SAP integrations: How to optimize the SAP accounts payable process

Integrating an accounts payable solution for SAP optimizes AP workflows to save time and money and provide much-needed transparency and control over AP processes. Not all SAP accounts payable integrations and providers are alike, however. To get the most out of SAP for accounts payable, you need an integrated AP solution that:

• Is simple, flexible, and easy to use.
• Easily integrates with SAP without changing existing processes or SAP workflows.
• Simplifies navigation and information flow to expedite AP reporting and processing.

AP integration can streamline processes, provide real-time data transparency and control, speed up approvals, and simplify communication and collaboration across the procure-to-pay process.

In this article, we’ll explore how integrating an AP solution with SAP S/4HANA or ECC can benefit your business and show why Stampli for SAP is the leading AP solution for your ERP.

The challenge facing accounts payable today

Accounts payable is evolving from a necessary back office function to an important strategic resource for business. At the same time, AP departments face growing pressure to increase efficiency and reduce costs.

In 2022, Stampli surveyed 254 finance leaders across the US on the main challenges facing their accounts payable departments. Here are some results:

• 76% of the leaders expected their accounts payable responsibilities to increase year-over-year.
• Of those leaders reporting their AP responsibilities will increase, 41% said they also expected the strategic role of accounts payable to increase.
• 71% of leaders expected an increase in the number of invoices their AP would be processing.
• 55% said the complexity of invoice processing would increase.

To face this challenge, CFOs need an accounts payable solution to optimize their existing processes and provide the data and insight they need to make informed business decisions. The ideal solution automates key AP processes and seamlessly integrates with ERP and accounting systems to share accurate, real-time data across the organization.

We can break this challenge down into two components:

1. Manual AP processes are slow and inaccurate

Many companies use a combination of paper-based AP methods and digital solutions to process invoices and payments — a still largely manual process if the digital systems aren’t specifically designed for AP process automation. Relying on manual tasks like data entry, invoice coding, three-way matching, and approvals slows processing and increases the risk of errors and fraud. As invoice volumes increase, these problems only get worse, especially if AP teams are limited by complex and difficult-to-use ERPs like SAP.

Fast Fact: Companies that use manual AP workflows only process 6,082 invoices per year/FTE, compared to the industry average of 10,853 invoices per year/FTE. Companies that use next-generation AP automation process an average of 20,964 invoices per year/FTE. (American Productivity and Quality Center)

According to the APQC, advanced AP automation is the difference. “Automated invoicing solutions and related technologies are more accessible than a few years ago. The data today reflects the gains many organizations achieved as a result of adopting and implementing those technologies.”

2. Bad data causes bad decision-making

Using manual processes to process invoices and update data in business systems produces inaccurate and often delayed accounts payable data. Good, timely data is needed to make informed business decisions, enforce internal controls or confirm controls are working, maintain a complete audit trail, or detect and mitigate fraud or errors.

Fast Fact: In a survey of ERP executives and professionals by Dimension Research and Fivetran, 99% of businesses said they struggle to access information in their ERP systems, 82% make decisions based on inaccurate data, and 85% say bad data led them to make business decisions that resulted in lost revenue.

Meeting the challenge with integrated AP automation for SAP

SAP, like many ERPs, has an organizational menu and workflow structure that can restrict AP teams’ ability to make informed decisions. SAP controls users’ level of access through roles — which makes sense from a high-level perspective but limits AP employees’ access to the data, resources, and people they need to process invoices effectively. As a result, finance departments often need to create tailored views in SAP to provide the actionable reporting and insights AP teams need in their day-to-day operations.

Third-party AP integrations, like Stampli, meet these challenges by optimizing AP process efficiency and simplifying workflows and data sharing. However, automation is only half the battle. To fully realize the benefits of integrated AP automation for SAP, you need a solution (like Stampli for SAP) that integrates seamlessly with SAP while providing maximal benefits for your business and minimal changes to your existing processes and IT infrastructure.

Let’s examine how AP integrations and ERP systems work together to benefit your business.

