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“No more double-paid or unpaid invoices!” That’s how Chaos Group described the impact of automating accounts payable, and they’re not alone. Manual processes slow teams down, rack up fees and create unnecessary risk. In this guide, you’ll learn what to look for in top AP software, from invoice automation and budget tracking to integrations and fraud prevention. We’ll also highlight the best solutions on the market and show how companies like State of Play Hospitality made the switch.
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You know the feeling. It’s month-end, and your finance team is buried in invoices. Expense forms are piling up, suppliers are chasing payments, and that new AP software you meant to research is still sitting on your to-do list.
Then it hits. A duplicate payment slips through — worse, it’s to a supplier you’d already cut ties with. Suddenly, your routine closing turns into a financial nightmare. Lost money, a looming audit, and hours of damage control.
Sound familiar? You’re not alone. A huge 87% of finance professionals say they work overtime to close the books: A clear signal that it’s time for a change. Wondering where to start? Choose the best accounts payable automation software… here’s how.
How to unlock effortless accounts payable automation
Not all accounts payable solutions are created equal. The best ones come with key features that help your business run smoother, faster, and with fewer headaches. Here’s what to look for.
If your team has ever wasted hours processing invoices and chasing missing ones, there’s hope. Features like Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and intelligent data capture can streamline invoice handling. You save time, reduce errors, and cut down on tedious admin.
Your business's operations have unique aspects, so you need the ability to tailor and automate your AP processes to ensure compliance without sacrificing productivity, adaptability, or speed.
Look for a solution that enables you to set up specific rules, approval hierarchies, and automation triggers. These features will remove bottlenecks from your process and payment operations.
From email threads to tracking down purchase orders, accounts payable has a lot of moving parts, and it’s easy to lose time scrolling through spreadsheets or chasing missing data.
That’s where smart AP automation comes in. The best solutions support two-way and three-way matching, depending on the type of purchase. For physical goods, you should expect three-way matching: Invoices, purchase orders, and receipt notes. And for non-physical items, two-way matching between the invoice and the purchase order is enough. Either way, the right controls help catch errors early, before payments go out the door.
Real-time reconciliation is another must-have. The right AP software automatically matches financial transactions — like card payments or bank transfers — with receipts, invoices, and accounting records. These automatic reconciliations then give you cleaner books, faster month-end, and far less manual work.
With the right solution, the benefits won’t stop at accuracy either. By linking POs to invoices, you can also gain predictability, track committed spend upfront, monitor budgets in real time, and make smarter, faster decisions.
Switching between disconnected tools slows your team down and can reduce productivity by as much as 40%. That’s why the most impactful accounts payable integrations are with your ERP and accounting systems.
Live, two-way integrations ensure that invoice and expense data flows automatically between systems in real time. That means no more manual data entry, fewer reconciliation headaches, and faster month-end closes. Financial records stay current, and your finance team gets instant visibility into spend, so you can make faster, smarter decisions.
The best AP solutions integrate directly with leading ERP and accounting platforms like Xero, QuickBooks, and Sage Intacct. So, look for a solution with these connections in place and help your team spend less time on admin and more time analysing insights that drive real impact.
A good user experience can make or break software adoption. For accounts payable, an intuitive interface means your finance team can navigate the platform quickly without hours of training or a steep learning curve. That leads to greater adoption, fewer errors, faster approvals, and more time for strategic work.
But the real magic happens when AP tools extend beyond workflows. At Payhawk, for example, our user-friendly AI procurement agent means your employees can raise purchase requests without needing procurement experience. This is critical for driving purchase order adoption and a major part of what sets great AP solutions apart.
The best platforms combine AP and purchase order workflows into a single, easy-to-use solution. That way, you don't just streamline finance processes. You make it easier for everyone to follow purchasing policies and keep spend under control.
As a business with ambitious goals, you need technology that will grow with you.
Top accounts payable software will support increasing invoice volumes without adding to your team's workload or experiencing system overloads.
