The benefits of Accounts Payable Automation software for your business

In our guide, we walk through some of the benefits of Accounts Payable Automation software in detail and explore how automation can be a game-changer for your business. The following are some of the biggest benefits:

• Saves time and preserves resources

Having an optimized accounts payable automation software solution will result in saved time, money, and effort. Your AP employees will be freed up to perform more meaningful tasks, focus on solving bigger problems, and be generally more satisfied with their work. 

• Improve AP accuracy

Manual data entry is tiresome, tedious, and can fall into disorder if not maintained at the same level at all times. Human verification may sound like a more accurate and trustworthy strategy; in fact, some automated AP software can approach 99% accuracy, whereas human error contributes to 41% of inaccuracy rates in accounts payable. 

• Reduce invoicing costs

An automated accounts payable system streamlines your AP processes, keeps these systems running 24/7, preserves work-hour productivity, and reduces human error, therefore helping reduce invoicing costs. 

• Detailed data and insights into productivity, sales, and processes

Having an automated process for accounts payable means you have automated reporting into your AP processes. With a smart, fully-integrated AP processing solution like Rossum, you’ll see real-time statistics, analytics, and data analysis in your entire AP system.

• Streamline audits and compliance reporting

Especially important in accounts payable, having automated systems for AP will help reduce strain on your employees when audits and compliance reporting come to the forefront.

Accounts Payable Automation software

Business-to-business transactions require a large amount of documentation. There are distinct documents for invoices, purchase orders (POs), packing lists, claims, and so many more that it can be hard to keep track of the documents for just one transaction, let alone the hundreds that occur within large businesses. 

The employees in the accounts payable (AP) department spend countless hours managing, reading, verifying, copying, and processing these documents. This costs businesses a hefty sum of money and produces unhappy employees.

Accounts payable automation software can be the answer to this riddle.

Suppose your business analyzes its accounts payable metrics, and you find that it is taking weeks to process a single invoice or that it costs $13 to process that invoice. In that case, you may want to consider automating the AP process. With the right accounts payable automation software, businesses can process 6x the number of documents in the same amount of time it would take a human to process one and reduce the cost by $12 or more per invoice.

AP software overview

Some businesses outsource document processing to accounts payable companies. While this is an option, it is not the same as automation and does not significantly reduce time or costs.

On the other hand, choosing to automate the accounts payable process can save time and money but does require finding suitable accounts payable software. 

The top accounts payable software options that you can find online usually are part of a more extensive suite of programs like NetSuite or are not designed to process the entirety of an AP department’s documents.

Additionally, many of these programs do not incorporate AI or deep learning capabilities, and many require templates, which further complicates AP document processing. 

Businesses that process sensitive information like financial records need to find secure software for their document processing department. Accounts payable software for banks needs to be highly secure and flexible. 

This way, when they receive documents with different formatting, which will inevitably occur with transactions between multiple businesses, the software can adapt to the formatting and process the documents correctly. 

Accounts payable document management software like Rossum can provide businesses with a solution that is secure, AI-powered, and designed to automate the entire AP process.

Best Accounts Payable Automation software

The best accounts payable automation software will benefit your business in several ways. With the manual method of processing documents, the time it takes for employees to validate, read, process, and pay invoices can result in late payments. 

Businesses that receive payments late may charge a fee, and the vendor relationship might suffer from it. With an electronic accounts payable system, the time it takes for invoices to be paid is reduced drastically because most steps in the AP process are automated.

Software that follows accounts payable automation best practices will be able to classify documents correctly, organize them, extract data in all forms, and enter that data into the corresponding fields in the business system used by the AP department. 

Then, the software that uses Artificial Intelligence would be able to “observe” human interaction with the document so that less human involvement is required over time. 

Accounts payable automation software should be able to offer something more than what a business already has. There is no point in changing the AP process if it does not result in overall improvements. 