Optimizing accounts payable with SAP ERP integration

Enterprises use SAP because it’s a powerful and customizable business tool. However that power comes at a cost — SAP is infamously complicated and difficult to use. Integrating a third-party AP automation with SAP lets your AP department access and share AP and accounting data, leverage dynamic workflows, and communicate easily with stakeholders. The ideal integration liberates AP departments from confusing complexity, overwhelming paperwork, and tedious manual processes so they can focus on high-value, strategic tasks.

Here are the key ways AP integration can benefit your business:

Fast integration and implementation

Businesses can quickly implement and integrate cloud-based accounts payable solutions into SAP with minimal IT involvement or changes to their existing processes and SAP environment.

Stampli is the fastest AP integration for SAP. Its pre-built SAP integrations can be implemented quickly, with no changes to existing AP processes. Stampli provides end-to-end support during implementation so there are no surprises, and uses your existing protocols to ensure a seamless integration. “I really like how quickly the integration happened,” says one Stampli customer, “Minimal back and forth, and they had all the potential issues and solutions [presented] to us from the start.”

Streamlined invoice processing

Modern AP solutions leverage AI and OCR technologies to streamline manual invoice processes like keying and coding to improve invoice management speed and efficiency dramatically. Faster processes help businesses make payments on time, avoid late fees, and improve cash flow.

SAP users often complain about overwhelming complexity and difficult-to-navigate workflows and menus. For example, some SAP users have described SAP’s usability as “very time consuming and…illogical,” citing factors such as the requirement to use shortcodes and a steep learning curve as barriers to using SAP effectively.

Stampli customers rate invoice processing as one of the solution’s strengths. Stampli’s AI, Billy the Bot, uses machine learning to identify invoice patterns and learn your workflows to automate manual processes like GL coding and detecting errors and duplicate invoices. With Stampli, you can also set up dynamic custom workflows that adapt to changes in your business processes without the need for IT rework.

“Stampli has been so much easier to use than any other accounts payable program that I have used,” says one G2 reviewer, who continued, “Stampli automatically fills in coding details if it recognizes and even suggests approvers. I still have the ability to change anything which makes it even easier to use.”

Real-time invoice matching

AP platforms sync POs and receipts with SAP to enable accurate real-time two and three-way matching. If an error is detected, the system flags the discrepancy and automatically notifies the AP team.

SAP (and some AP solutions) suffers from inefficient and complicated invoice-matching processes. For example, SAP handles PO-backed and non-PO-backed invoices and expenses differently, requiring users to toggle between different screens and menus to process invoices. It also requires users to use a manual dual-screen approach to match invoices, meaning AP teams must navigate through multiple documents and screens to verify invoices accurately.

Stampli easily integrates with SAP or other ERPs to auto-sync purchase order data and verify invoices. Plus, Stampli simplifies the invoice matching process with Billy the Bot, its AI assistant. “Billy the bot is a big help with filling out most of the fields, which allows us to spend less time entering every line and more time to analyze,” commented one user, who said that with Stampli, “PO matching has also increased the number of invoices entered per day.”

Data security and integrity

AP solutions protect master data, master records, and sensitive payment and invoice data and ensure your SAP ERP is the single point of truth for business transactions. SAP S/4HANA users mention that although SAP’s security is excellent, the platform’s complexity can be a barrier to good security. For example, one user said, “most of the options, such as changing a password, must be handled directly with the support, which sometimes takes time.”

Stampli maintains data integrity and security through a bi-directional data sync with SAP FI Ariba, and other SAP FICO and procurement modules. Users praise Stampli’s security capabilities, saying they appreciate features such as the ease of “routing invoices to various colleagues and defining what level of approval you need,” and “Good security settings (SSO, two factor authentication, etc.).”

Integrated payments processing

AP solutions consolidate various payment processing workflows onto a single platform, simplifying the process of paying vendors, syncing bank account information, choosing payment methods, and checking approval status. Improved payment processing means fewer late payments and late fees and a healthier cash flow.

