Accounts payable interviews are more practical than most. The interviewer usually does the job themselves and wants to know whether you will need supervising. Concrete numbers and named systems land far better than general statements about accuracy.
Last reviewed September 2026
Accounts payable interviews are practical. Expect the 3-way match, what you do with an invoice that has no purchase order, duplicate invoice handling, and your month end process including accruals. Concrete numbers and named systems land far better than general statements about being accurate.
The core of the role. Getting this slightly wrong ends most interviews quickly.
Name the three documents, what you compare between them, and what you do when they disagree.
Purchase order, goods receipt and invoice. The PO gives agreed price and quantity, the receipt confirms what actually arrived, and the invoice is what the supplier billed. I check price against the PO and quantity against the receipt. A mismatch goes on hold and back to the buyer or supplier rather than being posted.
Tests whether you follow process or just push things through to clear a queue.
Describe the approval route, and be clear that you do not simply pay it.
A non-PO invoice goes for approval by the budget holder against the approval matrix before posting. If it is recurring and should have had a PO, I flag it to procurement, because the same invoice will arrive again next month.
Duplicate payments are one of the most common and expensive AP errors.
Explain your check and what prevents it recurring.
Before posting I check supplier, invoice number and amount against what is already in the system. If it is a genuine duplicate I reject it and tell the supplier. If one was already paid I raise it for recovery immediately, because the longer it sits the harder it is to get back.
Every AP role has a month end, and they want to know you have actually run one.
Go in order and mention accruals, because that is where people who have not done it get vague.
Cut-off first, so invoices land in the right period. Then accrue for goods received not yet invoiced, reconcile the AP sub-ledger to the general ledger, clear any open items, and produce the aging report. Anything unresolved gets documented rather than left for whoever opens it next.
AP queues are always too long. They want to know your ordering is deliberate.
Give the actual order you use and the reason behind it.
Anything blocking a delivery goes first, because that stops the business. Then discounts about to expire, since that is real money. Then aged items, oldest first. Everything else by due date. If a supplier is threatening to stop supply, that jumps the queue and I tell the buyer.
Practical screening. They want the transactions you use, not the version number.
Name the system, the tasks you did in it, and be honest about depth.
I processed invoices and handled vendor master maintenance in SAP S/4HANA daily, including parking and posting, and running the aging report. I have not configured it, only used it, but I picked up our previous system in about a week.
Tests communication under mild pressure, and whether you check before promising.
Find out the actual status first, then commit to something you can keep.
I look up where it is before responding, because promising a date I cannot keep costs more than the delay. Then I tell them plainly: it is on hold for a price mismatch, here is what I need, here is when it goes in the next run.
Common in larger companies, and a good indicator of whether you have worked in a controlled environment.
Explain the control in terms of what you do differently day to day.
In practice it means the process has to be evidenced, not just done. Segregation of duties, so whoever sets up a supplier is not whoever pays them, approvals kept with the document, and an audit trail that shows who did what. It slows individual invoices and makes the year end far easier.
They want to know whether you raise things or quietly correct them.
Say what you found, what it was worth, and who you told.
I noticed a supplier billing a rate above the contract on several invoices. It was about two thousand over three months. I put the current one on hold, raised it with procurement, and we recovered the difference as a credit note. We also added the rate to the check sheet so it would be caught earlier.
The core tension of the role, and they want a method, not a promise to be careful.
Talk about batching and about what you never rush, rather than about trying harder.
I batch similar invoices so I am not switching context for every one, which is where mistakes come from. I never rush anything above the approval threshold or anything with a changed bank detail, because those are the two that are expensive when wrong.
InvisiHire listens to your call and drafts what you could say next, using your own resume. Free to start, no card needed. Check your employer's or your institution's rules on assistance before you use it.
Start free See how it works