Four Steps to Choosing Accounts Payable Software
Stephanie Dula 2 Dec 2015I recently sat down with our very own research manager, Jimmy LeFever, to discuss how companies can simplify what can often be a lengthy, convoluted process: choosing Accounts Payable software. Since Jimmy and his team spend countless hours each year observing solution demos and working directly with organizations seeking a better, faster way to automate AP processes, he is in a unique position to define clear best practices that should be implemented. Here is a video summary (as well as a partial transcript) of his four steps to choosing accounts payable software. Hope you enjoy!
Choosing a software solution is a big deal. These solutions are often hundreds of thousands of dollars for large organizations, so you don’t want to make a mistake. We think of it in four steps:
Step 1: Determine a current state analysis. Where is your organization now? What are your pains? One way to do that is to determine your cost per invoice. We offer a free cost per invoice calculator on our website, so that’s a good tool to utilize.
Step 2: Determine those pain points and find out how to solve them. Do you want to have fewer supplier inquiries? Do you want to have greater percentages of invoices that are matched to POs? Maybe you want to implement electronic invoicing so there are less exceptions.
Step 3: Once you figure out what you want to achieve, then it’s easy enough to shortlist software providers. It often starts with googling, ‘Accounts Payable Software’ or ‘Accounts Payable Solutions’ but that’s going to be daunting. We count over 130 software providers, just in Accounts Payable alone. One tool that we offer at PayStream Advisors is our software directory, as well as our research vault. All of our reports have at least 2-3 vendors profiled.
Step 4: Finally, after you’ve shortlisted the providers, you need to invite some of them to the table. Let them pitch to you, let them analyze your vendor master, or analyze your spend file if it’s a payment solution. One tool that we’ve created is the PayStream Navigator. Again, it’s free. So far we have released the Invoice Automation Navigator and the Travel & Expense Navigator (will be published next week,) and upcoming we’ll have an eProcurement Navigator. So the fourth and final step will be all about selecting, scoring, administering an RFP, bringing in third parties, whether analysts, experts, or peers.
