How to automate email for Deltek Costpoint
Short answer
Read the shared inboxes where invoices, order confirmations and subcontractor billings arrive, extract the fields with rules and a model, match them to open POs and subcontracts, and create draft voucher or PO updates in Costpoint for a person to approve. Posting is never automatic until confidence and controls say so.
Costpoint accounts payable teams on cost-type contracts have a tighter job than most: a vendor invoice has to be matched to a PO or subcontract, charged to the right project, task and account, and must be allowable. Meanwhile invoices arrive as PDFs in a shared mailbox, sometimes with a cover email that changes the meaning.
Email automation cuts the typing and the hunting, not the judgment. A good build recognizes the vendor, finds the open PO, proposes the lines, flags what looks wrong and puts the draft in front of the processor. It keeps the original email and attachment with the voucher.
This page focuses on email as a channel. It overlaps with document OCR for the attachment reading, but here the questions are routing, matching, threading and what Costpoint will accept.
What teams use it for
Vendor invoice to draft voucher
Identify the vendor from sender and invoice content, match to open PO lines, and prepare a voucher draft for a processor to review and release.
Subcontractor billing intake
Route progress billings to the subcontract administrator with the matching subcontract and period pre-identified, including retainage and ceiling checks.
Supplier order acknowledgements
Read acknowledgements and extract promised dates and quantities, proposing updates to PO lines for buyer approval.
Customer remittance and dispute emails
Classify remittance advice and query emails, and attach them to the invoice for the billing team.
Expense and receipt capture
Accept forwarded receipts at a dedicated address, tie them to an employee and a report in progress, and flag ones missing project information.
Deltek Costpoint integration surface
- Costpoint Accounts Payable voucher entry and vouchers import: the usual target for supplier invoices. Confirm your import templates and required fields for your release.
- Purchase order and subcontract data: read via reporting views or web services, needed to match invoices to open lines.
- Costpoint web services where available: use for creating or updating records where licensed; otherwise stage into the standard import path.
- Mailbox access: Microsoft Graph or IMAP for the shared inbox, with application permissions limited to that mailbox.
- Workflow and attachments: Costpoint supports attaching documents to records in many modules; confirm the supported method rather than writing to storage directly.
How it works
- 1
Separate inboxes by purpose
Use distinct addresses for AP invoices, order acknowledgements and subcontract billings so the classifier has an easier job.
- 2
Ingest and classify
Pull new messages, store the raw message, strip signatures and threads, and classify the type. Quarantine anything unclear.
- 3
Extract fields
Use template rules for repeat vendors and a language model for the rest, producing vendor, invoice number, date, totals and lines with a confidence score.
- 4
Match to Costpoint
Look up the vendor and open PO or subcontract lines, apply tolerance rules, and propose project, task and account from the PO.
- 5
Stage a draft for review
Write a staging record with the email, attachment and proposed voucher. A processor sees differences highlighted and approves or edits.
- 6
Post via supported path
On approval, submit through the voucher import or web service so Costpoint validation and workflow still apply, and store the Costpoint voucher number back on the staging record.
Example flows
Matched invoice
Trigger: A known vendor emails a PDF invoice quoting a PO number.
- Classifier tags it as invoice; extraction yields totals and lines.
- Matcher finds the PO and checks received quantity and price tolerance.
- Draft voucher is staged with all lines coded from the PO.
- Processor reviews in a queue and releases.
Result: Clean invoices take seconds to review instead of minutes to key.
Duplicate or suspicious invoice
Trigger: An email arrives with bank detail changes or an invoice number already seen.
- Duplicate check hits on vendor plus invoice number.
- Bank change language triggers a hold flag.
- No draft is created; the item goes to a supervisor with a call-back-to-verify instruction.
Result: Common payment fraud patterns are stopped before they reach the voucher stage.
Keeping data on-prem
Email automation can run entirely inside your network if the mailbox is on Exchange Server or reached through a Graph application with tight scope, and the extraction model is an open-weight one served locally with vLLM or Ollama. For Costpoint in the cloud, only the staging service needs to reach it through the supported interfaces. Keep raw emails and attachments on your own storage, since invoices and subcontract documents may reveal pricing or program details.
Security checklist
- Use a dedicated service mailbox and app-only permissions scoped to that mailbox, not a human account.
- Treat email content as untrusted: strip active content, scan attachments, and never let message text change instructions to the model.
- Hold any invoice with changed remittance details for out-of-band verification.
- Segregate duties so the person who approves a draft is not the one who can change vendor bank data.
- Keep a full audit chain from email to voucher number for DCAA-style review.
Ways to get it done
Costpoint plus a third-party AP automation product
Effort: Weeks, plus subscription; verify Costpoint support for your version.
Teams wanting a packaged invoice capture with a Costpoint connector.
Build in-house on Graph and an extraction library
Effort: 6 to 10 weeks for a reliable first version.
Teams with developers and a few repeat vendors.
Netray custom build
Effort: Pilot on one mailbox in weeks.
Mixed document types, on-prem model, tight review controls and audit.
Pitfalls
- !Auto-posting vouchers on high confidence alone; allowability and coding errors are costly under cost-type contracts.
- !Extracting from the email body when the real invoice is in the attachment, or the reverse.
- !Matching on vendor name instead of vendor ID and sender domain history.
- !Ignoring partial receipts, which makes valid invoices look like overbilling.
- !Losing the original email, which breaks the audit trail.
Frequently asked questions
Can emails create vouchers in Costpoint automatically?
Technically yes through imports or web services, but most teams should stage drafts for review first. Cost-type contracts make coding and allowability errors expensive, so start with human approval and loosen only for narrow, proven cases.
Does Costpoint have built-in invoice capture?
Deltek has offered or partnered on invoice automation features over time, but availability varies by release and contract. Ask your reseller. If it covers your document types, use it; otherwise a custom or third-party layer is the route.
How do we handle attachments?
Store the original in your document store and attach a reference or copy to the Costpoint record using the supported method. Keep the link between email, attachment, draft and voucher so any posting can be traced.
Is this safe for CUI or controlled drawings?
Only if the mailbox, storage and model all sit inside your authorized environment. Invoices rarely contain CUI, but subcontract documents can. Classify by mailbox and keep any controlled content out of external services.
What accuracy should we expect?
Repeat vendors with stable layouts reach high field accuracy quickly. New or messy documents need review. Track accuracy per vendor and field, and use thresholds per field instead of one overall number.
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