8 Accounts Payable Software Solutions for Your Business
Companies modernize their accounts payable setups at different rates, as a 2021 survey report by Stampli and Treasury Webinars found.
The report, “The How, the Why and the ROI of AP Automation” included a section asking respondents about which AP solution functionality their companies had adopted. Here are the top responses: 68% upgraded payments, 66% invoice management, 55% approval workflows, 41% supplier management, 29% analytics, and 12% governance/compliance.
When companies look to upgrade their accounts payable tools and approaches, the first – and we believe, best – option is to seek an all-in-one AP automation platform like Stampli. For companies with a large enough volume of invoices from their vendors and suppliers, automation can make a world of difference in terms of processing times and costs.
We also recognize, however, that not every company is going to be ready for AP automation software. For companies still testing the waters, here’s a look at accounts payable software that covers different upgrade areas.
Why to Use Accounts Payable Software
Before we review a broad array of accounts payable technology, let’s look at why it makes sense to implement a software solution.
Cheaper, Faster, and Better AP
On average, getting an invoice from receipt to payment can be an achingly slow process. A 2021 survey report by Stampli and Treasury Webinars, “AP Today: Bottlenecks, Benchmarks & Best Practices” looked at the average days that it took to get an invoice paid. It found the following:
- Small companies, or those with fewer than 100 employees needed 15 days;
- Medium-sized firms, namely ones with 100 to 1,000 employees, needed 17 days;
- Large businesses, those with over 1,000 employees, needed 20 days.
A business can have a lot of invoices, too. Stampli and Treasury Webinars’ report on bottlenecks found that nearly a third of companies were processing more than 1,000 invoices each month. A survey report by Stampli and Treasury Webinars, “AP in 2022: Expectations, Technology, Opportunity” found that 70% of respondents were expecting their number of invoices processed to increase slightly or significantly in 2022.
Companies need tools to speed up the process, so that accounts payable processes don’t slow down growth. Accounts payable automation software can supercharge things, with one CEO telling PYMNTS.com “that automation has made life easier at the office and saved countless work hours spent on AP — not just for himself, but also for the entire team.”
The time saved is also money saved. In early 2022, PYMNTS.com noted results of a study that found AP automation cut labor and processing costs for each invoice from $16 to $5.89 for mid-sized businesses, with larger savings for small companies. Stampli and Treasury Webinars’ survey on ROI also found that 57% of companies experienced quicker processing with accounts payable automation software.
Equipped to Serve a Changing Business World
The COVID-19 pandemic has helped accelerate more remote work on accounts payable tasks. Stampli and Treasury Webinars’ report on AP expectations found that 53% of accounting and related workers, such as members of finance teams, were expecting to work from home at least part of the time this year.
A largely paper-based accounts payable process will clash with a transition to telecommuting. Excessive manual processes will mean that employees who might prefer remote work will have to come in for check runs, bookkeeping, and other tasks that software like AP automation can do easily from afar.
Whether by grabbing a handful of a la carte accounting software or implementing an end-to-end AP automation platform, opting for more technology in accounts payable can help serve a changing business world, reducing liabilities, boosting cash flow, and increasing real-time data all the while.
An Extra Level of Protection
Fraud plagues the B2B financial world and each instance of fraud can be costly. As Payments Journal noted in March 2022, a report last year found that the average data breach cost financial services companies close to $6 million. The publication also noted results of another survey which found that a staggering 74% of companies experienced attempted payments fraud in 2021.
There are any number of different reasons that fraud can occur in accounts payable, and good accounting software can help to root it out. Among other things, accounts payable software can provide greater visibility and make it easier for different team members to collaborate, preventing too much responsibility and control from being concentrated in one set of hands.
Having more electronic and SaaS-based accounts payable processes won’t singlehandedly solve the problem of accounts payable fraud. That said, it provides a superb level of protection. It’s not just fraud protection, but better cash management, too.
