There are hundreds of accounts payable automation systems on the market today–so which is right for your business? To help you find the best accounts payable solution, we’ve conducted research on a wide range of products to put together a collection of our best AP software.
Tipalti is an accounts payable software designed to streamline and automate financial operations. It provides a range of features that facilitate supplier onboarding, invoice management, tax compliance, and global payments. Its primary goal is to reduce manual work, increase efficiency, and speed up the financial close process.
The software integrates seamlessly with existing business systems, supporting a smoother workflow. Users can effectively manage their supplier payments, ensuring timely and accurate transactions. With Tipalti, businesses can minimize human error, optimize vendor relationships, and enhance their overall financial management capabilities.
Sage Intacct is a cloud-based financial management and accounting software that is designed to cater to the needs of small to mid sized businesses. This software aims to facilitate the accounts payable process by providing tools for financial reporting and operational insights. It helps streamline payment processes, manage vendor relationships, and control expenses.
For small businesses, Sage Intacct can provide a powerful platform to manage their financials efficiently without the need for extensive IT resources. The software’s robust features can help small businesses improve cash management, reduce errors, and gain real-time visibility into their financial operations.
AvidXchange is an accounts payable software that provides a transformative solution for growing organizations. It offers a combination of services and technology designed to streamline your accounts payable workflows and facilitate easy payments to suppliers. By removing manual tasks and paper from current processes, it aids in improving efficiency and productivity.
The software features an invoice-to-pay solution that integrates seamlessly with your existing financial accounting or ERP solution, allowing for the automation of your entire accounts payable process without losing control. For mid-sized businesses, this means enhanced control over their accounts payable process, improved supplier relationships, and the ability to scale effectively with business growth, all while reducing the administrative burden of manual invoice processing.
Accounts payable software provides the ledger and related software functionality for managing money owed by an organization to creditors. These solutions provide a coordinated system for ensuring AP automation for tasks such as invoice processing, payables approvals, and executing payments. Software allows you to completely streamline accounting business processes, bypassing manual data entry which can take hours or days to complete.
Key financial benefits from using an AP management solution include the ability to:
Accounts payable can also be used as a subset of a larger accounting software solutions for managing financial data. The available features tie in closely with other core accounting modules, such as accounts receivable and a general ledger.
Managing expenses is a task that every business, government agency, church, non-profit, or school faces. Accounts payable is the best way for every type of organization to control expenses and, if applicable, increase sales. This guide provides a practical how-to for selecting the right AP software to cut unnecessary costs and create efficiency in payables processing.
Automated accounting solutions provide many useful benefits to businesses of all types, from new startups to midsize companies to global enterprises:
Traditional approval processes are time-consuming and prone to errors. AP automation software streamlines these processes, saving time and improving accuracy by reducing human errors. This software also provides real-time monitoring for better control and improved record keeping. Furthermore, AP software enables electronic payments, such as Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments, reducing operating costs and errors associated with physical checks, thereby mitigating the risk of fraud.
AP software’s reporting features enhance cash management by analyzing historical and real-time KPIs tailored to your business needs. Tools like aging reports help prioritize payments by identifying past due records. AP automation improves efficiency, reduces time for check issuance and report preparation, eliminates late fees, and minimizes errors such as duplicate payments, thereby saving time spent on corrections during invoice processing or book balancing.
Customer relationship management (CRM) is crucial in AP departments for managing payments between vendors, suppliers, and clients. Maintaining detailed vendor records and payment histories through AP software can lead to improved vendor relations.
AP reports help assess your firm’s purchasing habits, informing decisions on vendor consolidation or switching for better prices or terms. This data aids in negotiating improved payment terms and prices. AP software also facilitates automatic payments for potential early payment discounts.
Finally, AP software aids in verifying vendor invoices to prevent payment scams. It uses tools like AP positive pay, which cross-verifies authorized payments with known bank accounts to avoid fraudulent transactions.
Accounts payable software provides the tools necessary to drive down costs, increase productivity, improve cash management and improve vendor relations.
The size of your organization, your existing information system environment and your particular functional requirements will determine which AP software option is right for you. In fact, accounts payable functionality is often part of a larger accounting or ERP suite. Understanding all your options can help you make the right call on a new software integration.
Accounts Payable is one of the core functionalities included with any version of QuickBooks. QuickBooks allows AP workflows to be input through two workflows:
Before selecting an AP software to integrate into your business process, consider what sort of modules you need most:
The core of the payables process involves recording entries and issuing checks. Automation at this stage can save time in managing accounts payable. When choosing AP software, consider its ability to auto-fill check fields, schedule batch prints, and handle the mailing of payments.
There are many important reports in accounts payable. The ability to report on your accounts payable entries can have a significant impact on helping you to tighten your cash flow. Perhaps most importantly, your accounts payable module needs to clearly show payments made, pending clearances, and processed transactions.
Your AP module won’t only track individual payments - it can manage an ongoing vendor database. The precise way each software package handles the vendor list will vary. You’ll want to make sure that the software supports all the vendor information you need to keep on hand, such as contact info, addresses, vendor terms, payment details, and other data
No one likes to think they’ve lost money through errors or fraud, yet audits often turn up evidence that this has happened. Your accounts payable software should include controls to identify the authenticity of each payment by associating each payment record with the original purchase order and/or the vendor bill.
Whenever you make non-payroll payments to non-corporate entities at some point. As the payee, your AP module should allow you to flag these payments and create the necessary paperwork for 1099 tax forms.
Other accounts payable software modules to consider:
Accounts payable transactions don’t occur in a vacuum; they’re part of broader business operations. Your AP software should efficiently relay current liabilities from the payables ledger to the general ledger, ideally in real time. If full integration isn’t feasible, ensure that the AP module can export data in a format readable by the general ledger.
Another key integration point is with the purchase order module. Integration with this module is vital as both AP and Purchase Order processes benefit from access to the master vendor list. If bank reconciliation is a separate application, it’s crucial to ensure integration for accurate payment tracking and reconciliation of AP and bank records.
While accounts payable software provides many benefits to businesses, there are still a few specific pain points to address when seeking AP software.
Too much or little coverage: Not all companies require a comprehensive AP solution. Ensure your software can manage your invoice volume and vendor data. While small businesses dealing with few invoices might not need costly, full-fledged AP software, growing businesses should opt for scalable AP systems to accommodate growth.
Converting to automatic digital systems from manual paper methods: A HelpSystems report found that companies process an average of 290,667 invoices each year, with 58% of these invoices arriving by U.S. mail. Manual AP processes can cost $35 more than the same work done through automated processes.
Human error and fraud: The Association for Financial Professionals found in 2016 that 74% of surveyed organizations were victims of payments fraud, which has grown from 61% back in 2013. This makes it more important than ever to spot fraudulent activity before it spirals out of control. Preventative measures to reduce your chance of fraud include switching to electronic payments, reconciling checking accounts promptly, storing paper blank check stock under lock and key, and using a centralized check writing review process.
As one of the fundamental parts of business, accounts payable solutions have seen a lot of growth over the years. Some recent trends include: