Manufacturing
For manufacturers scaling their own production: batteries, robotics, space, EVs and chips. Every machine you order becomes a deposit, an acceptance payment and a delivery to reconcile.
Kos reads all 812 pages of Ridge Electric’s pay app #14, ties out the distribution and generator lines, and flags switchgear billed ahead of the work, Hollis Supply’s missing lien waiver and retainage held at 2.5% where the contract keeps 5%. It recommends $754,300 of the $1,374,750 requested, drafted in NetSuite for your approval.
Procure-to-pay: Calder Power emails a milestone invoice to the AP inbox. Kos enters it as a bill in your ERP, matches it to PO-4512 and the signed factory test report, codes it, flags $4,860 of freight that isn’t on the PO, and saves the bill at $486,000, pending your approval.
Maya invites Kos to a video call and walks it through a bill on screen share, Kos asks who to tell when a bill doesn’t match the PO, then replays the workflow on a new bill in the ERP sandbox while she watches: it finds the prepayment already went out, tells the requester on Teams, and leaves the bill pending your approval.
The Problem
Three problems manufacturing finance teams describe, and who feels each one most.
A deposit at order, a payment at factory acceptance, the balance at install, then a partial shipment and freight split across lines. Nothing matches.
Felt most by the controller
Vendors bill the next milestone before the machine passes acceptance, escalations and expedite fees creep in, and a deposit gets invoiced twice.
Felt most by procurement
Bill volume grows with every new line, and experienced AP and procurement staff take months to find.
Felt most by the CFO
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.
Nobody in their right mind has the time to review it. So they’re getting scammed and things are getting missed.
It’s too hard to throw bodies at. And you have the attrition and people moving into different roles. And something’s almost getting dropped.
I’ve gone from being able to handle my job to sort of rubber stamping, because there’s just no way in hell I can actually do it accurately.
The Solution
The answer to each problem above: every invoice matched to its PO, every milestone checked against acceptance, and the next line covered without a new hire.
Your three-way match holds. Kos tracks every deposit, milestone and final payment against the quote, PO and acceptance, and works the everyday vendor bills too.
Learn more: Procure-to-payNobody bills ahead of the work. When you build or fit out a plant, Kos checks the contractor’s pay apps against the contract and schedule of values the same day.
Learn more: Billing reviewNo hire for the next line. Show Kos your month-end close or capex tracker once on a screenshare, and it runs it that way every time.
How It Works
Nothing new for your team or your equipment vendors. The invoice goes to Kos the way it goes to a colleague, and comes back checked the same day.
Email Kos the equipment vendor’s invoice like you would a colleague, or ask it in Slack, Teams, iMessage or on a call.
The quote, the PO’s payment terms, the factory acceptance report and every payment already made on the machine.
A milestone billed before acceptance, a deposit billed twice or terms that don’t match the PO, each with the page behind it.
The bill coded to the line and the machine, your capex tracker updated, and the entry drafted in your ERP. Nothing posts until you approve.
Long-Lead Equipment
Furnaces, machining centers and whole production lines are ordered months ahead and billed in milestones. Kos matches each milestone invoice to the PO terms and the payments already made, checks the acceptance report for anything billed before delivery, and holds what the quote doesn’t cover.
What It Catches
Each hold comes back with the reason and the evidence. Approval and payment stay with your team.
The same bill sent twice, or re-sent under a new number. Held, with the original linked.
Duplicates
Over the remaining balance, priced above the quote, or charged to a closed PO. Held, with the reason.
PO balance
Bills coded to the wrong plant’s entity instead of the one that owns the PO.
Entity
Held where the PO requires a three-way match and the shipment hasn’t been received.
Receipt
Tax charged on exempt machinery, or missing where it should be.
Sales tax
A machine billed before factory acceptance, or a deposit invoiced twice.
Milestones
In Your ERP
Kos works inside your ERP with its own login, like a new hire, whether that’s NetSuite or another system. Nothing to install, and nothing posts until your team approves it.
Corliss Alloys emails INV-8842 for 24 aluminum plates to the AP inbox, where Kos has its own address. Or forward it to Kos as you would to a colleague.