8 AP Softwares to Consider Today
Thinking about adding more accounts payable software into the mix? Here are solutions from eight different sectors to consider.
1. Orders: ProcurementExpress.com
What it is: As the name would suggest, ProcurementExpress.com simplifies the purchasing process. Originally launched in Dublin, Ireland in 2014 and now based in Somerset, South Africa, according to its website, the company operates globally.
ProcurementExpress.com allows personnel to request goods even if they’re out of the office, and it makes it easier to secure approvals for purchases, with a predefined approval process.
Rating: 4.7 stars through 368 reviews on Capterra; 4.7 stars through 60 reviews on G2, which awarded it “Best Results” and “Best Usability” for Winter 2022
Who it helps: B2B procurement can be a grindingly slow process, both because of the number of steps involved and manual processes. ProcurementExpress.com can automate and speed the steps. Reviewers also have praised the site’s ease of use, ability to find all purchase orders, or POs, in one place, and its customer service.
Possible weak points: One G2 reviewer, a sales director for a mid-sized company, noted that ProcurementExpress.com “can be a little clunky with small expense reporting.”
While that reviewer went on to say that they had found a workaround, it speaks to an issue where the site might be a little behind the times, with the importance of AP information becoming a critical factor. In Stampli and Treasury Webinars’ report on AP expectations, data analytics and data management were cited as important skills for AP teams to upgrade in 2022.
2. Data Capture: ABBYY FlexiCapture
What it is: One of the most common areas companies look to upgrade when they start automating their accounts payable processes is invoice data entry, among the most-hated tasks for office workers. The question becomes what tool to use for invoice scanning.
One option is ABBYY FlexiCapture, which bills itself on its website as a “data and document capture solution” that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to capture and extract data.
Rating: 4.5 stars through 12 reviews on Capterra; 4.5 stars through 186 reviews on G2
Who it helps: Some companies with a lot of old, paper invoices might fret about how to ever get them digitized. They might even consider discarding the invoices just to save space, which isn’t always the best thing for leaving an audit trail. ABBYY FlexiCapture can help to quickly plow through stacks of invoices, making sense of the data.
Possible weak points: AI in solutions like Stampli are able to automatically clear invoice exceptions. This might not be the case with ABBYY FlexiCapture, with a Capterra reviewer noting that “if a section in a batch failed verification… the remainder of the batch wouldn’t be verified until the failure was cleared.”
Thing is, invoice exceptions are pretty common. So ABBYY FlexiCapture might require a fair bit of work that would be unnecessary in other platforms to resolve them.
3. Scanning Documents Beyond Invoices: Nanonets
What it is: Accounts payable isn’t just invoices, or at least it shouldn’t be. Stampli and Treasury Webinars’ survey on AP bottlenecks found that just 51% of companies were doing at least three-way matching for purchase orders.
Three-way matching typically means that companies pair an invoice with a purchase order and receipt report. The business can verify transactions in a general ledger, but it’s also a lot of work, particularly manually, so companies don’t always do it as much as they should.
Solutions like Nanonets can help, with its website noting that it uses artificial intelligence “to read unseen, semi-structured documents that don’t follow a standard template like generic OCR software” (which is also known as optical character software and is a rudimentary tool for invoice scanning.)
Rating: 4.9 stars through 50 reviews on Capterra; 4.9 stars through 44 reviews on G2
Who it helps: Optical character recognition software has a failure rate of around one out of 100, meaning that companies that process a lot of invoices could wind up with a lot of OCR-related errors. AI-based software solutions like Nanonets might be able to limit the amount of time these companies spend policing themselves to catch these errors.
Possible weak points: Reviewers on both G2 and Capterra were struggling to find much to criticize with Nanonets, which makes sense given the product having close to a perfect five-star rating on each site. One minor criticism was that the software requires a powerful computer, with one G2 reviewer noting, “My old HP notebook took a little longer than I would have liked for the processing to be completed. However, the results made the wait worth it.”
