accounts payable

8 Must Have Features In Your Accounts Payable Software

accounts payable

Organizations are transitioning towards a digital infrastructure and are giving foremost importance to accounts payable automation. Human errors could cost a lot to the organization, and with the help of accounts payable automation tool, one can overcome that with ease.

Accounts payable software comes with many features. However, how do you know which suits you the best? In this blog, we are going to discuss the five must-have features in an accounts payable software. If you are new to accounts payable, feel free to check out our complete guide on accounts payable.

Which are the essential features of an accounts payable software?

Before choosing the accounts payable software, you need to evaluate your AP workflow. Based on your workflow, you can select the AP automation software.

Here are some of the must-have features in accounts payable automation software.

Paperless document storage – The financial automation software should be efficient enough such that stores and manages all the business documents like purchase orders, invoices, GRNs, payment receipts, etc. The storage capacity of the software should be sufficient enough to store massive data and can be retrieved at any instant with a single click.

Three-way Matching – The AP automation software should possess the capability of automatically matching the invoices received against the purchase order released and the GRN receipts. This will help in eliminating the error-prone manual process, and the finance team can see increased productivity.

Customized approval workflow – The AP automation software must be able to streamline your process by allowing you to configure a custom approval workflow.  

  • Invoice ApprovalInvoice Approval – The software must be flexible enough to route the invoices to the respective approval manager for one-click approval, followed by immediate email notification. There has to be an option to set up automated reminders to notify the users for any pending approvals. Having this structure in place can help the finance team chasing for approvals and speed up the approval process.
  • Payment ApprovalInvoices exceeding a certain threshold could be configured to multi-level approval. The finance team must have the ability to process payments in just a single click. With this structure, the finance teams can stay organized, ensure quick approvals and timely payments to vendors.

Vendor ManagementAP automation software should also be flexible enough to categorize vendors according to the cost centers. Each cost center can have multiple vendors with different tax and discount rates. Vendors can be grouped and managed according to the location where the cost center is based.

Integrated Banking – The automation software should be flexible enough to integrate with any banking APIs so that real-time bank reconciliation be made possible. With API banking, finance teams can process the payments through NEFT, IMPS, RTGS, etc. Automating each transaction will simplify the process of reconciliation.

Accounting software integrations – The finance automation software automatically reconciles your accounts payable, with your existing accounting software so that the error-prone manual process of entering data gets eliminated and in turn savings cost including the time of the finance teams.

Comprehensive Reporting Structure – Finance automation software helps in creating a structured report of all the accounts payable in a single dashboard. CFOs can get a combined report on the various expenses that are occurring in their organization. Based on the report generated, they can plan their budget accordingly.

Which is the best Accounts Payable software?

Along with the above-mentioned features, Finly has benefits that can cause a significant impact on the finance team:

  • Capturing Invoice Data – Entering the data manually to the system is quite a laborious process. It’s not only a time-consuming process but also error-prone. The automation software can seamlessly enter the data in a fraction of a second and with high precision by giving no room to any clerical error, thereby increasing the productivity of the finance team.
  • Audit Ready – Auditors will have a tough time to identify each expense, and it will be tough for them to go search for information through a stack of papers. With digital records, you can retrieve data using a simple built-in search feature. 
  • Quick month-end closures – Once the vendor payment is processed, it has to be accounted for in the accounting software. Enter General Ledger code based on different criteria like vendor, amount, invoice category, credit note, etc. This is a simple process but error-prone when done manually. If your organization processes large invoices, there will be thousands of numbers to code, making it highly vulnerable to mistakes. The workflow automation software can auto-code invoices to the proper accounts, following set rules. This helps in closing your financial books on-time without any errors.
  • An Interactive User Interface – Analyze massive datasets without any hesitation through an intuitive graphical representation. Finly offers an intuitive interface, the ability to customize according to finance teams requirements.
  • Efficient Teams – With most of the monotonous & repetitive tasks getting automated, finance teams can spend their productive time in making data-driven decisions and transforming into a business intelligence department. 

By using accounts payable automation tool like Finly, finance teams were able to streamline and automate their business expenses. With powerful analytics, CFOs were empowered to make data-driven decisions.

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