The proper accounts payable software can effectively take over the mundane tasks of AP department employees so that they can work on jobs that require the human touch. Rossum is a platform that uses AI so that, as time passes, even more of the AP process is automated.

The best automated invoice processing software: Rossum

Display step by step how users can:

• Step 1: Upload invoice files to Rossum
• Step 2: Configure the data extraction
• Step 3: Let Rossum process the invoices
• Step 4: Data is extracted in the format you requested (Spreadsheet/Excel icon)

When it comes to processing invoices, sometimes a business will want simple invoice software. This kind of software is simple, like the name suggests, and is often free to use. More often than not, these simple invoice software options are incapable of handling the diverse requirements of the invoices received by large businesses. 

The best invoice app might be suitable for contractors and small organizations, but it lacks several important features that are part of automated invoice processing.

For businesses interested in essential software for invoice processing, there are several options available. The best invoice software for Windows 10 can be a simple program that makes it easy to create and send invoices. 

It does not make processing invoices simple and does not automate AP procedures. With simple invoice software, businesses can organize invoices, removing only one small piece of the AP department’s manual tasks.

The best automated invoice processing software can not only automate invoice receipt or creation of invoices but can automate all the steps in the AP process. Rossum is an AI-powered data capture software that can make invoice processing simple, less prone to error, and more efficient. 

Best AP Automation software for invoices

Invoice processing is just one step in the accounts payable process. An invoice management software can help with that step but may not be able to automate the entire process. With that said, the best AP automation software incorporates invoice management into the many services it provides. 

For example, Rossum, a cloud Intelligent Document Processing platform, can not only manage invoices but automate reports, insights, security, and communication tasks involved in the complete accounts payable process.

Businesses interested in automating the AP process may also be interested in automating the accounts receivable (AR) process. Some AP and AR automation software options can provide tools to automate steps in both processes. Sometimes software described as AP automation software can be used for specific overlapping tasks in the AR department as well. 

Accounts payable analytics examples can be a helpful way to see if a particular AP automation software is a good choice for your business. The examples that show improved AP analytics for a company will demonstrate the effectiveness of the software they use. 

Rossum has customer stories that can show how several major companies use Rossum to improve their AP departments. 

AP Automation companies

For businesses looking to automate their accounts payable processes, many AP automation companies offer different products and services to make your document processing department more efficient. Some of these companies exist for businesses that outsource the AP process. 

The trouble with outsourcing is that it does not save time or money and just makes it more difficult to communicate with accounts payable vendors. With contractors in the middle of the process, whenever the business needs to communicate with the vendor, they have to work through the contractors to get the necessary information. 

Some AP automation companies like NetSuite offer automated invoicing programs that can manage invoices by matching purchase orders to receipts and bills so that everything is organized and payment is convenient. However, NetSuite’s AP automation software is part of their complete ERP system, resulting in a higher overall cost than if the AP software was available.

The best accounts payable software for large business transactions should be a standalone platform for automating the AP process. Rossum is a platform an AP department can use to automate document processing without committing to a full ERP system.

Top Procure to Pay (P2P) software

Companies are often looking for ways to improve their processes, and using a platform that can provide P2P solutions is one way to do this. P2P stands for Procure-to-Pay and refers to the combination of the purchasing and accounts payable departments into one efficient and cohesive process. 

Everything from identifying the product or service needs of the business to creating a purchase order, approving the invoice, and paying the vendor is part of the procure-to-pay process. 

A procure-to-pay software list will include several different types of software that businesses can use to automate either portion of the P2P process. The top procure-to-pay software choices are part of an ERP system.

NetSuite is an example of software that organizes and completes the P2P process more efficiently than manual methods. 

What many of these ERP software options do not provide, however, is AI-powered automation that can not only organize the P2P process but take over many of the repetitive document-based tasks traditionally done by employees. Many of the P2P software options are also unable to cope with non-PO-based invoices or communication with vendors. Rossum’s Intelligent Document Processing platform uses AI for data capture, data entry, validation, and communication so that the P2P process can be efficient and reliable.