AP automation (or accounts payable automation) is automating and streamlining the management of companies’ payment cycles, allowing them to save time, money, and resources. The interest in AP automation has grown exponentially over the years.
A research company estimates that AP automation could help companies:1
- Lower per invoice costs by 80%
- Decrease invoices’ DSO (daily sales outstanding) by 50%
- Quicken the invoice process by 75%
AP Automation case studies
To illustrate the benefits of AP automation, we gathered 20 case studies that will showcase various use cases, business functions, and benefits for companies:
| Customer | Country | Industry | Business Function | Vendor | Solution | Use case | Benefits | Benefits Details | Short Summary | Partner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Angel Trains | UK | Railway | Accounting | ARCivate | Mi Invoices | - Document management | - Reduced human errors | - Resolved issues with VAT invoices | The processing of supplier invoices are automated. | Claremont |
Ascend Properties | UK | Property Management | Accounting | Nanonets | Invoice OCR | - AP automation | - Reduced operational costs | - Saved processing costs by 80% | - Used for training the AI to extract required information from invoices, checking to make sure all fields are accurately supplied and meet expectations. | NA |
Blue Star | India | Manufacturing | Accounting | Datamatics | TruBot | AP automation | - Saved time | - Improved invoice processing time by 33% | Used for improving efficiency of AP operations. | NA |
Capita | UK | BPO Services | Accounting | Kofax | Kofax ReadSoft Invoices | - Document management | - Reduced operational costs | - Redcuced costs per-invoice by almost 80% | Used AP automation to classify, sort and distribute incoming documents. | NA |
Colas | France | Civil Engineering | Accounting | Itesoft | FreeMind for Invoices | AP automation | - Saved time | - Enhanced visibility of the AP process | Used for total automation of manual process. | NA |
Cypress Creek | US | Renewable Energy Manufacturing | Accounting | Rillion | Invoice Capture, Invoice | AP automation | - Saved time | - Improved accuracy rate of vendor invoices by 98% | Used for invoice data capture automated | NA |
Domino Printing | UK | Manufacturing | Accounting | ARCivate | Mi Invoices | - Document management | - Saved time | - Improved document capture and OCR functuality | Used AP automation to manage their financial reporting and budgetging. | NA |
KEW Electrical | UK | Electrical Distribution | Accounting | Canon | Canon P2P | AP automation | - Reduced operational costs | - Enhanced control over cashflow and spending | AP automation for increased invoice visibility, compliance and higher productivity. | NA |
Land Securities Group (Landsec) | UK | Real Estate | Accounting | Rossum | Rossum AI | - AP automation | - Saved time | - Saved up to 92% time on manual data capture and validation | - Used for connecting Landsec's workflow and ICE, a proprietary app, to the AI engine and validation screen. | NA |
Lidl | Germany | Retail | Accounting | Itesoft | Itesoft Streamline for Invoices | AP automation | - Enhanced security | - Over 70% of invoices processed without human intervention | Used for automated data reading and control | NA |
Mitsubishi Electric | Japan | Electronics | Accounting | Itesoft | W4 | FreeMind for Invoices | AP automation | - Reduced operational costs | - Increased speed of coding and approval | Used for invoice automation with seamless SAP integration. | NA |
Molson Coors | Canada | Retail/ CPG | Accounting | Rossum | Rossum IDP | - AP automation | - Saved time | - 76% saved time per document | - Blue Prism robots directs invoices to Rossum | Blue Prism & EY |
Network Rail | UK | Rail infrastructure and asset management | Accounting | Itesoft | SWIM (scanning, workflow, invoice | Finance Automation | - Reduced operational costs | - Reduced processing costs by 60% | Used for a more integrated and automated approach to finance | NA |
Oxford Health NHS Foundation | UK | Healthcare | Accounting | Itesoft | Itesoft Streamline for Invoices | AP automation | - Increased productivty | - Reduced costs while doubling invoice volumes | Used for invoice automation. | NA |
Schroders | UK | Investment Management | Accounting | ARCivate | Mi Invoices | - Document management | - Reduced operational costs | - Cost savings by more than a 300% | Used for invoice management and improving data extraction | NA |
Tacala | US | Franchising | Accounting | Rillion | Invoice Processing, Contracts (Recurring Invoices) and Documents | AP automation | - Enhanced approval workflow | - Improved invoice validation rate by 98% | AP automation for easier management of bills and other recurring services of various locations | NA |
Tapi | New Zealand | Property Management | Accounting | Nanonets | Invoice OCR | - AP automation | - Reduced operational costs | - Costs are reduced to down 70% | - Used to extract data from invoices, verify to see if it matched expectations. | NA |
The Master Trust Bank of Japan (MTBJ) | Japan | Finance | Accounting | Rossum | Machine learning OCR | - Document management | - Reduced workload | - The manual workload is reduced by 75%. | - Rossum trained an extraction model to automate account statement processing with its specialized AI engine | NA |
TransMontaigne | US | Energy Transportation | Accounting | Kofax | Kofax ReadSoft Invoices | AP automation | - Reduced operational costs | - Reduced average cost of transaction by almost 80% | Used AP automation for improving invoice visibility, cutting invoice processing times and reducing costs. | NA |
What are the benefits of AP Automation?
Increased Efficiency of Financial Operations:
AP automation increases speed and accuracy in invoice processing. This allows companies to execute their financial operations, such as invoice validation or payment release, with minimal human involvement and errors, often associated with manual entries and paper-based processes.
Faster Payments & Improved Cash Flow:
Companies can get a clear picture of their cash flows when they automate invoice payments. That’s because they can keep track of when their payments are due. Also, because automated payments make payments on time, companies can keep up with their contractual obligations and get discounts for paying early.
Scalability & Reduced Processing Time:
Automating the invoice process reduces each invoice’s processing time and enables processing scalability. This saves businesses valuable resources that can be spent better elsewhere, such as accountants trying to identify fraudulent invoices or duplicate payments, and allows them to expand their operations without worrying about increasing the size of the AP teams.
Improved Accuracy:
Automation minimizes manual data entry errors in paper-based and manual processing. This increases the accuracy of financial operations. In addition, all transactions can be securely stored and monitored 24/7 in one central location, with minimal intervention . This ensures that all transactions are managed correctly, with no discrepancies or surprises in the financial close season.
Enhanced Visibility & Reporting Capabilities:
Invoice automation enhances visibility into an organization’s financial operations through visible dashboards, real-time internal controls and notifications, and periodic reports and analytics. This provides businesses with a real-time view of their accounts payable process, enabling them to quickly adjust strategies if needed.
Supplier Cost Savings:
The most significant benefit of automating accounts payable processes is cost savings. AP automation increases your business’ operational efficiency and financial stability with:
- Improved accuracy through reduced errors such as duplicate payments
- Improved vendor relations due to faster payments
- Improved visibility resulting in better allocation decisions
AP automation tools
For a detailed comparison of these AP automation tools, check out our vendor selection guide.
Further reading:
- Dynamics 365 in Accounts Payable Automation: In-Depth Review
- NetSuite Accounts Payable (AP) Automation
- Blackbaud Accounts Payable (AP) Automation: In-Depth Review
- Sage Accounts Payable (AP) Automation
- 7 Vic.AI Alternatives to Automate Accounting
- Top 10 ReadSoft Alternatives / Competitors
- Top 10 Kofax Alternatives/Competitors
- 14 Rossum AI Competitors/Alternatives
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