Scalable AP systems should also handle complex financial operations, including multi-entity management, tax structures, and supplier payments. Having all these capabilities under the same hood ensures your AP process is smooth from start to finish.
Things change fast in business, whether fluctuating FX rates or freight delivery disruptions. So, it’s essential to have current data to take appropriate action quickly.
Live analytics and reporting tools shine here: In fact, 57% of procurement professionals say they experience significant improvement in risk management by using data from various technologies, including advanced analytics. The best accounts payable software will leverage live analytics and reporting and give you accurate insights into cash flow, budgets, and expenses in one place.
Sticky-fingered criminals remain on the prowl for business resources and show no signs of slowing their pursuit. In 2023, cyberattacks and data breaches were the biggest threat to supply chains for the next five years.
Look for a solution that prioritises safety. With Payhawk, for example, you get encrypted data, real-time transaction monitoring, and compliance with industry standards like PCI DSS. You can control access with roles and permissions, track everything with audit trails, and add extra protection with multifactor authentication.
You can also automatically offboard leavers via HRIS integrations, meaning access shuts down when someone leaves. Together, these features help protect sensitive financial information, mitigate fraud, and promote regulatory compliance.
Ditch the chaos of managing contracts, invoices, and payments in different tools. With the right AP software, you get a single source of truth for all supplier data.
You can access accurate information quickly, optimise cash flow by timing payments smartly, and even negotiate better deals. Fewer errors, faster issue resolution, and stronger vendor relationships — all in one place.
You can't manage what you can't see. That's why the best AP tools give budget owners real-time visibility into how teams use funds — without needing to chase updates or approvals.
With our solution for example, you can monitor spend against budgets as it happens. You'll see not just what's been paid, but also what's been committed through POs so you can spot risks early and make smarter decisions.
You can even flag invoices that exceed budget automatically, helping teams stay accountable without slowing them down. It's a simple way to give budget owners more autonomy and your business more control.
People spend over five hours a day on their phones, so it makes a lot of sense to let your team manage expenses from them, wherever they are.
With the best AP solutions, you can submit expenses, approve requests, and track spend on the go. Your team stays flexible and responsive, even when they're away from their desks.
Look for a solution that will let you snap receipts with an AI-powered camera, capture details instantly with OCR technology, and manage the entire process with just a few taps.
If a finance team is a machine that powers a business, then the accounts payable automation software is the fuel that keeps operations ticking along smoothly.
Here are the top four reasons why you should invest in AP technology.
It's been a rocky time for businesses, from overcoming a global pandemic to navigating economic turbulence. These storms pressure finance teams to do more with fewer resources.
That's where AP automation comes in. This solution will help you manage AP to drive efficiency and productivity. The result? Rock solid cash flow and profits.
Whether it's stitching together spreadsheets or checking payment details, manual AP processes are slow and expensive. Worse, human-handled processes are mistake-ridden.
Ten out of every 100 manual actions contain errors. These flaws increase the risk of duplicate invoices, overpayments, and missed payments. They can also make your business appear untrustworthy and unstable. Next comes damaged vendor relationships and tarnished reputations. The best accounts payable automation software eliminates these issues.
Here are some concerning stats: 53% of companies report many exceptions in their AP processes, 41% say approvals and invoice payments take too long, and 22% say they don't have visibility into invoice and payment data.
Additionally, it takes 30 days on average for an AP team in a mid-market company to execute a payment. And 47% of suppliers get paid late because of this sluggish pace.
Digitising your AP cuts processing time, giving your team the bandwidth and insights to make smarter decisions fast.
Fraud incidents are rising, and often, companies are vulnerable because of their technology. More than half of occupational fraud cases occur because of weak or overridden internal controls. Also, 65% of businesses report check fraud cases. Governments are fighting back with stricter rules and responsibilities, like the GDPR. Such developments make strong AP controls essential to stay compliant and keep your company’s resources safe.