Stampli Direct Pay automates B2B payments and allows you to pay vendors by ACH, paper checks, or Stampli Card. Direct Pay auto-syncs payment processes and data with SAP to manage vendor payments and ensure payment information is consistent across your business.

SAP is known for its complex organizational structure, making it hard to find information and navigate workflows. making it difficult for AP teams to process different payment types. Customers like that with Stampli, they can “process invoices and payments all in one place.” They also like that using Stampli to process payments has reduced payment times: “The amount of time it takes us from start to finish for payments has gone from about 5 days to 2 days in most cases, some days even same day.”

Improved vendor relations

Integrating AP platforms with procurement and supply chain ERP modules lets you track vendor account groups and share vendor data and communications across the P2P process. Better data and communications help your business pay vendors on time, ensure purchasers have access to up-to-date discount and pricing information, and keep vendors in the loop.

Onboarding a supplier in SAP is complicated and frustrating. Onboarding a vendor in Stampli is far simpler, but just as comprehensive. Stampli Advanced Vendor Management goes beyond the vendor portal to simplify vendor onboarding and keep vendor records, credit memos, licenses, W9s, and other documents up-to-date in SAP. “We have a struggled to pay vendors on time because of the sheer number of invoices coming in through the mail,” commented a Stampli customer, “[g]etting vendors set up on Stampli has made approval times drop, delayed payments disappear, and greatly improved vendor relations.”

Scalability for growth

Manual accounts payable processes are not easily scalable, which can be challenging when a business grows and incurs additional costs. AP platforms can scale and adapt as the volume and complexity of invoices increases, so accounts payable doesn’t become a barrier to business growth.

SAP is highly scalable, but major changes to workflows require extensive IT work and outside consultants. Stampli provides the scalability and flexibility to handle any growth scenario, including multiple subsidiaries, locations, tax codes, currencies, and ERPs. One business owner commented that “Stampli is helping us during a growth period for our business,”  by helping them “be more productive, process more invoices, and assist more clients, all with the same internal team and new system in place.”

Stampli: The leading accounts payable solution for SAP

In this podcast episode, Ryan Myers, CFO of America’s Thrift Stores, explains how ERP integrations can boost productivity and add strategic value. The key is finding the AP automation solution that provides the best ROI and seamless integration with SAP.

Stampli is designed for accounts payable. It simplifies communications and provides everything AP teams need to know in a single, simple interface. By bringing AP communications and information together, Stampli empowers businesses to make informed decisions, streamline workflows, and optimize working capital management.

By freeing AP resources from time-consuming manual tasks and providing timely and accurate business data across the business, Stampli transforms AP into a driver for business strategy.

Accounts payable processing in SAP is frustratingly based on old-school methods and workflows. Stampli’s AI-powered solution represents an evolution in AP processing — and customers are noticing the difference. “Stampli has been great!” raves one G2 reviewer. “The interface is extremely easy to use. I much prefer this over Ariba and other SAP platforms…Stampli is solving the simplicity of what other SAP systems have yet to figure out. It is straightforward and it would be easy for anyone to pick up.”

“Stampli has been a force multiplier for our accounting department”

You can have it both ways — maintain your existing SAP investment, and take advantage of SAP’s power to automate business processes, and augment its strengths with Stampli. Stampli for SAP is the clear choice for flexible and powerful AP automation for your SAP ERP. Its pre-built integration connects to your SAP environment and syncs all core accounts payable data and processes. A G2 Grid Accounts Payable Leader, Stampli is recognized for exceptional implementation, customer relationships — and delivering results.

“Overall, Stampli has been a force multiplier for our accounting department,” one Stampli customer asserted. “It has allowed us to process invoices faster, obtain approvals more efficiently, and gain greater visibility and control over our financial operations.

I highly recommend Stampli to any organization looking to streamline their accounts payable process and achieve greater efficiency!”

Stampli’s track record of helping businesses optimize accounts payable and access accurate and timely business data with their ERPs speaks for itself. Contact our team today to set up a free demo and see how Stampli can help you get the most from SAP for accounts payable.