Ask most AP teams how they handle utility, telecom and carrier invoices, and somewhere in the answer there’s a spreadsheet: a shared list of vendor portal passwords and logins that someone works through every week.
It exists for a good reason. These vendors don’t send invoices. They post them to a portal and wait for you to come get them. So teams do what works: they write the logins down, share the file and take turns logging in.
Why Vendor Portal Passwords in a Spreadsheet Are a Problem
The spreadsheet solves access, but it creates risk:
- No clear ownership. Shared logins make it hard to know who accessed what, and when.
- Offboarding gaps. When someone leaves, the passwords they knew don’t leave with them.
- Single points of failure. When the person who “does the portals” is out, invoices wait.
- Lockouts. Several people logging into the same account can trigger security lockouts at the vendor.
- Silent misses. A missed portal invoice doesn’t raise an exception. It shows up later as a late fee or a service interruption.
Security guidance points the same way. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recommends that businesses require strong passwords and a password manager. A shared spreadsheet is neither.
A Better Model
The fix isn’t a better spreadsheet. It’s taking vendor portal passwords out of people’s hands and removing the manual login altogether. That’s why Extropy Advisors built SmartFetch:
- Credentials are stored centrally, not in a shared file.
- Logins run on a set schedule, and new invoices are fetched the day they’re issued.
- Each invoice is delivered to your AP system, SFTP or AP inbox, and tracked through to completion.
- You can set an expectation for each account and get an alert before a missed invoice becomes a missed payment.
Today, SmartFetch manages more than 200 accounts under one login, with zero tool-caused lockouts.
Vendor Portal Passwords: Frequently Asked Questions
It’s common, but it’s a weak control. A shared file makes it hard to see who used which login, keeps credentials in circulation after people leave, and won’t warn you when an invoice is missed.
Portal automation logs into each vendor portal on a schedule, downloads new invoices and delivers them into your AP workflow. SmartFetch, built by Extropy Advisors, does this with centrally stored credentials and alerts for missed invoices.
Utilities, telecom carriers, shipping providers and many other recurring service providers post invoices to online portals instead of emailing or mailing them.
Retire the Spreadsheet
If your team keeps a password spreadsheet, we’d like to show you what replacing it looks like. See how SmartFetch works and book a demo.
