AP automation: Complete guide to automated AP processes

Automating your accounts payable (AP) process can save time, reduce errors, and free up your team to focus on more strategic tasks. But where do you start?

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In this guide, we’ll explore the benefits of accounts payable automation, highlight parts of the AP process that are ripe for automation, and provide some practical steps to help you get started.

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Here’s how we’ve structured this guide to make AP automation easy to understand:

• Chapter 1: What AP automation is and how it works
• Chapter 2: Benefits and challenges of AP automation
• Chapter 3: Aspects of AP that can be automated
• Chapter 4: How to start implementing AP automation
• Chapter 5: AP automation success stories from Ramp customers
• Chapter 6: How to choose the right AP automation software

Chapter 1: What AP automation is and how it works

Understanding how accounts payable automation works is the first step to improving efficiency and accuracy in your AP workflows. Here are the basics broken down.

What is accounts payable automation?

Accounts payable automation is the process of using technology to streamline and digitize AP workflows. Instead of manually entering data, chasing down approvals, and issuing payments, automation tools handle these tasks for you. You might automate every step in the process—from invoice receipt to payment—or just highly repetitive parts of your workflow.

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For example, you might capture supplier invoices electronically, match them against purchase orders, and route them for approval without needing human intervention. You may also be able to schedule approved payments automatically.

What does accounts payable automation solve?

AP automation eliminates time-consuming manual tasks like data entry, invoice matching, and payment scheduling. This reduces errors, speeds up approvals, and improves overall efficiency and accuracy in your accounts payable process.

How does AP automation work?

AP automation streamlines the entire payment process by using software to handle tasks that traditionally require manual effort.

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For example, say you receive an invoice from a vendor. The typical steps would look like this:

1. Receive the invoice: The AP automation software captures the invoice from various sources, such as email, scanned documents, or uploads.
2. Extract key information: Instead of manually entering the details, your AP automation software scans the invoice, automatically extracting information like the vendor name, amount, and due date.
3. Match with purchase orders (POs): The software matches the invoice to the corresponding PO and tags the appropriate team members for approval.
4. Route for approval: Approvers receive an automated notification and can approve the invoice with a click, even from a mobile device.
5. Schedule and process the payment: Once approved, the system schedules the payment according to vendor terms, ensuring on-time payments.
6. Track and audit: The software records every step of the process, providing real-time visibility for reporting, auditing, and compliance.

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By automating these steps, you eliminate the need for manual data entry, reduce errors, and streamline the entire AP process.

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Chapter 2: Benefits and challenges of AP automation 

While AP automation offers significant advantages like cost savings and improved accuracy, it also comes with challenges that require thoughtful planning. Here’s what to know.

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You can set up your AP automation system for success by identifying and addressing these challenges early on.

Chapter 3: Aspects of AP that can be automated

You can automate several core functions of your accounts payable workflow to save time and improve accuracy. Automated workflows ensure each vendor invoice moves through the correct steps—from receipt to payment—without manual intervention.

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The key is knowing your AP workflow’s starting and stopping points and the triggers that move you from one step in the process to the next. Here are a few standard steps in an accounts payable workflow:

Invoice processing

Through automation and artificial intelligence, employees don’t have to enter invoice data manually. Your technology captures invoices electronically and extracts critical information automatically.

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For example, your AP process might start when a client emails an invoice. Optical character recognition (OCR) technology scans, reads, and converts a PDF invoice into data. Then, the system automatically compares and matches the invoice to your purchase order to ensure the invoice is accurate.

Approvals

Instead of manually chasing approvals through email, you can set up custom rules to route invoices to the appropriate team members for review. Reviewers can approve invoices with a few clicks—often from a mobile device—to keep the work flowing.

Payments

Once a reviewer approves the invoice, the system schedules the payment, reducing the risk of late payments and penalties.

Reconciliation

Next, the system reconciles payments with the bank statements to verify the payment amounts and payees align. This happens behind the scenes, with AP team members only getting involved if there’s an issue, like an invoice that doesn’t match the PO or a cleared check on the bank statement that doesn’t match the transaction recorded in your accounting system.

Reporting

Automation makes it easy to generate real-time reports on your AP process. For example, the system can generate an AP aging report that summarizes all outstanding payables, broken down by vendor and date. Up-to-date information on invoice statuses, cash flow, and vendor payments gives you greater visibility and control over your finances.

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Chapter 4: How to start implementing AP automation

Implementing AP automation can feel overwhelming, but starting small and focusing on the most impactful areas can help you achieve some quick wins to propel you forward.

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Here’s each step of the process broken down—from planning and implementing to automation in action—with additional details for each stage:

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Planning

Before diving into automation, start by assessing your current workflows to lay the groundwork for automation:

• Assess your current AP processes: Identify inefficiencies in workflows like invoice receipt, coding, approval, and payment.
• Document and standardize workflows: Create clear processes for invoices, approvals, and payments to ensure seamless integration with automation tools.
• Set goals and define priorities: Define measurable objectives like reducing invoice processing time or improving accuracy.

