What Is a Certified Payable?

How do you know a sub's invoice should actually be paid?

A certified payable is a subcontractor or supplier invoice that has been validated against the work actually performed and approved for payment.

What it is

A certified payable is an invoice from a sub or supplier that has passed validation: the work or material it bills for is confirmed against the field record, the amount matches the agreed scope or commitment, and it is approved for payment. Certification is the control that separates an invoice that should be paid from one that should not.

Why it matters

Paying an invoice that was never checked against the work is how overpayments, double payments, and backcharge disputes happen. The certification step is where the field record meets accounts payable, and skipping it pushes the error downstream into the books.

How it works

1. Match the invoice to the commitment

   Check the invoice against the purchase order or subcontract it bills against.
2. Validate against the field

   Confirm the billed work or material was actually delivered or performed.
3. Resolve exceptions

   Short deliveries, damage, or backcharges are settled before approval, not after payment.
4. Approve for payment

   Only a validated invoice becomes a certified payable approved to pay.

Common mistakes

How Scaftra handles it

Scaftra validates sub and supplier invoices against the commitment and the field record before they are approved, so a certified payable reflects work that was actually performed, on the same project record as the commitment it bills against.

Related terms

Go deeper