Auto-publish lets William publish documents to Xero or QuickBooks autonomously – when it's confident about its accuracy. When it isn't, William asks for help by flagging the document for your review, just like a good team member.
The result: most documents flow through without your input. Manual review becomes the exception, not the rule – you step in only when William actually needs you.
How auto-publish works
William's auto-publish is conservative by design – it only takes action when it's absolutely sure publishing is the right thing to do.
Every document in your Inbox has to pass these checks first – whether William found it in email or you uploaded it from desktop, mobile, WhatsApp, or forwarded email:
It's an invoice or receipt – William never auto-publishes supplier statements
Existing supplier – William never publishes documents from new suppliers.
No duplicates – William checks the document isn't already in Apron, Xero, or QuickBooks.
All required fields are filled, and the math checks out (total = subtotal + tax).
William double-checks itself – every field is extracted twice. If the two passes disagree on anything, the document is held for review.
A good track record – William has processed similar documents for this company before, without recent corrections to the category, tax type, or other fields.
Otherwise, the document stays in your Inbox with a "Needs review" flag, and the publish-reasoning banner explains what made William pause.
Choose what William auto-publishes
Use guidance to tell William which documents to auto-publish and which to leave for your review. Write it in plain language, and type @ to select a supplier. For example:
Auto-publish everything from @Uber
Never auto-publish anything from @Amazon
Never auto-publish anything over £5,000
Don't publish supplier statements or pro forma invoices
Guidance works in two ways:
Hold-back guidance – such as Don't publish supplier statements or Never auto-publish documents from @Supplier. It stops a document from being auto-published whenever William sees that it applies.
Publish guidance – such as Auto-publish everything from @Uber. It's a request, not an override. It helps William publish with more confidence, but if a check above doesn't pass, William holds the document for your review and shows the reasons in the document view.
William still runs every check above, so a document that doesn't pass one of them stays in your Inbox for review, even if your guidance says to publish. Find out more in our article: Teach William about your policies.
Auto-publish without William
Contact rules are separate from William AI, so you can use them even if you don't use William. Set up supplier rules to automatically publish documents from chosen suppliers. Your contact and supplier rules always take priority over the William AI rules. Find out more in our article: Create contact and supplier rules.
William auto-publish or supplier rule?
William auto-publish – switched on in the William tab under Overview, and it applies to the whole company. It's off by default. Use guidance to shape what it publishes, for example, only when VAT is £0.
Supplier rule: Always publish – applies to the contact you choose. William publishes their documents in most cases, with far fewer restrictions than auto-publish. Use it for suppliers you never need to review, and avoid it for suppliers who send statements. Supplier rules always come first.
Turn on auto-publish
Auto-publish is off by default. To turn it on:
Open the William AI tab.
In Overview, click Turn on auto-publish in the Auto-published card.
What's next
Track William's decisions and the reasoning behind them – see exactly what William has auto-published, and the reasoning behind every call.
Teach William about your policies – teach William which documents to publish and which to hold back, with guidance.
See examples of guidance – copy-paste examples, including what to hold back for review.
Understand email search – see how William finds missing receipts in inboxes, and how to connect Gmail or Outlook.
Meet William, your AI bookkeeping agent – back to the overview.