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Integrating Payments With BPA Software in 2024
Some of the biggest trends in accounts payable this year involve how organizations handle payments. Many see 2024 as a year for integrating payments, accounts payable (AP), and procurement to create a seamless procure-to-pay cycle. For others, this is also the year to switch to faster, electronic forms of payment like ACH transfers or company cards.
How about your organization? If your company hasn’t hopped on these payment trends already, there’s no time like the present. Keeping up with payment trends is a good way to help your company stay up to date with the evolving digital business landscape.
Business process automation (BPA) software can help streamline, integrate, and simplify procure-to-pay quickly and easily. When you use software automation to update your company’s procure-to-pay system, you can integrate payments into the purchasing and accounting system and take advantage of several perks as well.
Why Update Procure-to-Pay?
If your company already digitized accounts payable or procurement, as many businesses have, then you’ve likely seen some dramatic improvements compared to paper-based processing. But not all digitization, or even automation software, is created equal. To get all the potential benefits that come with digitizing AP and purchasing, you need top-quality BPA software.
The best process automation software streamlines purchasing and accounts payable workflows, speeds up processing, automates compliance, and saves your company money. A really good system will include software integration features that make the AP software, procurement software, and your organization’s ERP system work together seamlessly. Ideally, it’ll also include robust tools for integrating payments.
If your existing AP or procurement systems don’t provide these features, then it’s time to update. It’s well worth it to invest in integrated procure-to-pay software. Even with just updating accounts payable to a system like we provide at NextProcess, most organizations reach the break-even point in less than a year and continue to reap cost-saving benefits after that. The average organization saves $10-15 per invoice after automation (compared to a manual process). You’ll also be in a better position to negotiate early payment discounts and better pricing.
What Are the Benefits of Integrated Software?
There are a huge number of software systems on the market for automating accounts payable or purchasing. However, not all of them allow for seamless integration between the software modules. This is one of the ways that NextProcess stands out. We designed our software modules to work seamlessly together and with your existing ERP system.
When you automate procurement, accounts payable, and payments with NextProcess, you never need to worry about software conflicts between the systems. It integrates so smoothly that you can click on an invoice when using the accounts payable system and immediately see a link to open the purchase order in the procurement system.
An integrated software solution also makes it easier to catch errors, combat fraud, manage budgets, and collect robust data. And if you want to go beyond automating just procure-to-pay, NextProcess offers the only suite of software with modules to create a true end-to-end solution that covers budgeting, project management, purchasing, accounts payable, and payments.
Where Do Payments Solutions Factor In?
Not every AP automation solution includes a feature for managing payments. NextProcess gives you the option of managing payments on your own or utilizing our Payments-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution. With PaaS, your company maintains control over payments, but you “outsource” the hassle and details of managing different types of payments to automation software.
Payments software makes it easy for your company to manage multiple types of payments. In many cases, companies are shifting toward electronic payments. These types of payments are fast and offer digital security options to help safeguard money. However, your suppliers might not all accept electronic payments, or they might have different requirements. The software makes it easy to pay some suppliers with ACH transfers, some with credit cards, and others with paper checks. It’s very flexible to meet your needs.
Are There Perks to Faster Payments?
As you integrate the procure-to-pay software and improve your payment system, it might lead to some unexpected perks. For example, a payment system like NextProcess’s makes it easy to use company cards to make payments. If you’re using a card with cash-back incentives, this can help improve cash flow and save money.
Faster and more flexible payments also benefit your company if you’re working to negotiate payment terms with suppliers. By being able to pay in the way that suppliers prefer and ensuring you’ll always pay on time, your company may be able to negotiate for perks like early payment discounts. At the very least, you can be sure you won’t get hit with late fees because the system automatically keeps track of payment deadlines.
How Hard is Implementing Procure-to-Pay Automation?
How challenging it is to implement procure-to-pay automation depends on exactly how you do it. On the one hand, having your IT department set up an in-house system would be expensive and challenging. But on the other hand, getting BPA software from a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company is very simple.
With SaaS automation, the software supplier works closely with your company to ensure that implementation goes smoothly. There’s nothing to install on your company computers and you don’t need to do any technology upgrades. All employees need to access the software is an internet-enabled device. During implementation, we’ll integrate our software with your existing system (including any ERP you’re using) and walk you through customizing the software solution to fit your company’s exact needs.
If you’d like to learn more, contact NextProcess today. We can set up a free software demo so you can see how our accounts payable, purchasing, and payments automation software solutions work. We’ll also be happy to answer any questions you have.
