What is accounts payable automation?
By Tim White · Glossary · Last updated
Accounts payable automation uses software for the manual steps of handling supplier invoices: capturing them, reading the data, checking it and routing approvals. People handle only the exceptions. Done well, it cuts keying time from minutes per invoice to seconds and catches late and duplicate payments before they happen.
What it covers
AP automation usually spans five steps, and few tools cover all of them. Capture gets invoices in by email, upload or API. Extraction pulls out vendor, dates, totals, tax and line items. Validation checks the math and looks for duplicates. Approval routes the bill to whoever signs off. Handoff moves the data into accounting or payment.
Large suites run the whole chain, including payments and PO matching. Small businesses usually do better with a tool that handles the first three well and exports cleanly to the accounting system they already use.
Where projects go wrong
Most failures come from the process. If invoices still arrive in five inboxes, the software only ever sees half of them. Route everything to one intake before you judge the tool.
The second trap is measuring how much got automated rather than how many bad invoices got stopped. Software that pays a wrong bill quickly is worse than a careful clerk. Start with one intake, watch what lands in review for a month, and fix the causes.
Where InvoiceJet fits
InvoiceJet covers capture, extraction and validation. Two models read every invoice, the math is checked, exact duplicates are flagged and clean invoices are marked verified without a click. Email approvals and CSV exports in the QuickBooks and Xero bill import layouts cover part of the rest. It doesn't make payments.
Common questions
Does AP automation remove people entirely?
It shouldn't. The aim is to keep people off the invoices that are clearly fine and put their attention on the ones that aren't.
How much does InvoiceJet cost?
Free for 10 invoices a month. Pro is $29 a month for 200 invoices and Business is $99 a month for 1,000. Yearly billing gives two months free.
Sources
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