I Examined G2’s 7 Greatest Accounts Payable Automation Software program

Are you able to imagine that for some time, I used to be truly in company procurement, coping with meals components? And if there’s one factor I bear in mind clearly, it’s how painful the accounts payable course of was. Invoices piled up, approvals received misplaced in electronic mail chains, and last-minute discrepancies turned easy funds into full-blown crises.

That have gave me an enormous appreciation for finance groups that cope with this at scale. Even as we speak, many are caught with handbook bill processing, gradual approvals, and cost errors, points that the perfect accounts payable automation software program might simply clear up.

Pondering again to these days, I needed to see simply how a lot AP automation has advanced. So, I examined over 25 instruments to search out those that really simplify bill processing, automate approvals, and enhance money circulate visibility. In case your staff is bored with chasing approvals and fixing errors, these handpicked seven instruments are price contemplating.

7 greatest AP automation software program I like to recommend

Again after I labored in procurement, I spent method an excessive amount of time coping with gradual approvals, lacking buy orders, and cost delays. Belief me, I do know the struggles!

The perfect accounts payable automation software program doesn’t simply make issues sooner. It eliminates inefficiencies, reduces errors, and retains your complete AP course of operating easily. However not each instrument will get it proper. Some make life simpler, whereas others create as many complications as they clear up.

I needed to chop by the noise and discover out which of them truly assist with bill processing and approvals and provides finance groups higher management over funds. Right here’s how I went about it.

What I prioritized when testing AP automation instruments

I thought of the next components when evaluating the perfect accounts payable automation software program.

• Bill processing and information seize: Manually coming into bill particulars wastes time and is susceptible to errors. I appeared for platforms that routinely seize information from invoices utilizing AI and optical character recognition (OCR). The perfect AP automation instruments go additional by matching invoices to buy orders and receipts, stopping duplicate funds, and decreasing handbook reconciliation.
• Approval workflows that scale back bottlenecks: One of many greatest complaints I’ve seen from finance groups is how lengthy it takes to approve invoices. To hurry up the method, I centered on software program that lets customers customise approval workflows, arrange automated routing, and set off real-time notifications.
• Seamless integrations with different enterprise instruments: AP automation software program isn’t useful if it doesn’t sync with current accounting and enterprise useful resource planning methods. I prioritized instruments that combine easily with widespread ERPs and different main monetary platforms, decreasing the necessity for handbook information entry and making certain up-to-date monetary information.
• Fraud detection and compliance controls: Monetary fraud and compliance violations are main dangers in accounts payable. I checked whether or not every platform had built-in fraud detection, automated duplicate bill flagging, audit trails, and compliance monitoring.
• Automated vendor funds: AP groups cope with a number of distributors, currencies, and cost strategies. I appeared for software program that helps ACH transfers, wire funds, digital playing cards, and worldwide funds whereas offering options like early cost reductions and automated reconciliation.
• Actual-time reporting and money circulate visibility: Finance groups want clear, real-time insights into excellent invoices, cost schedules, and total money circulate. I centered on platforms that provide customizable dashboards, spend analytics, and predictive reporting so companies can keep forward of their monetary obligations.
• Person expertise and buyer help: I worth environment friendly, quick, and user-friendly software program. I assessed every platform’s intuitiveness and reviewed the standard of buyer help, making certain finance groups might obtain immediate help when points come up.

The listing under incorporates real consumer opinions from the accounts payable automation software program web page. To be included on this class, an answer should:

• Ship customizable workflows to streamline repetitive accounts payable duties equivalent to information entry
• Embody doc seize and imaging options to transform paper invoices into digital paperwork
• Course of massive volumes of provider paperwork equivalent to invoices or credit score memos
• Present a single repository for customers to look and retrieve AP paperwork
• Match provider invoices with corresponding buy orders to precisely observe the quantities owed
• Provide approval processes for funds, debits, or any modifications to AP transactions
• Adjust to accounting requirements and laws for AP processing
• Combine with accounting software program, ERP, or superior monetary methods equivalent to company efficiency administration (CPM)

*This information was pulled from G2 in 2025. Some opinions could have been edited for readability.

