Best Accounts Payable Automation Software in 2022

Unless an organization offers end-to-end service or products to its customers, most organizations need to acquire goods or services on credit, and maintain a credit cycle at the end of which the organization has to pay back within short period of time. Every organization, therefore maintains an account payable management process with the HR department, supplier and vendors. There are several steps involved in the entire process. These steps are – receiving and reviewing the invoice, approving the invoice, accepting the invoice, releasing payment for suppliers and vendors, and receiving acknowledgement of payment from vendors and suppliers. The HR department implements efficiency and productivity for maintaining the account payable cycle. Every organization has prioritized well-management of the accounts payable system for – maintaining goodwill amongst suppliers and vendors, ensuring supply of services or goods without interruption, avoiding penalties or extra charges by releasing payment on time, tracking invoices and payments, managing organization’s cash flow and reducing risks of fraud, mistakes and duplicity.

As an integral part of account payable management services, a number of stages are involved. In each stage, the HR department faces a number of challenges- such as receiving, maintaining and storing paper-based invoices, manually entering data into multiple key systems of an organization, prolonged approval process involving a number of departments or organizational hierarchy and more. Sorting the papers, maintaining a definite protocol, risks of missing financial commitment, closing ledger after payment, impacting the scale of business, risks of losing data due to malfunctioning of data storage hardware system- all of these often lead to slow turnaround time. The error rate in manual entry of data is also too high. All these drawbacks have prompted organizations to shift towards automation and reduce as much human intervention as possible. Automated account payable management service not only simplifies the processes but also reduces turnaround time with effective, trusted results.

Smooth transaction and optimization of account payable processes are possible when the software suites help drive continuous improvement. Accounts payable automation software helps in auto initiating processes that generate invoices through vendor portal. As automated system can generate documents in digital format, it eliminates the requirement for scanning, uploading, and validating AP-related documents. Such software also makes the rest of the AP processes like – auto extraction of content, auto update of data, auto validation and review of data, auto sharing of documents and financial statements, and auto archiving of the whole thing after completion of a ledger- hassle-free and quick. Accounting and bookkeeping services - an essential part of organizational goals, is also an extremely important part of account payable cycle. Validation of payment, reporting of any wrong amount, interpreting terms of payment, analyzing and classifying payment related data, and calculating penalties or extra charges, if any, are also managed by automated account payable software without interrupting the human-led processes running within the organization.

Chief features of modern automated accounts payable software suite-

-          The suites have advanced, world-class features controlled by AI, like Optical Character Recognition (OCR), and Intelligent Data Capture (IDC) to convert all existing, paper-based documents.

-          The suites have high adaptability, that is, they can merge with other automated or manual processes that are already part of the organization – including complex analytical and administrative processes.

-          Generating periodic or daily reports for understating rate variations, analyzing spending patterns, and analyzing overall performance- and sharing all kinds of data with multiple corporate offices, individuals or teams. 

Leading software solution providers like MYND not only offer customization of AR processes but also the extent of automation. For instance, an organization can choose to sync 60 -70% automation in source/input, 90% automation in processing AP documents, and 70% automation in record keeping. MYND Solutions’ accounts payable automation solution- PEARL is deployed by organizations worldwide- numerous large and midsize organizations around the world has automated their account payable processes. MYND’s years of experience, advanced knowledge of domain and expertise have helped organizations to simplify critical business functions that are not only repetitive but also time consuming. The businesses are immensely benefitted by – minimized P2P costs, reduced processes and timely delivery, minimized risks of fraud and errors, enhanced scalability, and acquisition of insights in real time. 

The entire automated process by PEARL is divided into several segments – PR to PO process automation, distinct features of collective vendor portal, and online invoice approval and tracking. PEARL also offers value added services like – highly configurable workflow, audit trail of transactions, ERP integration with multiple touch points, live dashboard, SLA tracking for individual stages of each process, real time analytics and finally, email alerts and notifications. Thus, PEARL aligns with the operational goals of an organization, thereby helping the organization maintain a good relationship with its vendors, and most importantly, maximize revenue generation. It also helps the organization in maintaining transparency in all institutional processes related to audits and taxes.