THE APMN FIELD GUIDE

A day in the life of one invoice

Follow a single invoice through an agentic process. Every shape below comes straight from the APMN canvas — by the last chapter, you can read any model in the app.

WORK IN PROGRESS — new chapters added as the notation grows
1
9:02It starts with a spark

A supplier's invoice lands in the finance inbox. That moment — not a meeting, not a form — is what wakes the process up. The document itself joins the drawing too.

Invoice received Document arrival
Invoice document
PDF from the supplier
DataDocument

THE SHAPES → Start / Trigger · Input Artifact

2
9:03One box, one job

"Read the invoice" is a single job, so it gets a single box. The AI that extracts the details works inside that box — a helper, not a separate step in the business story.

Read the invoice
Accounts payable
Work Unit
Uses
Extract details Check vendor
Extract details
part of Read the invoice
LLM CallExtract

THE SHAPES → Work Unit · LLM Call · dashed line = "uses a helper"

3
9:04The systems are asked

Is this vendor real? Does the order match? The finance system answers, and everything learned so far is written down where the next steps can see it.

Check the vendor
Finance system
Tool Callmedium
What we know so far
Vendor ✓ · amount · dates
Data

THE SHAPES → Tool Call · State Object · dashed line = information moving

4
9:05A fork in the road

The amount is higher than usual. Instead of deciding quietly, the process asks its question out loud — and the company's payment policy stands right beside it. A sticky note keeps the context honest.

Does it add up? Router
all good → needs a look →
Payment policy
Company rulebook
Governance
Note
Anything over the usual amount gets human eyes. Finance asked for this in March.

THE SHAPES → Decision / Router · Guardrail · Text Note · every road out gets a name

5
9:12People hold the reins

Because money is involved, the invoice takes the "needs a look" road. Maya checks the details a person should check; her manager gives the formal yes. Judgment first, then accountability.

Maya double-checks
AP specialist
Human
Manager signs off
Formal approval
Humanhigh

THE SHAPES → Human Review · Human Approval · drawn where the risk actually lives

6
9:14Done — with receipts

Twelve minutes, one human check, zero mystery. The invoice is approved, and the audit trail remembers who did what, when — so nobody has to reconstruct it in a meeting six months from now.

Paid & filed Completed
Who did what, when
Evidence for later
Governance

THE SHAPES → End / Output · Audit Log · dashed olive line = proof captured

7

Chapter seven is still being written. The invoice's story will grow as the notation does — these shapes are already on the drawing board:

Memory Knowledge Source Retriever / Search Escalation Monitoring Exception Handling
READ THE LINES what happens next information moving a helper being used proof captured

Now draw your own story

Open the canvas and model the process you know best — or tell us which scene this guide still needs.