AP automation (accounts payable automation) is a cloud-based technology that automates accounts payable invoice processes. Organizations use AP automation to automate time-consuming manual AP work, such as invoice processing, PO matching, and payment reconciliation. AP Automation helps companies save time and improve financial controls.

AP automation streamlines the workflow of invoices through your business by eliminating paper and manual processes, thereby reducing costs, increasing efficiency and accuracy, and providing visibility into the status of every invoice and expense.

With AP automation, you can optimize the workflows, from invoice receipt to approval routing to PO-and-Receipt of Goods matching. This seamlessly then captures final approval and a full payment process.

Corcentric’s SaaS solution, Cor360 Payables Automation, takes this a step further by automating the entire transaction process, from electronic purchase orders to automated B2B payments.

There are a number of benefits realized when you automate processes through our accounts payable management software. Details of these benefits can be found in our Definitive Guide to Accounts Payable Automation. Digitizing AP processes enables you to:

• Eliminate manual tasks and improve cash flow by processing invoices up to 70% faster
• Reduce invoice processing costs by up to 80%
• Eliminate keying errors by eliminating manual handling of invoices
• Handle 100% of payment disbursements electronically
• Scale your AP department for growth without increasing the number of FTEs
• Improve supply chain visibility
• Ensure greater compliance and accurate audits
• Significantly reduce the opportunity for fraud
• Capture early payment discounts
• Spend less time handling disputes
• Free up your AP team’s time so they can focus on value-added tasks.

The average cost to manually process an invoice is $15.96 compared to $2.94 per invoice for best-in-class AP teams that have implemented automation. Automation enables AP to process invoices up to 70% faster, thus cutting both cost and time.