Abstract: Systems and methods for automating an invoice approval process are described herein. Rules are created which are evaluated against a set of attributes. A rules engine is automatically invoked upon receipt of a document in an electronic invoice presentment and payment system. The rules engine determines which rules are applicable to documents received and processed in the system, and applies those applicable rules in a pre-defined sequence.

Abstract: An example system for automatically expanding a vendor selection cycle for fulfillment of a requested product or service can include a processor, a user interface, and a database. The database can store a plurality of vendors characterized by one or more vendor characteristics. The processor can be configured to associate the requested product or service with a plurality of order characteristics, compare the one or more vendor characteristics for each of the plurality of vendors with the plurality of order characteristics, and filter the plurality of vendors to yield a set of viable vendors according to the comparison. The processor can also rank the set of viable vendors, send order requests based on the ranking, and automatically expand the list based on whether the order is fulfilled within a pre-determined period of time.