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Every open item has a story.

AP review that remembers what you decided — and tells you when it didn’t happen.

Decisions carry into the next period. DueStory checks them against what the books actually did, and raises a card wherever the two disagree.

For firms where one person prepares the AP and another reviews it.

Apply for pilot access

The card moves itself. Press a date to go back.

4821 Kestrel Supplies Ltd

The decision

Part Pay $1,200.00

Balance
$1,803.00
Decided
Sahil · processor
Approved
Anil · reviewer

Approved. To be carried out this cycle.

On the new aging

Balance $1,803.00

Exception

The part payment never reached the books.

Decided
$1,200.00
Came off
$0.00
Short by
$1,200.00

Confirm whether the payment went out.

Same card. Same number. Nobody re-typed anything.

You decided. The client paid — or did not.
Today you find out by accident, a month late.

01 The record you keep today

The reasoning lives in three places, and none of them is the ledger.

Inbox · 14 Feb

Re: Kestrel Supplies

Hold 4821 until the 15th — they’ve promised a credit note.

AP tracker.xlsx · cell F42

part pay agreed on the call — S.

why did we hold 4821??

— somebody’s notebook

The numbers move forward. None of this does.

02 What changes for your reviewer

Twelve invoices last month. Three need you this month.

Twelve invoices, every one decided and approved. Nine carried forward untouched. Three are asking for you.

  1. Kestrel Supplies Ltd4821$1,803.00Part Pay $1,200.00Payment never cleared
  2. Harrow & Blake3390$640.00Full Pay $640.00Gone from the aging
  3. Calder Utilities1188$402.16AutopayAutopay did not run
  4. Northwind Freight7742$12,410.55HoldCarried — unchanged
  5. Ashby Print Co.5501$2,050.00DisputedCarried — unchanged
  6. Bellamy Cleaning2274$318.90HoldCarried — unchanged
  7. Draycott Legal9016$4,775.00Pending reconciliationCarried — unchanged
  8. Fenwick IT6653$1,120.00DeferCarried — unchanged
  9. Granby Catering4408$885.40HoldCarried — unchanged
  10. Halstead Fuel3127$6,204.00DisputedCarried — unchanged
  11. Ivory Packaging8890$970.25HoldCarried — unchanged
  12. Jessop Maintenance1502$240.00DeferCarried — unchanged

Nine rows nobody has to read again is where the hours go.

1

card per invoice, kept for its whole life — number and all

5

separate records holding the story, each readable on its own

0

rows ever deleted — a removal is a mark, never a disappearance

03 What we compare

Two files, side by side, on every invoice.

What you decidedWhat the next file showsWhat we raise
Full Pay $2,143.13Still open at $2,143.13Payment never cleared
Part Pay $2,100.00Only $730.38 came offPart payment fell short
Autopay, run due the 15thBalance untouchedAutopay did not run
HoldBalance up $612.00New charges on a held invoice
Any decisionInvoice is goneConfirm it was settled

04 The part that matters

The finding does not disappear when somebody answers it.

Follow the chip.

  1. ExceptionDetectedRaised automatically, carrying the figures.
  2. ExceptionAnsweredThe processor investigates and re-decides.
  3. ExceptionReviewedThe reviewer still sees what was found.
  4. ExceptionResolvedClosed, and still an exception in the record.

A system that alerts you, or a system that can be audited afterwards.

05 How a period runs

Six beats, and the sixth is the one that compounds.

  1. UploadThe A/P aging from QuickBooks Online.
  2. DecideEvery past-due invoice. No blanks allowed.
  3. SubmitA numbered card per decision.
  4. ReviewApprove, or send it back with a reason.
  5. CloseThe period waits until each one is done.
  6. CarryDecisions travel. Divergences surface.

06 Four rules the system will not let you break

Enforced in the database, not by a warning on a screen.

01Silence is not an answer.
A past-due invoice cannot leave the processor’s desk undecided. Deferring is a decision the reviewer sees. A blank is not.
02One invoice, one card.
A single card for the invoice’s whole life, keeping its number through every change of state.
03Time moves one way.
A completed period is frozen — for everyone, administrators included. The honest alternative is a new decision today.
04Nothing is ever deleted.
A deleted record is marked deleted and kept. An audit trail with removable rows is not an audit trail.

07 What is on the record afterwards

“Why did we hold this invoice?” has one answer.

This is the history behind the card in the hero, read from the invoice itself.

4821 Kestrel Supplies Ltd · full history
  1. 31 Mar 2026

    Exception

    The part payment never reached the books. Decided $1,200.00, came off $0.00.

    Found when the file was uploaded by Sahil (processor)

  2. 12 Mar 2026

    Closed

    Closed. Carried out: Part Pay $1,200.00 of $1,803.00, leaving $603.00 outstanding.

    Sahil (processor)

  3. 02 Mar 2026

    Approved

    Approved to proceed. The decision stands for this period.

    Anil (reviewer)

  4. 28 Feb 2026

    Item raised

    An action item was raised for this invoice: Part Pay $1,200.00 of $1,803.00.

    Sahil (processor)

Four more records read the same way: the vendor, the card, the period and the re-upload.

08 What firms ask first

The awkward questions, answered plainly.

Does it connect to QuickBooks directly?

Not today. You upload the A/P Aging Detail export, and DueStory matches it against the last one. We would rather tell you that now than let you find out on the call.

Does DueStory move money?

No, and it is not trying to. Payment happens wherever it happens for you today. DueStory records what your team decided and checks whether the books agree.

We already use Bill.com. Why this as well?

They do different jobs. A payment platform executes the payment and records the approval that released it. DueStory holds the decision — including every decision where nothing is paid, like a hold, a dispute or a deferral — carries it into the next period, and tells you when the books disagree with it. If an invoice is settled outside that platform, or deliberately not settled at all, the reasoning still needs somewhere to live.

Where does our clients’ data sit?

In a database walled off per firm, with the separation enforced at the data layer rather than in the screens — so a query that forgot to filter still returns nothing belonging to anybody else. Only an address we have invited can create an account at all, and that rule lives in the database too. Two-step sign-in is available, and a firm can require it of everyone. Documents sit in a private store reachable only through a permission check, and nothing is ever hard-deleted.

How long does it take to start?

One aging export and two people — someone to prepare and someone to review. There is no implementation project.

DueStory DueStory

Every open item has a story.

We are taking a small number of pilot firms.

For firms where somebody prepares and somebody else checks. Your real clients, your real periods, and a direct line to the person who built it.

hello@duestory.com