BILL AP/AR brings invoicing, approvals, and vendor funds into one simplified area for finance groups seeking to ditch handbook spreadsheet work and follow-ups.

Certainly one of BILL’s greatest strengths is its user-friendliness. The structure is clear, and actions like importing invoices, including distributors, or scheduling funds take just some clicks. Even I, with restricted AP expertise, was capable of get snug shortly. That ease of use can assist shave hours off the month-to-month workflow and remove confusion.

Vendor administration additionally felt smoother than I anticipated. BILL shops detailed vendor profiles and allows you to automate cost reminders. I might maintain observe of cost historical past, tax paperwork, and even communication logs in a single place. The method makes vendor relationships extra clear and fewer reactive.

The approval workflow choices are one other main win. You’ll be able to assign customized roles, route approvals throughout departments, and observe each resolution with full visibility. It’s an ideal match for groups that need inside controls with out pointless bottlenecks. I appreciated how straightforward it was to arrange multi-step approvals.

Cost processing velocity is one space that might be higher. I seen the transfers can take a number of days, which isn’t superb when a vendor wants a fast turnaround. That delay provides a little bit friction to an in any other case clean course of.

Primarily based on my analysis and talking to my colleagues in operations, I additionally discovered that buyer help didn’t all the time come by when wanted. Some questions took days to reply, and stay chat wasn’t persistently obtainable. Whereas there’s an honest assist heart, I discovered myself counting on trial and error greater than I’d like. Fairly just a few G2 customers additionally resonate with this sentiment.

The sync with different accounting instruments largely works; there have been just a few bumps early on. I bumped into duplicate transactions and a few lacking entries when syncing payments. It took additional time to reconcile these points manually. With common checks, it is manageable, however I wouldn’t name the combination 100% dependable out of the field.

What I dislike about BILL AP/AR:

• Funds don’t undergo immediately, so I needed to think about a delay when scheduling vendor payouts. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it surely does require extra ahead planning.
• There have been just a few hiccups in information syncing, and I spent a while double-checking entries. I additionally seen occasional mismatches that took additional time to wash up.

What G2 customers dislike about BILL AP/AR:

“Downloading studies from invoice.com is a really tedious course of. There are numerous sycnc errors whereas syncing with different software program like Sage Intact and many others.”

– BILL AP/AR Evaluation, Manoj B.

Sage Intacct is a cloud-based monetary administration resolution for rising companies and organizations with complicated accounting wants. It covers core modules like common ledger, accounts payable and receivable, reporting, and multi-entity consolidation.

I appreciated how user-friendly the core navigation was. The structure is clear, menus are logically grouped, and customary actions are straightforward to search out. I didn’t must depend on guesswork to find options or settings. As soon as I received the hold of the workflow, duties like bill approvals and journal entries flowed shortly.

The reporting engine is certainly one of Sage Intacct’s standout options. I might slice information by division, location, or challenge and customise studies with filters and dimensions. It gave me the pliability to see financials from a number of angles, which is one thing many different methods wrestle with. For data-driven groups, it is a enormous win.

I used to be additionally impressed by how simply Sage Intacct dealt with a number of entities. Managing inter-company transactions, consolidations, and entity-specific permissions was simple. It made overseeing parent-child relationships a lot simpler and rolling every little thing into unified studies when wanted.

That mentioned, not every little thing got here simply—particularly the superior options. It took time (and a few exterior assist) to learn to absolutely use dimensions, automate workflows, or optimize reporting layouts. This can be a little bit of a ramp-up for groups and not using a devoted administrator.

There have been additionally just a few persistent bugs that interrupted sure workflows. Mission monitoring didn’t all the time behave as anticipated, and my colleagues who’ve labored with Sage reported minor glitches when switching between entities. These weren’t dealbreakers, however they did require follow-up.

The reporting instruments, whereas highly effective, might’ve been extra intuitive. A few of the setup choices felt buried, and I needed to experiment fairly a bit to get studies to look the way in which I needed. As soon as issues have been configured, they labored effectively, however the path to get there wasn’t all the time clean.

