Frequently Asked Questions

Accounts payable (AP) automation helps reduce the manual tasks and paper commonly required to process invoices and pay bills. Typically, AP automation solution or service providers use software that helps enable users to process invoices and pay them electronically over the Internet. The combination of software and services converts invoices into digital formats, organizes the invoices within the system, routes them for approvals and issues payments to suppliers once authorized. Automating AP not only helps eliminate paper; it streamlines the process and provides 24/7 visibility into the status of invoices, approvals and payments.

Accounts payable (AP) automation streamlines the entire invoice-to-pay process, allowing companies to pay bills faster with less work while cutting processing costs and reducing fraud and security risks. AP automation technology liberates anyone involved in the processing and payments of invoices, including your AP manager, controller and CFO, from the pains of paper-based processing.  

Here are five benefits AP automation can provide both you and your company: 

1. Improves Visibility into Invoices
   Automating AP improves visibility by providing remote, 24/7 access to up-to-the minute invoice and payment data in a centralized, cloud-based hub. You don’t need to be in the office to access information about your business.  
2. More Efficient Processing 
   With AP automation, your staff won’t need to open and sort paper invoices, wait for mail or overnight couriers or physically chase down colleagues for approvals. Accounts payable automation also makes audits easier, keeping detailed records on every invoice and payment and allowing those with granted access to review audit trails or processing steps and create reports on a moment’s notice.    
3. Reduced Costs 
   An automated accounts payable solution reduces many manual invoice and payment processing steps, as well as the costs associated with “paper pushing” such as opening and sorting invoices, physically moving them to the desk of each approver, filing processed invoices and checks and finding those invoices again when they are needed for audits and research. Automated AP allows your company to reduce printing or mailing stations, file cabinets and remote storage — which means you can reallocate valuable office space or reduce the need for offsite storage facilities. Automating payments provides opportunities to earn rebates from paying suppliers electronically instead of by check, opening up a new revenue source from AP spend in addition to cutting processing costs.  
4. Scalability for Growth 
   Growth is a top priority for most companies, but it’s hard to keep up with goals when you’re strained by limited resources and a steadily growing work volume. AP automation helps drive growth. Consider what would happen if you doubled the number of invoices and payments you process today. Handling this growth manually could take nearly twice the resources, but by automating your AP process, you could free up resources to stay focused on more strategic initiatives.  
5. More Secure Invoices and Payments
   By automating accounts payable, you reduce the risk of fraudsters stealing your corporate information.

An accounts payable (AP) automation software platform will assist you with processing your invoices and payments. It will display all invoices posted to the platform, control the routing of invoices for approvals on a workflow, create an audit trail of the steps performed in processing your invoices and enable users to work efficiently and effectively. 

The invoice processing platform should provide a central repository for all your invoices and integrate with your accounting system. It should also facilitate bill payments to your suppliers and track all payment processing stages in an electronic payment system. 

Here’s one conceptual way to help you better understand how this software works. It functions a bit like the GPS application on your smartphone. You type in where you want to go and the software instructs and guides you on how to get there including every stop, turn and reroute. The best part? You’re in control — but guided to get you there faster. In a similar conceptual fashion, you load AP automation software, set it up to handle your specific AP processes, and the software guides you through the steps and along the path to your destination: paying your company’s bills. Step by step, the AP management software helps lead you through this smooth process. 

Automating AP can be pivotal to your business because it limits data entry and paper invoices, drives consistency in payment processes, securely pays suppliers and controls cash flow while minimizing spending on AP.

An accounts payable (AP) automation system manages an organization’s AP process from receiving the invoice all the way to paying suppliers while maintaining its existing banking relationships and workflows. By automating the invoice and payment process, customers have 24/7 visibility into payment and approvals while a dedicated service team with the software provider manages the suppliers and executes payments on their behalf.  

Sequentially, some of the key features of AP software from the user’s perspective include: 

1. Visibility into all invoices posted to the system; 
2. access to the invoices from any device connected to the Internet; 
3. visibility into the processing stages of each invoice; 
4. ability to specify which invoices customers want to pay or payments they want to send; and 
5. the ability to send payments in vendors’ and suppliers’ preferred method, whether by electronic payment or secure paper checks.  

To automate invoice processing, you can use invoice management software with a set of rules and conditions. If you receive an invoice on paper, start by converting that invoice into a digital format. From there you can begin automating the invoice process. The software automatically codes and categorizes the invoice, assigns it to the appropriate workflow, then routes it to corporate leaders for approvals. Rules and alerts are applied to invoices to make the software and service work best for your AP processes and limit manual participation. Once fully approved by your accounting department, invoices are sent directly into your accounting system and bill payments are automatically sent to suppliers and vendors. This automated process can mirror existing invoice approval processes while allowing companies to cut processing time. 

A company can automate invoice approval with accounts payable automation software. The software automatically converts a paper invoice, for example, into a digital electronic format. From there the software determines which corporate leaders should approve which invoices and automatically sends the invoices to the appropriate leaders based the company’s rules and workflow restrictions. 

These rules and restrictions help eliminate the hassle of reaching out to an approver every month about the same dollar amount threshold.  

All approval amounts can be set during implementation for a smooth, streamlined process. Approvals can also be rerouted in the absence of the approver to keep business running as usual. 

Customers who use invoice automation software can track the status of any invoice at any time. They can analyze critical metrics like approval cycle times and month-end accruals. And with one-click accrual, these customers can see what invoices still need approval, how they’re coded and the dollars outstanding. 

AvidXchange’s invoice automation software can mirror your current approval processes and workflows, helping reduce paper, duplicate payments and security risks. By automating the invoice management process, companies can track invoices electronically, streamline workflows, and access a central repository for anytime, anywhere access to invoice and payment data.

Your businesses could save about 60 percent in payment processing costs by using accounts payable (AP) automation rather than manual processes, according to Aberdeen Research. Aberdeen notes it costs up to $22 to manage the process manually from the time an invoice is received until the payment gets made, compared to about $10 per invoice in an automated accounts payable system.

AvidXchange helps maximize cost-savings by reducing manual efforts associated with invoice receipt and capture. Hours of employee time that used to be spent managing those manual processes can be put to more strategic work.

The exact timeline for accounts payable (AP) automation implementation will depend on the specific offerings of each service provider and how their solution integrates with your existing accounting systems.  

At AvidXchange, implementation can be completed in as little as 45 days.