How AP automation is tackling the biggest problems in accounting

Accounts payable is one of the most important processes for any company, but it’s also one of the most time consuming. Manually capturing invoices, matching purchase orders, and remitting payments takes effort, especially in large companies with a high volume of invoices to process. All the hours spent on accounts payable impacts companies significantly in labor expenses.

AP automation is critical for companies to eliminate wasteful, manual processes and maximize their efficiency — especially in today’s increasingly digital business world. Managing accounts payable by hand doesn’t just cost time and money. It leaves room for human error, and can delay payments, and sour vendor relationships. There are many AP automation options, ranging from point solutions that specialize in AP and invoice processing, to enterprise automation platforms. How can you determine the best option for your company?

Why AP automation point solutions might not be enough

Software and platforms designed specifically for AP and accounting completely digitize databases, making information more visible and easier to manage. However, when solutions aren’t built with AI, they leave a lot of manual processes for workers to do themselves.

Accounts payable is a document heavy workflow, and many AP automation solutions are incapable of streamlining it. Digital invoices still require workers to read them, capture the data, input it into databases, and perform a whole slew of digital manual tasks. Organizations are better served when AI does these tasks instead.

Intelligent document processing (IDP) is a new type of AI-driven automation platform that removes the need for manual review and data entry of any kind of document. The technology is a gamechanger for every AP department, whether they’re already heavily invested in point solutions or new to automation entirely.

Four AP automation problems and how IDP solves them

AP automation software saves time and energy but not enough to completely transform an accounting department. Here are four problems that still linger with these point solutions and how IDP can fix them:

1. Trouble with invoice capture

Every vendor has different processes for submitting invoices, ranging from attaching them to emails or uploading them to specialized invoicing web portals. This makes it challenging to have an efficient invoice capture process. IDP can batch download email attachments and automatically recognize invoices for further processing without the need for human review. Advanced platforms also connect with every type of external system for seamless data transmission.

2. Time consuming data entry

IDP platforms eliminate the need for manual data input with a capability called data extraction. The AI can read and categorize information such as payee, amount requested, due date, and the service being billed for and automatically input this data into other systems for further action.

3. Cumbersome matching

Even in digital platforms, matching POs to invoices can take up a lot of time, especially with a high volume of invoices to process. IDP platforms can automatically extract information from incoming invoices and perform a relational search to find the corresponding PO for validation. Workers will only be alerted to review potential discrepancies, if there even are any, when detected by the AI.

4. Slow reporting

One of the most important aspects of AP is having accurate cash flow projections: knowing how much money will be available and when. Some AP automation software does a great job of streamlining and visualizing this data, but it’s only as accurate as the last invoice that was processed and inputted into the system. The speed of IDP helps enable near real-time reporting so business leaders can make the most informed decisions possible. And for companies without AP point solutions, using an IDP platform with data extraction can quickly gather and visualize cash flow data without tedious manual research.

AP automation software has helped digitize accounting departments for decades, but companies cannot reach the full potential of automation without IDP. Automation Hero’s versatile AI can connect with and augment any type of point solution with IDP capabilities, or operate as a stand alone platform for processing invoices. See for yourself with a free demo.