke the three-way match
- Every exception queued for a person
With Kos
- Every bill checked and drafted in NetSuite
- Each milestone matched to its PO term and what’s already paid
- A partial shipment drafted for what arrived, the rest held
- One question on the invoice’s own thread
How Kos Works It
Every long-lead bill, matched to its PO.
Suppliers keep emailing the same inbox.
Nothing changed for Saronic’s suppliers. Deposit invoices, milestone bills, packing slips and credit memos still land in the shared AP inbox.
Each milestone is matched to the PO’s terms.
A milestone billed before factory acceptance, or a deposit invoiced twice, is held with the PO term behind it.
A partial shipment no longer stalls the bill.
When 36 of 40 units arrive, Kos drafts what was received, with the freight on the PO, and holds the rest until it lands.
Clean bills land in NetSuite as drafts.
Kos works in NetSuite under its own login. The team approves and pays in the system it already uses.
Anything that doesn’t reconcile gets one question.
Kos asks on the invoice’s own thread, with the evidence attached. Each answer becomes precedent for that supplier’s next bill.
“A lot of the things that are forcing us to have more touches in the system for three way match do require some level of judgment.”
The Results
Long-lead spend, matched to the PO.
0
New AP hires
Bill volume grew with production, and every bill got the same checks.
214
Milestones billed early, held
Billed before acceptance or shipment, each held with the PO term behind it.
$412K
Duplicates stopped before payment
A deposit or bill already entered, refused with the original it matches.
−62%
Questions to the team
Each answer becomes precedent for that supplier’s next bill, so it isn’t asked twice.
Saronic, last 12 months.
- Closing Thoughts
- Saronic’s long-lead equipment bills on its own schedule, thousands of bills a month on an ERP less than a year old. Kos matches every deposit, milestone and shipment to its PO, so the team approves and pays instead of keying and chasing.
- Industry
- Defense
- Product
- Procure-to-pay
- Works With Kos Over
- EmailSlack
- Kos Works In
- NetSuiteExcel
Put Kos on the AP inbox.
No new software to learn. Email Kos the work and watch it run.