What I dislike about Sage Intacct:

• It took some time to wrap my head round extra superior options, and I wanted some exterior assist to get probably the most from it.
• Sure modules generally really feel barely unstable, particularly when juggling entities.

What G2 customers dislike about Sage Intacct:

“I dislike how lengthy it initially takes to get to the wanted pages. Having to open a number of tabs makes looking out simpler and cuts down on the period of time I spend ready for the web page to load. It might be simpler for me if every little thing I wanted to do with one bill might be carried out from the identical web page. I steadily must refund invoices, and this cannot be carried out from Intacct. I’ve to go to Intacct to search out the knowledge and take it to Braintree (each EFT and CC variations). There’s a couple of week’s ready interval for every little thing to course of and sync; then I’ve to make use of Intacct to verse on one web page and reprocess on one other. It is not very straightforward to be taught at first, both. Since there are such a lot of back-and-forth steps, a number of handbook fixes, and one factor at a time, it takes a number of persistence and asking questions. The phrases are extra geared in direction of accountants and never a billing help staff”

– Sage Intacct Evaluation, Amber J.

Stampli simplifies bill administration and approvals and works alongside your current accounting system to assist route invoices sooner and scale back handbook information entry. The instrument is very well-liked amongst finance groups that want extra visibility and collaboration of their AP workflows.

Bill processing in Stampli is clean and quick. I used to be capable of add, route, and observe invoices with minimal effort, and the system does an ideal job of auto-filling key fields. I appreciated how approvers have been looped in routinely, which sped up turnaround time. Even with excessive volumes, every little thing feels straightforward to handle.

Buyer help stood out in a great way. Anytime I had questions, whether or not it was setup-related or about particular workflows, I received useful responses shortly. I by no means felt caught ready for a repair, which gave me extra confidence within the instrument total. The help staff clearly is aware of the platform in and out.

The interface is easy, fashionable, and straightforward to be taught. I didn’t want a lot coaching to get began. The navigation is intuitive, and customary duties are only a click on or two away. For a finance instrument, it’s refreshingly simple.

One limitation I bumped into was round funds. Stampli doesn’t deal with all cost eventualities, and relying in your business, there could also be restrictions. This meant I nonetheless needed to depend on different methods for the ultimate cost step, which broke the circulate a bit. 

Exporting processed invoices got here with its personal set of challenges. As soon as one thing is exported or marked full, enhancing turns into tough. That rigidity led to some do-overs after I caught small errors too late. A bit extra flexibility right here would go a good distance.

What I dislike about Stampli:

• Funds aren’t absolutely supported for each business. I seen that this disconnect provides a bit of additional coordination when closing the loop on vendor payouts.
• As soon as invoices are exported, making corrections isn’t straightforward, which induced me just a few duplicate efforts.

What G2 customers dislike about Stampli:

“There are some options that my staff is ready for Stampli to implement, and a few issues aren’t as clean as I might like. For instance, I might like to see cost info immediately on the bill web page or, on the very least, have a hyperlink from the bill web page to the cost web page, just like how invoice.com does it. This might make issues a lot smoother when checking on the standing of invoices and offering remittance info for distributors. Moreover, ACH funds take longer than different methods like invoice.com. A brand new expedited cost possibility has been launched just lately, but it surely prices cash and has a cap on the cost quantities allowed to be expedited. Would like to see sooner funds total and finally no cap on expedited funds.”

– Stampli Evaluation, Laura B.

Airbase is a spend administration platform that mixes expense monitoring, approvals, reimbursements, and digital playing cards into one centralized system. It’s designed to assist finance groups achieve extra management over firm spending whereas enhancing visibility throughout departments.

Airbase’s spend administration options gave me extra real-time management than I anticipated. The digital playing cards make assigning budgets and monitoring utilization straightforward and scale back last-minute surprises throughout reconciliations. I additionally appreciated how spending limits and insurance policies might be set upfront, serving to forestall overspending earlier than it occurs.