Choosing the right AP automation tool

Once you’ve mapped out your processes and goals, the next step is selecting the right tool:

• Choose AP tools with flexible features: Evaluate tools based on features like ERP integration, customizable workflows, and fraud prevention.
• Ensure compatibility with existing systems: Verify the tool integrates with your accounting software and other systems to prevent conflicts.

Implementing AP automation

After selecting a tool, begin testing and training your team:

• Pilot the solution with a small team: Test the tool on a small scale, resolve issues, and gather feedback for refinement.
• Train your team and manage change: Provide training and emphasize how automation reduces workload and improves efficiency.

Automation in action 

Now, you can begin automating specific AP processes to unlock efficiency, accuracy, and consistency in your workflows:

• Capturing invoices: Use tools to digitize invoices from email or paper formats, pulling key data into a centralized system to eliminate manual entry.
• Coding invoices: Automate classification by department or project, ensuring accurate application of general ledger codes.
• Matching invoices: Match invoices to POs and receipts to speed up approvals and prevent duplicate or overpayments.
• Routing approvals: Automate invoice routing with predefined rules so approvers can quickly review and approve from any device.
• Scheduling and sending payments: Automate payments via ACH, wire transfer, or credit card to ensure vendors are paid on time.

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And lastly, make sure to measure and optimize performance by tracking metrics like processing time and cost savings to refine workflows and maximize automation benefits.

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Chapter 5: AP automation success stories from Ramp customers

To help you visualize how AP automation might work in your company, here are a few examples of automations other organizations have implemented and how they’ve benefitted from the experience:

Example 1: Invoice data entry and REVA Air Ambulance

Instead of manually entering invoice details into your system, accounts payable automation software can capture data from digital invoices and automatically populate fields in your accounting software, eliminating human error.

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When REVA Air Ambulance, a medical transportation company, streamlined its AP processes with Ramp, the AP team could simply drag and drop invoices directly into the program and code them automatically rather than manually entering and coding each invoice. For a company processing roughly 2,500 invoices per month, cutting invoice processing from 15 or 20 minutes per invoice to 3 minutes per invoice meant significant time savings.

Example 2: Automated payment scheduling and Skin Pharm

You can automatically schedule and send payments after reviewers approve an invoice to ensure you never miss a deadline or incur late fees because someone on the AP team is on vacation. That’s one of the benefits enjoyed by Skin Pharm, a beauty brand with a line of at-home skin care products and 11 clinics across the southern US.

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Skin Pharm implemented Ramp Bill Pay to automate its accounts payable and ensure its bills get paid automatically, regardless of whether a team member is in the office. This automation gives the company’s finance leader peace of mind knowing they’re not falling behind on vendor payments.

Example 3: Real-time reporting and Quora

Instead of manually compiling reports at the end of every month, automated systems can generate real-time reports on your AP operations, giving you visibility into outstanding payments, processing times, and the company’s overall financial operations.

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Quora, the social question-and-answer website and online knowledge marketplace, had clunky AP processes holding it back. Vendors would email bills to an AP email address, then the Quora team would download those invoices, save them to Google Drive, and link them to the bill in the company’s ERP.

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But since employees couldn’t access the ERP, approvals were handled via email, and emails were constantly getting lost. Making matters worse, tools in the company’s fintech stack didn’t integrate easily with the ERP, so closing the books meant a lot of manual data entry.

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Once the company implemented Ramp, it streamlined and automated its AP processes by integrating directly with its ERP, NetSuite. Finance Manager Richard Gobea noted that the two-way sync between Ramp and NetSuite makes it possible to see changes in real time because it’s just three steps from invoice processing to payment and reporting.

Chapter 6: How to choose the right AP automation software

The right tool can transform your AP function, so here are a few features to look for when selecting an AP automation solution:

• Ease of use: Choose software that is quick to implement and easy for your team to learn, reducing downtime and training efforts.
• Seamless integration: Ensure the tool integrates smoothly with your accounting or ERP system to streamline data flow across platforms like NetSuite, Xero, or QuickBooks.
• Real-time reporting: Look for software that provides live insights into outstanding invoices, scheduled payments, and cash flow for better financial management.
• Customizable workflows: Select a solution that adapts to your specific approval and payment processes, enabling efficient routing and approvals.
• Fraud protection: Pick software with robust fraud detection tools to safeguard against unauthorized payments and phishing attempts. Ramp excels in this area with built-in fraud monitoring and secure payment processing.
• Vendor management: Automation should simplify tracking payment terms, schedules, and discounts while supporting better vendor relationships.

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Moreover, different businesses require unique AP automation features depending on their size, complexity, and growth stage. Here's a quick summary of what we recommend prioritizing based on your business size:

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Save time and money with Ramp’s AP automation software

When you automate your AP workflows, you can reduce errors, improve vendor relationships, and free up your team to focus on more valuable work. Ramp’s modern finance operations platform helps you do just that.

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Ramp Bill Pay uses machine learning to help you automate your entire accounts payable workflow, from invoice receipt to approval, payment, and invoice matching. Ramp’s automation features free up your AP department to focus on more strategic work, like managing vendor relationships and finding new ways to optimize growth.

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Want to learn more? Watch a demo video to see why Ramp customers save an average of 5% a year.