Kos opens PO-2245 in your ERP and finds the receipt: 18 of the 24 plates came in on Oct 30, and the last six ship Nov 12.
Mesa Line 2, raw materials, account 1310. The six plates not yet received aren’t on the receipt, so Kos flags them and recommends $41,400.
The bill waits as pending approval with the flag noted. Nothing posts until someone on your team approves it.
Not New Software
Kos has its own email address and accounts, like anyone you hire. Forward it a milestone invoice, ask it about a PO in Slack, text it about the close or bring it into a call. Nothing to install.
Invite Kos to a Zoom, Google Meet or Teams call and share your screen. Show it how you track a machine’s payments once, and it tracks the next one the same way.
Instead Of
What manufacturing finance teams reach for today, next to a colleague who checks every invoice against the PO.
| Compared on | More AP clerks | Outsourced firms | Capex trackers | Frontier LLMs | Kos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time per invoice | Days in the queue | Their month-end cycle | Whenever someone updates it | Hours of prompting and checking | Same day |
| What gets checked | The PO total | A sample, at close | What someone types in | The pages you upload | Every term, against the PO |
| Where the work lands | Spreadsheets and email | A month-end report | Another spreadsheet | A chat reply | Your Excel, inbox and ERP, once you approve |
| How you work with it | Hire, train, retain, per line | Engage, wait, pay by the hour | Update by hand, every week | Build, prompt, check every bill | Email, Slack, a call |
| What it takes to start | Months of hiring | A statement of work | A template to keep current | A custom build on the models | Forward one invoice |
Outcome
Kos reads every quote, PO and milestone invoice, and your team approves what goes out.
Every equipment payment ties to the PO terms and acceptance, so a milestone billed before the factory test or a deposit billed twice is held before the payment run, not found at close.
Each invoice comes back checked the day it lands, so vendors get paid the day a milestone is met. Your machines keep their place in the build queue, and the parts keep arriving.
Kos works in your ERP, AP inbox and procurement threads like anyone on your team. Ask it at 11pm how much is left to pay on the furnace order, and it answers with the page behind the number.
You Stay in Control
Who It’s For
For manufacturers scaling their own production, from batteries, robotics and EVs to space hardware, chips and advanced materials.
Furnaces, machining centers and tooling, ordered months out and paid in milestones. Kos tracks every machine from deposit to site acceptance.
For the controller and procurement
Every new plant is a new entity, often on a young ERP. Kos codes each vendor bill to the plant and entity that owns the PO.
For AP and accounting
Kos checks the contractor’s pay apps against the contract and schedule of values, the same day, before the money goes out.
For the CFO
Kos is deterministic (not generative), governed, verifiable, and scalable for can’t miss, backoffice workflows. It checks every line item, every clause, every time.
Nothing posts until someone on your team approves it. When Kos is unsure about a line, it asks instead of guessing.
No. Kos works on ERPs less than a year old. There’s nothing to implement: Kos gets a login like a new hire, and your team emails it the work.
Kos reads each quote and PO for its own deposits, milestones and terms, and keeps your capex tracker in your columns. Show it your process once on a screenshare.
Kos works inside your systems under its own identity, with only the access you grant, and every action is logged.
No. They keep sending invoices to the same inbox.
A clerk takes months to find and covers one inbox. Kos covers every line and every plant from the day it starts, to the same standard.
Yes. It reads the quote, the PO terms and each milestone invoice, and shows what’s paid and what’s left.
Why Now
Machinery prices have risen every year since. Each new line arrives as quotes, deposits and escalations your team has to tie back to the PO.
+42%
machinery prices, September 2026 against 2019
Up from $431B. Every dollar of it came in on a receipt that had to match a PO and a vendor bill, and it all has to tie out at close.
$608B
of inventory on durable goods makers’ books, August 2026
Up 25% in the last year alone. Every surcharge reaches your desk on a vendor bill, and someone has to check it against the price on the PO.
+91%
aluminum prices, September 2026 against 2019
Up 18% in a year. Freight is the charge least likely to match the PO, and it’s split across every line it ships with.
+61%
truckload freight rates, September 2026 against 2019
No new software to learn. Email Kos the work and watch it run.
