Central Pay
Ande pays venue invoices on behalf of the client. The booker never touches a card, never files an expense — the Concierge intercepts the payment step and pays via the Ande checkout or a virtual P-card. One product, two operational paths, one enterprise unlock.
Ande admin enables Central Billing on the client
In the Admin Portal under Client Details → Products, an Ande admin flips Central Billing on. From that point forward the checkout routing logic recognizes this client as Central-Pay and never prompts their bookers for a card.
- Central Billing
- On
- Central Legal
- Optional (often paired)
- Booking Fee
- 5% standard, sometimes waived
- Payment Fee
- 1.5% on Central Pay txns
Booker selects a venue and gives the go-ahead
The booker uses Ande or the Virtual Concierge the way any other user would — find a venue, check the date, confirm party size. The instant they say "let's go with this one", the system reads the client's product configuration and the path forks.
- Client has Central Billing on
- Whether Central Legal is also on
- Whether venue is a partner (TripleSeat)
- Deposit amount & estimated GBV
VC sends the handoff message and stops auto-responding
The Virtual Concierge posts a deterministic handoff line in the chat — the wording depends on which products are enabled — then pauses. Auto-replies are disabled until the Concierge marks the booking complete.
- VC auto-reply off for this thread
- Booking marked awaiting concierge
- Jira "Agent Support" ticket created (next step)
- Booker no longer sees any payment UI
Escalation ticket lands with the Account Owner
A Jira ticket of type Agent Support is created and routed to the client's assigned Account Owner on the Concierge team. It carries everything they need to execute payment without re-asking the booker.
The Jira ticket is the source of truth — the chat thread is for the booker.
- Client
- Name + requestor
- Event
- Date, time, party size, type
- Venue
- Name, address, partner flag
- Money
- Deposit, est. GBV
- Products
- Central Billing (+ others)
- Links
- Contract / pay / combined
- Instructions
- Path-A or Path-B playbook
Concierge pays — partner checkout or P-card
The Jira instructions branch on whether the venue is a partner. Partner venues route through Ande's own checkout (Concierge impersonates the booker); offline venues require a virtual purchase card and a manual upload.
Pay through the Ande checkout
- Concierge impersonates the requestor in the Ande platform.
- Checks out at the Ande paylink using Central Billing as the payment method.
- Confirmation flows back to the event plan automatically.
- Booker never sees a payment prompt — no action needed.
Issue a virtual P-card
- Concierge creates a P-card from the ticket details.
- Coordinates PO# / approver in Slack #central-payments.
- Pays at the venue's payment link with the P-card.
- Uploads the receipt to the event page in Admin Portal.
Receipt & expense captured under "Central Billing"
When the Concierge logs the receipt, "Central Billing" is selectable as the payment method. Selecting it hides the card / cardholder / user-payment fields — only amount, vendor, date and attachment remain. Receipts are clearly labeled so Finance can reconcile them.
- Amount
- Vendor
- Date
- Receipt attachment
- Card number
- Cardholder
- Paying user
Concierge posts confirmation; VC unpauses
The Concierge writes the completion message in the booker's chat thread, posting it as the Virtual Concierge. That message flips the auto-reply back on so the VC can field "what time is the reservation again?" and other follow-ups without a human in the loop.
- Booking moves to confirmed
- VC auto-reply re-enabled
- Receipt visible in Admin Portal
- 1.5% fee accrues to Ande GBV
| Code | Central Billing | Central Legal | Who signs | Who pays | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C0 | Off | Off | Booker | Booker | Default bottoms-up. CC on file required. |
| C1 | On | Off | Booker | Concierge | Most common entry point — payment only. |
| C2 | Off | On | Concierge | Booker | Legal handled centrally; client pays its own way. |
| C4 | On | On (SA) | Concierge | Concierge | Full enterprise — booker just confirms. |
| C5 | On | On (AA) | Concierge | Concierge | Agreement Authority variant. |
| C7 | On | On (SA+AA) | Concierge | Concierge | BYOV prerequisite. Off-platform venues included. |
Booker
- Zero card friction. No checkout, no reimbursement, no personal card exposure.
- Confidence the payment method is guaranteed by Ande.
- Side effect: less visibility into deposit / fee amounts.
Client & Finance
- Centralized spend control — one method, not N cards across employees.
- Full receipt & expense capture in the Admin Portal for reconciliation.
- Native PO numbers + approver fields; Slack ops via #central-payments.
Concierge team
- Every Central Pay booking generates one Jira ticket — hands-on work per event.
- Two playbooks to keep straight: partner checkout vs P-card upload.
- Always speaks "as the VC" — boundary between agent and human is intentional.
Product & revenue
- Entry-point product in enterprise sales; Central Legal follows.
- Prerequisite for BYOV — off-platform venues route through this same flow.
- 1.5% payment fee is a direct revenue line on top of the 5% booking fee.
Agent-initiated P-card generation
Automate P-card creation for offline venue payments. The agent extracts the deposit amount from the venue email thread and pre-populates the P-card request, pushing it to #Central-Payments for Finance approval — eliminating manual creation by the Concierge.
Autonomous checkout for partner venues
Allow the VC agent to execute the Ande paylink checkout using the client's Central Billing instrument directly, without Concierge impersonation. Booking completes end-to-end with no human touch for standard partner venue flows.
Auto-receipt upload
After a payment is made (P-card or partner checkout), the agent automatically uploads the receipt to the event page in the Admin Portal, closing the expense loop without a manual Concierge step.
Smarter Jira ticket pre-fill
On handoff, the agent auto-populates the Agent Support ticket with config-specific instruction blocks (partner vs. offline), deposit amount, venue type, and all parsed payment and contract links — so the Concierge can act immediately with no information gaps.
Threshold-based auto-approval
For P-card requests under a defined spend threshold, Finance auto-approves via API, removing the approval bottleneck for routine, low-risk transactions. High-value requests still route to a human approver.
Email-triggered Central Pay
Extend the Email Agent so enterprise users can CC their client-specific Ande address (e.g. cloudflare-concierge@ande.ai) on an existing venue thread. The agent parses the thread, maps the venue, and initiates the Central Pay flow — meeting bookers outside the Ande platform.
Central Pay status visibility for bookers
Surface a real-time payment status indicator in the Event Plan (e.g. "Payment in progress", "Payment complete") so bookers don't need to ask the Concierge for updates after handoff. Removes a common follow-up message.
Graceful fallback & escalation guard
When the agent cannot complete payment (failed P-card, ambiguous link, terms mismatch), it should pause cleanly, create a pre-filled escalation ticket, and notify the booker — rather than silently falling back to a non-enterprise flow.