
The Hidden Benefits of Automating Your Accounts Payable Process
- Published
- Jun 27, 2025
- By
- Ren Stead
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Finance and accounting leaders are acutely aware that AI tools are reshaping the business landscape. Some are excitedly embracing this new era and are eager to be the first adopters, while others are hesitant and seek guidance rather than simply following trends.
Accountants are seeing firsthand how automating processes can positively impact client strategies and the overall success of the entire organization. Strategy and vision may come from the top, but rely on a strong foundation of data integrity. A company’s financial data shapes budgets, leads conversations, and informs decisions. This means that the Accounts Payable (AP) team is often at the forefront of a company’s strategy.
Understanding the Daily Challenges and Benefits AP Teams Face
A secure, reliable, and proactive financial data landscape is essential to a business's success. However, the needs of AP teams are often overlooked, and many continue to face daily challenges.
Common Challenges AP Teams Face:
- Time-consuming efforts to enter dozens or even hundreds of bills each week, mostly recurring, increasing the risk of a manual mistake
- Accounting errors can cost your organization thousands of dollars across many aspects of your business and may lead to audit risks
- Lack of a digital filing system to quickly access the source of truth leads to frustration and wasted time
- Incorrect and limited visibility into cash flow reports due to keying errors and data entry lags
- Lack of a strong system infrastructure that supports growing data sets, such as a cloud-based software infrastructure, without a capacity limitation
Leveraging technology and automated processes can sustainably improve productivity and reporting accuracy. Sage Intacct offers organizations streamlined processes, accurate accounting processes, enhanced reporting and planning, and various other tools built for successful integrations and automation.
Daily Benefits of Automating Your AP Function:
- Gives your team back countless hours to focus on important projects you’ve held off for so long
- Reduces data entry errors and minimizes potential duplicate entries and overpayments
- Empowers your team to be active participants in the analysis and strategy of the accounts payable processes or the company’s plans as a whole
- Elevates your finance leaders to reviewers and approvers, not simply active participants in entering or fixing data
- Manages risk by maintaining compliance with real-time visibility
- Review source document in real-time, without looking into physical filing cabinets or a complex server folder structure
- Moves the organization towards a paperless environment and reaches Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals
- Automates backup processes, allowing for easy access and no downtime during natural disasters, such as wildfires, floods, or hurricanes
- Quicker payment processes so you can take advantage of discounts and improve vendor relationships
Sage Intacct with AP Automation Makes These Benefits a Reality
Sage Intacct is a cloud-based, best-in-class financial management solution. Being the only financial management tool recommended by the AICPA, Sage Intacct prides itself on its strides toward automating processes. The AP Automation feature, powered by AI, now includes Purchasing Automation, simplifying and streamlining workflows. It provides audit trails for maintaining compliance, aligns purchasing workflows from purchase orders and receipts to invoices, and allows for the easy review of digital backup documentation and bills. This updated workflow enables AP teams to quickly review the source document in real time.
AP Automation can reduce the time spent on data by hours or even days each month. Small businesses that leverage AI tools typically save up to 2.5 months of time annually, and medium-sized businesses can save over 4 months of time annually. By integrating AI tools and automated processes, accounts payable teams have more time to focus on higher-level tasks and in-depth reviews, leading to reduced human error and increased accuracy.
Sage Intacct’s AP Automation is a cloud-based, all-in-one solution with 95% vendor match accuracy. This machine learning solution learns the behaviors of vendors and invoices to enhance predictability, ultimately providing a perfect process and giving businesses time back in their day to get things done.
What Is the Future of AI Automation?
Automation tools are here to stay, and this is only the beginning. Machine learning tools are still in their infancy, so the more they're used, the more they learn the patterns and cadence of business operations. Once the data is accurate, reliable, and accessible, the real advantage of such a strategic initiative begins. To determine unique insights on how to grow your business, ask yourself the following key questions.
- Do you know when your vendor contracts expire so you can renegotiate pricing and terms?
- Do you know your organization’s full list of current software subscriptions? Are any redundant?
- Do you know what’s chipping away at your project margins?
- Did you know you can save significantly by moving recurring contractors to full-time employees?
- Do you need three AP clerks instead of one and perhaps an FP&A analyst? Both efforts save you costs and bring additional value.
Why EisnerAmper + Sage Intacct
EisnerAmper’s Sage Intacct team diligently provides clients with strategies, tools, and guidance to streamline services and processes. Our trusted team emphasizes continued growth, development, and improvement to equip your organization with the skills to enhance productivity. Say goodbye to being bogged down with manual data entry and unproductive time spent on manual processes and say hello to strategic change. Are you ready to embrace the future? Contact us below to learn more.
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