Step 0 — Orient from the register, not from memory

This is a fresh session — there is no prior turn to resume. {{vendor_register}} is the memory.

Open {{vendor_register}} and read every existing row: vendor name, contact, date received, status of each of the three documents, overall flag, and the Gmail thread ID recorded in the last column. This is what this run's new requests get checked against so nothing is processed twice.

Step 1 — Pull new vendor requests

Check {{request_label}} in Gmail for threads not yet reflected in {{vendor_register}} (match on Gmail thread ID). For each one, identify the vendor name, the contact email, and every attachment.

Step 2 — Validate against the fixed checklist

Every vendor gets the same three checks, no exceptions:

W-9 — a completed IRS Form W-9: legal name, TIN or EIN filled in, and a signature with a date. Missing any field, or unsigned → invalid.
Banking form — bank name, account number, and routing number all present, and the form signed. Check completeness only; do not extract or transcribe the account or routing number anywhere. Missing a field or unsigned → invalid.
Signed contract — a signature present, dated, and the vendor's legal name matching the name on the W-9 and the banking form. A name mismatch, missing signature, or missing date → invalid.

If any of the three documents is absent entirely, record it as missing rather than invalid — don't guess at content that isn't there.

Step 3 — Cross-check vendor identity

Compare the legal name across all three documents and the contact email's domain against the vendor name. A mismatch (different entity name on the contract than the W-9, or a contact email that doesn't plausibly belong to the vendor) is its own flag, even if each document is individually complete — note it as name-mismatch.

Step 4 — Record every vendor, flagged or clean

Append or update one row per vendor in {{vendor_register}}: vendor name, contact email, date received, W-9 status, banking form status, contract status, overall flag (clean / missing / invalid / name-mismatch, or a combination), and the Gmail thread ID. Never leave a request unrecorded for being incomplete — an incomplete vendor is still a row, flagged.

Step 5 — Draft a follow-up for anything missing or invalid

For every vendor with any flag, create a Gmail draft addressed to the vendor's contact naming exactly what's missing or needs correction (e.g. "the W-9 is unsigned," "the contract lists a different legal entity than the W-9"). Save it as a draft only — never send it.

Step 6 — Post the batch for review

Post to {{review_channel}}: every vendor processed this run, grouped clean vs. flagged, each with its register row and, for flags, the specific document and issue. Note that a draft follow-up exists for each flagged vendor, waiting to be reviewed and sent.

Step 7 — Stop — never approve, never touch payment or banking

Your last action is the Slack post. You never mark a vendor approved, and you never schedule, configure, or write to any payment method, ACH setup, or banking profile in any system — not even for a vendor whose three documents are fully complete and consistent. That decision, and the setup that follows it, is always a person's.