Efficient tracking and processing of company expenses is crucial for any business, not just for financial clarity but also to ensure accurate, timely payments. Accounts payable software simplifies these tasks, saving precious time and empowering businesses to focus on growth without the added stress of manual accounts payable management.
Goldman Sachs’s recent study showcased that automating your accounts payable process through digital software can save up to $16 for each invoice and about 80% of overall invoice processing time. This leaves no doubt that AP software resolves many hassles that take over the precious time of your financial team.
In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at some of the best accounts payable software on the market today. Whether you’re a small business owner or a finance professional working for a large corporation, you’ll find valuable information to help you choose the best software for your needs.
The best accounts payable software platforms
- Klippa SpendControl AP Software
- Rydoo Expense management
- Freshbooks
- Airbase
- Tipalti
- DocuWare
- Lightyear
- Sage Intacct
What is Accounts Payable Software?
Let’s start with the basics first. Accounts payable is a liability account that tracks all short-term debt a company owes to its creditors for goods or services it has received but has yet to pay for. It appears on the business balance sheet under “Current Liabilities”.
Accounts payable software automates the process of tracking and managing vendor invoices or employee expenses that still need to be paid. The software helps companies streamline their accounts payable process by automating manual tasks such as data entry, invoice approval, and payment processing.
Now that you know what accounts payable software is, let’s look at how to set up an accounts payable system and what the software can do specifically for you.
Setting up an Accounts Payable System
Accounts payable software can help you to save time, reduce the risk of manual errors and improve the accuracy of financial reporting. Moreover, the software enables you to:
- Set up authorization flows: Include solely authorized people and define submission requirements for invoice approval, ensuring prompt and consistent approval flow of invoices.
- Define responsibilities: Assign tasks and responsibilities to specific team members, reducing the risk of late payment fees.
- Establish payment terms: Define payment terms for each supplier, including payment due dates, discounts, and late fees.
- Monitor and track payments: Monitor and track invoices to ensure suppliers are paid according to the agreed-upon terms, improving cash flow and reducing the risk of late payments.
By automating your accounts payable, you will not only improve efficiency and reduce manual effort but also get more control over your AP process, increasing insight into your company’s financial health.
In the next section of our blog, we will highlight essential features that make AP automation software reliable and efficient.
Best AP automation features
When considering accounts payable automation software, you may wonder about the necessary features. While there is no standard for AP software functionalities, some are essential for a worthwhile investment. Here are only a couple of the best AP software features you can look out for:
- OCR for invoices and expenses: Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology automatically captures data from invoices, reducing the need for manual data entry.
- Fraud prevention: Advanced fraud detection and prevention features can help protect against fraudulent invoices and payments, reducing the risk of financial loss.
- Authorization flows/rules: Established authorization rules within your approval management can ensure that invoices are approved and paid promptly according to the agreed-upon terms.
- Tax rate recognition: Automated tax rate recognition can help ensure that the correct tax rate is applied to each invoice, reducing the risk of errors and improving accuracy.
- Secure data storage: A dedicated data storage, like a cloud environment, allows you to retrieve files when necessary, adhering to legal compliance regulations and allowing access to your data for possible audits.
- Integrations with other systems: Integration with other financial systems, such as accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, provides a complete view of a company’s financial position and synchronizes your software for payment processes.
Some features can be more relevant than others, depending on the specifics of your business operations. For example, a functionality like multi-currency support will be essential if your business operates internationally. Therefore, our list only provides some crucial basics of an effective AP solution.
In the next section, we will list some of the best accounts payable software currently available on the market. We will shortly explain each option, sum up their main features, and mention which type of organization this option suits best.
The 8 best AP software platforms explained
We know that as a company you want to bear fruits from AP solutions rather today than tomorrow. To help you find the best way to automate your accounts payable process, we summed up 8 of the best AP software solutions from different organizations below.
1. Klippa SpendControl AP Software
Klippa SpendControl is an all-in-one accounts payable software platform that helps you manage your expenses, invoices and credit card payments within one dedicated environment. It includes two modules for both expenses and invoices that can be used together or individually.
The solution also allows you to seamlessly process your accounts payables in a few clicks, automatically extract your accounts payable data with artificial intelligence and automate approval processes for a sophisticated workflow.
The key features of Klippa SpendControl are:
- Sophisticated expense management software and invoice processing software in one platform
- User-friendly mobile application and web environment
- Built-in data extraction capabilities driven by Klippa’s proprietary OCR technology
- Fully customizable approval workflows with smart business rules
- Options to assign responsibilities and tasks to specific members for approval and payment processing
- Multi-currency support
- 2-way matching (3-way matching available soon)
- Over 20 integration options with accounting and ERP software, such as Xero, NetSuite, SAP, and many other integrations
- Built-in document fraud detection analysis
- Dedicated cloud storage to access files for up to 10 years for possible audits
- Corporate credit cards powered by Pliant
Klippa SpendControl is best for: All-size companies and organizations that are looking for growth by improving the efficiency of various accounts payable processes.
2. Rydoo Expense management
Rydoo offers an expense management solution designed to process expenses from the submission of claims to their reimbursement. Rydoo is a solution with various built-in controls for compliance and gives insight into your current financial status. For a direct comparison with Klippa SpendControl check out our Rydoo comparison page.
Rydoo offers the following features:
- Consolidated dashboard
- Extensive expense management module
- Built-in policy settings to adhere to financial policies
- Real-time expense views
- Insights overview
- Various integrations with a diverse range of use cases, such as mobility and productivity
Rydoo Expense management is best for: Small- to medium-sized organizations in search of a solution specifically for expense management to improve their workflows.
