Accounts Payable Automation: Definition, Best Practices, and Tips

Did You Know!

Account Payable Automation can save up to 70-80% time for small and midsize businesses.

Regarding invoice processing, integrating AP automation and some best AP practices allows your company to work smarter, not just harder. Plus, it lets your team recoup hours now spent on manual data entry.

In layman’s terms, you’ll gush down less time hunting down the status of any given transaction - because everything will be on your dashboard, routed automatically by workflow rules.

As a result, businesses that make Accounts Payable (AP) automation their top pick find their processes moving faster and with minimal errors. There is also improved visibility, which helps in protecting against any potential threats.

So, before we get started with AP automation best practices, let’s have a quick rundown - “what is AP Automation”?

What is Accounts Payable (AP) automation?

Accounts Payable automation, popularly known as AP automation, includes tools or processes that automate the manual aspects of accounts payable processing. Instead of a finance team member putting the data manually, the complete process occurs digitally, starting from invoices and purchase orders. 

And, with everything automated in accounts payable, you are able to save time and money while securing your business from costly slip-ups. However, you need to be mindful of pairing the software with smart processes. 

And the best part is - you don’t need massive budgets or big IT investments to benefit from automation.

Follow these ten key accounts payable practices to significantly increase efficiency, improve compliance, and manage the productivity of your business.

10 Key AP Automation Best Practices

Like most financial leaders, if you are also on the fence about “How can our accounts payable team become more efficient?

”The answer is - “AP automation and its best practices”. 

# Practice 1: Get Buy-in 

There is conventional trepidation when one thinks about change. But for account payable automation to be successful, every finance team member needs to be onboard and on the same page. 

Besides, who knows CFOs may want to sit down with team members and talk them through the switch. Shed light on different ways AP automation will make their job easier while benefiting the business.

💡 Related Read: A CFO’s Guide to Financial Automation 

# Practice 2: Put New Invoices ASAP

According to Aberdeen Group, AP automation can exceptionally reduce days payable outstanding (DPO) by an average of 5.55 days.

But, this reduction depends on when an invoice is entered into the system. For example, if you are still receiving paper invoices, you’ll need to scan them in the right manner.

So, get your team to put new invoices into the system the day they arrive. This way, you can easily keep track of transactions and realize the maximum DPO benefit.

# Practice 3: Don’t Go Head Over Heels to Automate 

We know there’s a lot that can be automated, but that eventually doesn’t mean you have to unleash it all at once. It may be advisable to roll out automated processes gradually, with time to troubleshoot in between phases.

While automation solves challenges, improper setup can also open doors for some big demurs. Plus, there will be a learning curve too. So, by going slow and giving your team to adapt to new processes, you can ensure the maximum benefits of automation going ahead.

Do consider feedback and use it in your conversations with your vendor. Make sure any proposed solution includes your team’s real-life challenges. Documenting these discussions will surely help you make a concrete business case for AP automation software.

# Practice 4: Assign an AP Automation Manager 

It's important to have a point of contact for everything varying from your software solution provider, especially when implementing automation.

This person will oversee all the initiative's behind-the-scenes aspects and ensure automation flows are set up optimally. In addition, this person caters as a point of contact for internal stakeholders if any software issues arise. While day-to-day management rests with finance, the project manager is responsible for program management tasks, like monitoring and optimization, and providing regular reports on improving and maintaining efficiency. 

# Practice 5: Ensure Vendors and Suppliers are on the Same Page

What is equally important as having your team completely on board is - “communicating with your suppliers”.

Many AP automation systems allow you to set up a vendor access portal. There, your verified vendors and suppliers can update their information, check on the status of invoices, and find answers to frequently asked questions. Additionally, you can make a list of suppliers from which you regularly make voluminous purchases and vendors for whom you are a big customer; all this requires constant communication with them and updates for any change.

Going ahead, they’ll appreciate being kept informed even as you free your AP team with frequent customer service calls.

# Practice 6: Handhold First-Mover Advantage

The first-mover advantage in AP automation is “early-payment discounts”.

According to PayStream Advisors 2017 AP & Working Capital Report, 31% of respondents said manual routing of invoices for payment and approval was a big challenge in achieving at least some savings.

But, with AP automation, there comes a change. These systems make it a lot easier for finance to optimize cash management and boost approvals.

# Practice 7: Establish Your Workflows 

AP automation proves to help you put a workflow system in place to ensure employees clearly understand their responsibilities. This way, everyone on the accounts payable team is on the same page, especially when it comes to meeting deadlines.

If and when bottlenecks happen, you can check your automation software dashboard to see where there is some obstacle in approvals and nudge that employee to move the process along.

# Practice 8: Integrate Your Systems 

Do you have any idea of the tools your finance team depends on?

The AP automation system you choose should be wholly integrated, or able to be integrated, with what your team used to run accounts payable. Now, it’s an inescapable factor in enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management, and many other core finance systems.

There’s no more need for your team to enter information more than once or log in and out of the software throughout the day. Besides, by integrating tools like this into your system, you further minimize the learning curve and get access to end-to-end data that can be turned into informative reports.

# Practice 9: Keep Track of the Metrics

AP automation software offers real-time data at the click of a button that you can compile in a dashboard and combine into business insights. Using this data, you can keep an eye on cash flow while surveying what’s working and what’s not.

For example, you may find out from your scale that a workflow needs reconfiguration. Therefore, there could be too many steps, or too few, to complete a task efficiently.

# Practice 10: Analyze, Iterate, and Optimize Constantly

It’s never a bullseye on the first time. Like most other things, accounts payable automation is also a continuously evolving journey. So, you should also brace your workflows to maximize efficiency. 

Even though you have documented the workflows and have insights, you’ll find people have different opinions after using the system for a while. They’ll have feedback and suggestions for changes and improvements.

So, you might be wondering what to do.

Go back and interview real users, ask them about their experiences - what truly helped them, and what could make their lives easier. Put to use the best suggestions - nothing delights customers more than making a difference. 

To help you start, workflow analysis software is a safe bet that enables you to pinpoint bottlenecks with graphical reports and dashboards identified in the process. After all, being armed with real data can bring about real and meaningful organizational changes. 

Embracing Change & Growth

It's the 21st century, and it's important to keep up with the speed of change. Slow, manual AP automation processes curate your business and organization at a backfoot in a competitive and dynamic business world. 

Fortunately, simple and pocket-friendly solutions are available to help you reap the massive efficiency benefits of accounts payable automation without requiring huge, upfront investments in software and IT staff. To find out exactly how well account payable software can work for your business, start with a talk.