Questions To Ask When Looking For Accounts Payable Software

Having a good AP software makes it easy to automate a lot of processes involving cash flow, invoice payments, receivables and more for a company. The convenience that the automation brings also makes it possible to save money. If your company is looking for Automated accounts payable solutions, there are going to be a lot of things that you and your AP team need to ask.

For every company, the priority is to have a system that’s easy to learn, use and maintain. Finding the correct software that fits well with the nature of the business that it’s going to be used for is important as well.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Automation

The optical character recognition technology is used to pull all data that can be found on physical documents such as paper. In simpler terms, it can be called an intelligent scanner. It’s usually integrated with most AP software solutions since most companies that make the jump for the first time want a way to transfer all their old data from paper to digital.

Important Questions To Ask:

1. Can the OCR software be able to process all emails, faxes and other electronic documents without the need for user input?
2. Is the OCR software limited to the header and footer data of invoice or can it identify line item as well?
3. Does the OCR software come bundled with an AI that learns from sample data or will it rely on templates?

It’s important for the AP team and the company as a whole to know how much the OCR depends on manual input. If too many steps require input from an employee, the solution will feel less like an automation. Instead, it’ll feel like the usual data input but on computers instead of using pen and paper.

Overall Workflow and Technology Compatibility

It’s easy to think that the effort stops once everything is put into motion. However, it’s quite the opposite. Making sure that everything from the old system seamlessly works with the new software could be a time consuming and tedious process for the AP team. There could be data loss if there’s one small mistake done.

Important Questions To Ask:

1. Once implemented, will the workflow system from the automated accounts payable solutions require modification to match the process of my company or will the company have to adapt to the software?
2. Will there be a way to implement the solution with little to no downtime in the soon to be former database?
3. Will the software support the equipment that we’re already being provided by several vendors?

Ensuring the support by the new software for the old equipment will lessen the costs of the overall implementation of the software. For example, if there are company scanners that are programmed to work with certain software that were released during the time it was being manufactured, a newer software may be able to provide backwards compatibility.
Automated accounts payable solutions optimize your operations so you can save money and earn more money in the long run. Let Nexus Systems help you achieve that.