3. Freshbooks
Freshbooks is an accounting solution that allows small business owners or freelancers to organize their accounts payable and stay compliant with financial policies and regulations in their country. It is an easy-to-use solution with a consolidated dashboard and multiple templates ready to be customized.
Freshbooks offers the following features:
- Consolidated dashboard
- Customizable chart of accounts and expense categories
- Cloud storage for data
- Insight reports
- Automated bank reconciliation
- Tracking options for various credit types
Freshbooks is best for: Small organizations, freelancers, self-employed professionals, or individual accountants.
4. Airbase
Airbase is an accounts payable software designed to ease the tasks of financial teams by automating the process of accounts payables. The software provides clear visibility and control of its customer’s payment processes and is easy to handle via its unified dashboard. Also, a corporate card program and employee reimbursement functionalities are included.
Airbase offers the following features:
- Approval workflows
- Accounting automation
- Real-time reporting
- Multi-subsidiary support
- Corporate card program
- Employee reimbursement functionalities
- Multiple integrations options
Airbase is best for: Small organizations, freelancers, and self-employed professionals.
5. Tipalti
Tipalti provides an end-to-end, invoice-based payment solution that helps businesses automate and streamline their accounts payable process. The solution includes OCR technology for automatic data extraction to extract various data from invoices.
Tipalti offers the following features:
- Fraud detection and prevention
- Financial controls
- Multi-currency support
- Integrations options for different types of accounting and ERP systems
- Payment reconciliation
- 2- and 3-way matching
- Cloud storage for data
Tipalti is best for: Small- to medium-sized businesses focussing on accounts payable optimization.
6. DocuWare
DocuWare is an invoice-based AP solution that can capture and store invoices both digitally and physically. You can easily submit invoices via scans, email, and mobile captures in a searchable file structure. A non-cloud version is available as well. The software integrates with over 500 different accounting software which gives you the ability to synchronize your data with various platforms.
DocuWare offers the following features:
- Customizable approval processes
- Automated import and indexing for data capture
- Safe cloud storage for invoice documents and files
- Easy accessibility and collaboration with editing and comment options in workflows
- Integrates with more than 500 different accounting software
DocuWare is best for: Medium to large organizations focused on improving invoice efficiency and workflow automation.
7. Lightyear
Lightyear is an ideal solution for larger corporations to consolidate purchasing, bookkeeping, and bill approval into one platform. Furthermore, it is both a purchasing and accounts payable software that provides automated accounting and inventory synchronization possibilities.
It makes tracking resources easy across teams and different locations. Sharing and syncing accounts payable data is made easy with Lightyear.
Lightyear offers the following features:
- Purchase order options for creating, approving, and sending
- Intelligent data extraction
- Automated bookkeeping with automation rules
- Multi-level approval system
- 3-way matching
- Auto reconciliation for supplier statements
- Integrations with accounting, ERP, and inventory software
Lightyear is best for: Large companies and enterprises dealing with multiple teams or product lines in different locations.
8. Sage Intacct
Sage Intacct is a financial management platform with built-in accounts payable software for a streamlined workflow. Their dashboard and reporting functionalities allow their customers to gain visibility for better decision-making.
Sage Intacct is easy to combine with other proprietary software or third-party automation apps to increase its functionalities.
Sage Intacct offers the following features:
- Centralized and electronic access to accounts payable
- Streamlined accounts payable workflow automation
- Real-time tracking of payments, approvals, and reporting
- Flexible controls for workflows and approval thresholds
- Integrations with other proprietary software or existing accounts payable solutions
Sage Intacct is best for: Small businesses, foundations, and non-profit organizations.
We hope that you now have a better overview of which options are on the market to make a proper decision that fits your needs. After discussing the various options, there is one solution that stands out the most.
In the next section, we will tell you more about the number one accounts payable software and why it would suit your company.
Try Klippa SpendControl AP Software
As we determined, accounts payable automation can streamline financial processes by automating repetitive manual tasks. Klippa’s financial management software SpendControl provides the following benefit and offers more.
Our built-in OCR technology lets you extract your accounts payable data in seconds while other functionalities, such as expense management, invoice processing, corporate credit cards along with matching statements with payments, fraud detection, possible synchronization with any accounting systems, 2-way matching, and more, make the AP process feel like a breeze.
The benefits of using Klippa SpendControl include:
- Saves time: Eliminate the need for manual data entry and invest time into tasks that matter to the company’s growth.
- Reduces errors: Automatically extract data from receipts and invoices with high accuracy, reducing the risk of errors caused by human mistakes.
- Keeps organized & accessible data: Keep financial records organized and easily accessible, simplifying analysis into business spending patterns.
- Reduces risk of fraud: Quickly identify fraud that can jeopardize your company with built-in fraud detection analysis, recognizing unusual registrations or fraudulent documents.
- Streamlines approvals: With Klippa’s digital approval workflows, quickly review and approve expenses and invoices. In addition, create custom approval workflows ensuring prompt payments..
- Enhances compliance: Klippa ensures compliance with tax regulations and other financial reporting requirements by providing accurate and detailed records.
We believe that the extensive functionalities of Klippa SpendControl make it the best software to automate your accounts payable processes. Book a free demo to see our product in action, or contact our SpendControl specialists for more information. Start investing your time into things that really matter!