The cell app provides a number of flexibility. I might add receipts, submit reimbursements, and approve bills whereas on the go. It got here in useful throughout journey, and the short picture add function meant I didn’t have to avoid wasting piles of paper receipts. It made holding issues updated really feel much less like a chore.

General, the interface is clear and intuitive. The structure makes it straightforward to search out key options while not having a walkthrough, and most actions, like creating a brand new request or submitting a report, take just some clicks. It looks like a platform constructed to take away friction from on a regular basis duties.

That mentioned, the cell app expertise wasn’t all the time constant. Often, receipt uploads stalled or didn’t undergo the primary time. I double-checked submissions far more than I might like when counting on cell.

There have been additionally some hiccups with how receipts have been matched to transactions. In just a few circumstances, the auto-matching didn’t work, and I needed to re-attach recordsdata manually. It wasn’t tough to repair, however I might see it slowing issues down for customers dealing with massive volumes of bills.

The approval course of labored effectively total however lacked some flexibility in additional complicated workflows. If a request wanted rerouting or needed to undergo a number of layers, it wasn’t all the time clear the best way to regulate the circulate. It received the job carried out, but it surely felt a bit inflexible in edge circumstances.

What I dislike about Airbase:

• The cell app generally struggles with receipt uploads, so throughout the testing part, I received into the behavior of double-checking every little thing.
• Approval routing normally works effectively, however making adjustments mid-flow takes just a few extra steps than I anticipated.

What G2 customers dislike about Airbase:

“Whereas Airbase is unbelievable, there are a few minor issues I might wish to see improved. Often, the automated categorization of bills is not excellent, and I’ve to manually regulate it. It is not an enormous deal, however it might be even higher if the AI was a bit extra correct. Additionally, whereas the cell app is nice, I’ve seen that generally it may be a little bit gradual to load, particularly when I’ve a number of receipts to add. These are simply minor inconveniences, although, they usually definitely do not outweigh the numerous advantages of utilizing Airbase.”

– Airbase Evaluation, Kyle C.

Whereas SAP Concur is greatest recognized for expense and journey administration, it additionally performs an essential function in automating components of the accounts payable course of—particularly in the case of worker reimbursements and non-PO spending. For corporations with excessive volumes of journey bills or decentralized spending, Concur helps construction approval workflows and retains reimbursement cycles shifting. It’s not your typical AP resolution however fills a essential hole in broader spend management.

The cell app is certainly one of Concur’s most useful options. I might snap an image of a receipt, assign it to an expense, and submit it while not having to open my laptop computer. It turns out to be useful throughout work journeys when it’s good to maintain issues shifting. For groups on the go, the app actually helps scale back delays in reimbursement.

Expense administration feels structured and scalable. I might get away classes, observe spending by division, and fasten documentation with just some clicks. The automated reminders helped me keep away from lacking receipts or leaving studies in draft. It may well make month-to-month closeouts far much less chaotic.

The approval workflow was one other robust level. Requests transfer easily by the chain, and notifications make it straightforward for managers to evaluation and log off. I appreciated that you could possibly customise roles and arrange multi-layer approvals. That flexibility is a plus for finance groups making an attempt to take care of management.

That mentioned, the cell expertise wasn’t all the time flawless. Often, receipts wouldn’t sync with the appropriate expense, or I needed to re-upload photographs that didn’t course of correctly. It wasn’t frequent, however sufficient to make me double-check submissions.

The desktop interface might use a refresh. Some menus really feel buried, and I needed to click on round to search out historic studies or view pending duties. It is advantageous as soon as the place issues stay, however the preliminary studying curve is steeper than anticipated.

There have been additionally moments when the system felt gradual or unresponsive, particularly when submitting studies with many attachments. Nothing crashed, however load occasions added up when managing a number of entries. It’s not a dealbreaker, simply one thing that requires persistence.

What I dislike about SAP Concur:

• Some options within the cell app really feel inconsistent, particularly when receipts don’t connect correctly the primary time.
• The interface takes some getting used to, and I discovered myself clicking round greater than I anticipated early on.