4. Document Processing: Docsumo
What it is: We don’t mean to harp too much on the initial work of accounts payable, which is getting invoice and other document data into accounting or ERP systems, and then being able to manipulate the data. But there isn’t necessarily a one-size-fits-all solution for document management and processing, particularly when comparing businesses of different sizes.
Truth is, not every company will be able to afford certain high-end document processing solutions. Enter Docsumo, another solution that eschews OCR for AI to capture information from documents like invoices and receipts. The About section of the company’s Capterra page notes that Docsumo “is as simple as uploading your invoices & receipts to Google Drive and sending the captured data to other software in one click. And of course, you can also download your data in Excel, CSV, JSON or XML.”
What differentiates Docsumo is that it offers a free version of its software for a maximum of 50 invoices each month and a business plan of $0.10 for 2,000 invoices per month, according to Capterra. The company’s website also lists Growth, Business, and Enterprise tiers, though the pricing for these levels is unclear.
Rating: 4.7 stars through six reviews on Capterra; 5 stars through one review on G2
Who it helps: Freelancers or startups in need of a free document processing solution could look to Docsumo’s free forever plan.
Possible weak points: From both its scant number of Capterra/G2 reviews and its fundraising, Docsumo looks like a newer-stage startup, with the company announcing in a February 2022 blog post that it had raised $3.5 million in seed funding. Accordingly, potential users don’t have as much of a track record to rely on as some other solutions here.
5. Workflows: Pipefy
What it is: One reason that accounts payable can get bogged down is that there aren’t always clear workflows for invoices, including what to do when an unexpected situation arises while processing an invoice. In fact, in Stampli and Treasury Webinars’ ROI study, the second most-popular reason for investing in AP automation (33% of respondents) was workflow bottlenecks.
Solutions like Pipefy can help with this, with its product overview on G2 describing it as “workflow management software that makes business processes—such as purchasing, job opening, accounts payable and employee onboarding… hassle-free, so requesters, processors and managers are more efficient.”
Features include workflow configuration and management, with no-code deployment available.
Rating: 4.6 stars through 275 reviews on Capterra; 4.6 stars through 186 reviews on G2
Who it helps: The no-code workflow software can be great for people without strong programming experience (this is also a major strongpoint for Stampli, which makes it easy for users of all skill levels to easily collaborate in the accounts payable process.)
Pipefy is also a useful tool for companies that might lack structure in their accounts payable approaches. On this note, one Capterra reviewer said their experience with Pipefy had been amazing, writing, “Our processes are more reliable and cuts us some extra time that we spent just to make sure all steps of the processes were being made.”
Like Docsumo, Pipefy also has a free level for smaller-scale users.
Possible weak points: While highly rated, Pipefy is not without some detractors on both G2 and Capterra. Criticisms have included customer support and configurability of some tools.
6. Approvals: ApprovalMax
What it is: It might not be the absolute maximum number of possible approval workflows, but there sure are a lot of them through ApprovalMax. Accounting-related workflow approvals exist within the software for invoices, purchase orders, and expenses.
It’s not just a simple platform either. ApprovalMax’s website notes how approval workflows can be created with an unlimited number of steps, customizable approvers for every step, and even specialized approval matrixes. This can be great for companies with complex processes or regulatory or compliance-related hurdles.
Rating: 4.6 stars through seven reviews on Capterra; 3.5 stars through five reviews on G2
Who it helps: Companies that want to make payment or invoice approval more than just a perfunctory box to check might like ApprovalMax. The software can let these companies create whatever approval process they need, while ensuring that it doesn’t move slowly, as a manual approval process might.
Beyond this, putting a more robust approval process in place can help companies be less susceptible to potential fraud. It creates more oversight and more incentive for companies to insist on reliable software, since it’ll be easier to gather approvals from out-of-office executives like CFOs, key members of AP departments, or business owners.