As costs rise and budgets tighten, the demand for cutting-edge solutions has never been higher. Here’s a round-up of the top accounts payable software making a mark.
We offer a complete accounts payable automation tool suite. With us, you can:
Use Payhawk to take advantage of AI and automation-powered tools, unmatched visibility, and a unified approach to financial management.
Brex’s AP solution manages company spending through various technologies. These include expense management tools, corporate cards, and real-time transaction tracking. Brex also automates the AP approval process and bill payments. Plus, it integrates with accounting software for smooth reconciliations. These features can help you cut manual accounting tasks and gain insight into spending patterns.
Offering an AI-powered AP solution, Yokoy automates the invoicing process, streamlines approvals, and accelerates reconciliation. The platform leverages machine learning to categorise expenses and predict spending. These features improve transparency and support data-driven decision-making. They also reduce errors and speed up payment cycles.
Moss offers various AP solutions, from corporate cards to invoice tracking features. This solution’s real-time expense tracking and insights reveal spending patterns. From here, users can better control cash flow. Plus, accounting software integrations help automate financial reporting and reduce admin.
Tipalti streamlines the accounts payable process, from invoice processing to supplier management. This solution offers features like AI invoice management, tax compliance, and currency conversion. Users can also access payments in 196 countries with 26,000+ rules.
These technologies help reduce manual entry, drive compliance, and speed up supplier management. That said, Tipalti’s depth and complexity mean it’s not the perfect fit for everyone. If you’re looking for an extremely advanced AP tool, it could be the right choice.
Bill’s AP automation aims to simplify vendor management. Features include two-way sync, touchless invoice approvals, and payment scheduling. This solution can help your team reduce late payments and mistakes while up-levelling cash flow management.
Bill’s platform also enables you to create custom approval workflows and gain live data on AP processes. These solutions allow you to stay organised and improve payment efficiency.
Airbase aims to make AP touchless. Its vehicles of choice are corporate cards, approval workflows, FX payments, vendor management, and amortisation tools. You can set budgets, track performance, and automate payment processes for quicker financial closes. You can also sync vendor details to your ERP to ensure efficient cash flow.
Are you wondering whether switching AP solutions is a worthwhile investment? Check out State of Play Hospitality's impressive AP upgrade since onboarding our top AP automation software.
State of Play Hospitality faced challenges managing expenses and vendor payments across venues in the US and UK. The team relied on disjointed tools and manual processes that had multiplied organically as the business grew. This arrangement led to inefficiencies, slow approvals, and limited visibility into global spending, and the team knew there was a better way.
That's when they switched to Payhawk and our complete spend management platform, which includes AP tools. Some features that caught the team's attention included:
Since adopting our solution, State of Play has revolutionised its AP operations. They now have:
David Watson, Group Financial Controller at State of Play, says:
Pre switching to Payhawk, we used credit cards and bill.com for the accounts payable fulfilment system. It didn't integrate with NetSuite or combine cards and AP fulfilment, so there was some switching between tools. One of the biggest advantages of Payhawk is the integrations between our accounting software (NetSuite) and the ability to put payments in the hands of the actual users and operators (venues).
(Watch the video above for more)...
Choosing the right solution to manage AP is key to long-term success.
The accounts payable solution should align with your company's needs, whether automating invoice processing or overseeing multi-entity operations. It should also be flexible, allowing you to respond to the ebbs and flows of business. So, don't settle for rigid setups that have your team up late and fighting fires.
Here's the secret: Your best year is a technology partnership away. It all starts with having the best AP software. That's where we come in. Our all-inclusive expense management solution offers powerful AP tools. These features drive profits, not problems, by enhancing control, efficiency, visibility, and security.
So, don't wait to start your journey towards effortless financial closes. Book a demo to talk to one of our experts today.
Trish Toovey works across the UK and US markets to craft content at Payhawk. Covering anything from ad copy to video scripting, Trish leans on a super varied background in copy and content creation for the finance, fashion, and travel industries.
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