Accounts payable automation trends are changing in a fast pace due to the advancement of tools and technologies. These emerging trends help AP automation software vendors to improve their offerings and help drive more efficiency to the process of handling invoices and processing payments to vendors and suppliers.
Accounts payable (AP) trends are future indicators for organizations that are striving to improve the relationships with their suppliers by increasing efficiency, accuracy, and cost savings. These trends with list of best practices will help you overcome AP automation challenges and benefit from this initiative.
The accounts payable automation trends are:
1- Cloud-based AP Automation
In my experience, most of organizations are moving their operations to the cloud due to the flexibility of accessing their data and web portals from anywhere using any device. This gives them the flexibility to process invoices on time without many delays to their suppliers or subcontractors.
Gone are the days where you work with outdated portals to finalize any business operations. This trend should be followed by all organizations to optimize cash flow, reduce costs, and improve their operations.
2- AI Makes AP Smarter
If you are not following up on the latest technology advancement, we are living in exciting times where the focus is on AI and ML to improve our lives. Guess what, automating accounts payable is with no exception.
These technologies are being integrated with the current ecosystem to automate repetitive tasks, identify patterns, and provide intelligent insights. This will decrease the level of manual intervention and errors, as well as increase efficiency and accuracy.
AP systems can automate monotonous and time-consuming operations by integrating AI technologies such as machine learning and robotic process automation, greatly reducing manual intervention.
AI allows for intelligent data extraction from invoices, speeding information input into financial systems with greater accuracy and speed. Furthermore, machine learning techniques enable AP systems to learn from previous data, allowing them to improve over time in invoice categorization, approval workflows, and anomaly detection, hence boosting overall accuracy and compliance.
3- Robotic Process Automation
RPA is one of the technologies that can be extremely helpful when trying to automate repetitive tasks as non-IT employees can configure bots to extract data from invoices and import them into your ERP system.
Not only that, but these bots can also be programmed easily with a graphical user interface to validate the data extracted and check for errors around the clock with no rest. Remember. these bots can work 24/7 without any rest or vacation.
It also has the ability to automate accounts payable processes which will help your organization to undertake invoices and payments more quickly resulting in cash flow improvement and better stakeholders’ satisfaction.
4- Integration with ERP Systems
One of the most waited accounts payable automation trends is the ability to integrate and import data directly to your ERP without any human intervention. This will reduce human work, decrease errors and delays, and improve accuracy.
A typical AP process is not complete without integrating with your favorite enterprise resource planning application. Having this capability can provide a holistic automation approach and a seamless user experience for your employees to perform all accounts payable related tasks such as invoice processing, payment processing and reporting in one single application.
This future trend is much needed to improve the relation between organizations and suppliers or service providers as it gives them the ability to track their invoices real-time and follow up when needed.
5- Blockchain Technology
The future of AP process security relies on blockchain technologies specifically for securing payment processing and providing a transparent way to track invoices. They have the ability to reduce fraud and errors, as well as increase security and trust.
Using Blockchain, all transactions will be executed securely with no ability to tamper them which provides transparency and sense of trust. Also, payments can be processed in real-time which gives higher visibility and control over cash flow. This can help your organization improve financial performance and optimize cashflow management.
Overall, the use of blockchain technology in the 4 functions of AP automation is an emerging trend that has the potential to revolutionize the way organizations process invoices and payments.
6- Predictive Analytics
Predictive analytics is one of the most important accounts payable automation trends as it has the ability to provide insights into future spending, invoice processing times, and payment cycles.
It also can be used to forecast invoice and payment volumes, identify trends in vendor behavior. In addition, it has the ability to identify potential issues related to delays or errors before they occur. This will help your organization proactively address these issues and gain trust from your vendors.
7- Mobile Access
In this fast world we are living in, having the ability to perform all AP related tasks from the comfort of your hands is a must. Mobile access allows to streamline the complete process from reviewing to approving invoices, to process and track payments, and generate reports from any smartphone or tablet.