Possible weak points: Approval software alone might not be enough to transform arcane accounts payable processes, if other solutions such as AP automation software aren’t pursued to streamline operations. Sure, approvals might be easier, but other stuff could still lag, such as invoice data entry, three-way matching, and payments.
7. Vendor Payments: Bill.com
What it is: It’s important during the accounts payable process to not forget about the payment process. In fact, while AP automation platforms like Stampli are sure to include payment options built into them, some don’t. In this case, companies will want to make sure to have different payment options identified that they can go to outside of the accounting software.
One option that has become popular in recent years is Bill.com. Part of the appeal is that it can offer an acceptable – though not necessarily high-end – AP automation process. (For companies looking for accounts receivable payments, by the way, one to consider is eBizCharge.)
Bill.com allows companies to pay by ACH, credit or debit, and wire transfer, a necessity in an increasingly payment-agnostic business world. A 2021 survey by Stampli and Treasury Webinars, “How & Why Companies Choose Payment Types” found 30% of companies’ preferred payment methods for suppliers were check, 24% were the ACH, 36% were credit cards, 5% were virtual or ghost cards, and 5% had no preference.
Rating: 4.1 stars through 392 reviews on Capterra; 4.4 stars through 386 reviews on G2
Who it helps: Bill.com appears to skew a lot toward smaller firms, with G2 noting that 70% of its customers were small businesses.
Possible weak points: Bill.com ranks just No. 6 on G2 for ease of use, an area where Stampli is ranked No. 2.
Overall, Bill.com appears to be best-suited for earlier-stage companies. For startups, freelancers, and mom-and-pops, the software gets the job done. Mid-size and enterprise level firms, however, might need more sophisticated automation software.
8. End-to-End Invoice Processing: Stampli
What it is: Many of the solutions discussed above offer one-off or limited accounts payable functionality. These solutions may be part of a better AP process, but they won’t do everything or lead to the best accounts payable practices on their own.
Then there’s a true accounts payable automation solution like Stampli. Rather than automating just a select function or two, Stampli offers complete invoice automation and AP processing. It can reduce human error and help to process invoices much more efficiently and cost-effectively with state-of-the-art modules.
Rating: 4.7 stars through 10 reviews on Capterra; 4.8 stars through 404 reviews on G2
Who it helps: Businesses of all sizes that process a lot of invoices will find that the accounting process can be dramatically smoother with Stampli. We offer an award-winning, best-in-class AP automation platform that makes life easier for the companies. In addition, our software can be integrated with different ERP systems such as Oracle, SAP, Sage Intacct, QuickBooks, and Microsoft Dynamics.
Possible weak points: For businesses with a small number of invoices, it might not make sense to implement an AP automation platform like Stampli. It’s like getting a high-performance sports car and only driving it a few times a year.
Choosing the Right AP Software for You
Now that we’ve looked at different accounts payable software, let’s review a few ways to choose what’s right for your business.
Identify a Budget
We didn’t include pricing in this guide, in part because there are a substantial number of potential providers within the AP space, as well as different service tiers for many of the providers. What’s important for companies to do is to determine what kind of budget they’d like to devote to their accounting software.
With this, companies can evaluate software that makes the most sense for their needs and resources. The budget may also include projections related to cost savings that good accounting software may create.
Decide Between A La Carte and All-in-One
As we said earlier, we believe the best option in implementing accounting software is to go with an all-in-one AP automation platform. These platforms provide the best bang for the buck and offer a wide range of functionality.
Still, there will be times where a la carte might make sense, such as for companies that just don’t get many invoices or are wanting to figure out the functionality they really need.
Find Partners Who Can Be With You for the Long Haul
This is one of the things we pride ourselves most on at Stampli. At the end of the day, we don’t just provide excellent accounts payable software. We also provide dedicated service, helping our clients get maximum use from our service.
We know that finding success with AP software isn’t just about finding good technology. It’s about finding partners like us who can be with the companies we work with for the long haul.
Discover the benefits of an all-in-one AP automation platform. Try Stampli today.