What G2 customers dislike about SAP Concur:

“Person interface! It’s actually dangerous. Issues are too descriptive, nothing icon-based. If the GUI is made extra graphical, the dashboard would look cool and would keep away from us to maintain looking for issues, and it helps us to discover issues simply relatively than somebody educating us to navigate.”

– SAP Concur Evaluation, Adarsh S.

Ramp automates expense workflows for companies, enhancing management over spending. Whereas it isn’t a complete accounts payable system, Ramp manages a good portion of the each day bills that finance groups oversee.

Ramp’s card administration system is without doubt one of the best I’ve tried. With just some clicks, I might difficulty digital playing cards immediately, set spending limits, and assign playing cards to departments or tasks. It helps present real-time visibility and stop unauthorized purchases, making managing recurring or one-off bills a lot simpler.

Receipt administration can also be a main energy. I can textual content or electronic mail receipts, and Ramp auto-matches them to the proper transaction. This straightforward course of reduces the same old follow-up emails and retains groups forward throughout the month-to-month shut.

I used to be impressed by how environment friendly the entire platform felt. From approvals to categorization to syncing with accounting instruments, every little thing moved shortly and with out friction.

The one actual limitation I seen was worldwide utilization. Ramp works nice for U.S.-based groups, however utilizing playing cards overseas or with worldwide distributors launched just a few hiccups. It’s one thing international groups will wish to plan round in the event that they’re hoping for seamless protection.

Exporting information for accounting was generally trickier. Whereas many of the studies have been obtainable, formatting them for extra complicated use circumstances took additional effort. I sometimes needed to regulate columns or manually arrange fields earlier than importing elsewhere.

What I dislike about Ramp:

• I seen that Ramp doesn’t provide a lot help for worldwide funds or utilization, so some spending needs to be dealt with individually.
• Customizing exports for particular accounting wants wasn’t all the time intuitive, and I spent additional time cleansing up studies.

What G2 customers dislike about Ramp:

“Downsides for me will not be having the ability to pay worldwide wires in international transactions, and a few higher dashboards for spend over time would assist.”

– Ramp Evaluation, Gabriel F.

Tipalti is a worldwide payables automation platform that handles every little thing from bill consumption and approvals to vendor onboarding and cross-border funds. The platform integrates with widespread ERPs and in addition consists of built-in fraud prevention.

Tipalti actually shines within the bill processing workflow. It routinely routes approvals, flags duplicate invoices, and helps standardize formatting throughout distributors. I can simply monitor progress at every step, which helps keep away from bottlenecks in a while. The time saved right here is straight away noticeable.

Vendor onboarding is quick and structured. I discovered it straightforward to gather tax varieties, banking particulars, and compliance paperwork multi function portal, so distributors don’t must electronic mail info backwards and forwards. As soon as they’re within the system, every little thing runs extra easily. It reduces handbook errors and saves a number of follow-up time.

Buyer help was additionally persistently useful. Whether or not it was strolling by an integration difficulty or answering particular reporting questions, the Tipalti help staff felt accessible and responsive. I did not have to attend lengthy for a reply, which made the educational curve simpler to handle.

That mentioned, the reporting instruments are practical however restricted. I discovered it tough to create customized studies or export information in exactly the specified format. It labored effectively for primary overviews, however deeper evaluation usually required handbook cleanup in spreadsheets.

Search performance may be improved. When in search of particular funds or vendor information, the outcomes weren’t all the time intuitive or full. It slowed me down when answering fast inside questions or pulling up previous actions.

What I dislike about Tipalti:

• I usually needed to export uncooked information and reformat it manually to get the breakdowns I wanted for reporting.
• Search outcomes weren’t all the time related, so I usually needed to dig round to search out the document I wanted.

What G2 customers dislike about Tipalti:

“There are some extra complicated payout guidelines I might like to include into our payout routine, but it surely’s not but doable. In an ideal world, Tipalti might do pay-ins and payouts, so I would not want one other PSP for this, however perhaps sooner or later.”

– Tipalti Evaluation, Kristi H.

Trying to find an invoicing instrument as an alternative? Take a look at this listing of the 8 greatest free invoicing software program for 2025, ranked and reviewed by my colleague.