Accounts payable automation software helps businesses digitize and streamline invoice capture, approvals, and payments. The best solutions reduce errors, cut processing costs, and improve cash flow visibility. Below are the top 10 AP automation platforms in 2025, including Serrala, Tipalti, and Coupa, with key features and ideal use cases.
Companies have traditionally viewed finance operation functions like accounts payable as yet another set of back-office processes. But in a digitally transformed world where more and more companies are leveraging integrated data to derive strategic insights from every part of their finance function, we need to start thinking differently.
With the right automation software, accounts payable transforms from an invoice processing workhorse into a key contributor to operational efficiency and strategic decision making. Choosing the right software partner means your organization benefits from more timely payments, faster approvals, fewer errors, instantly-accessible insight, and stronger global cash flow control, supplier relationships, and forecasting accuracy.
But choosing the right AP automation software is like choosing any enterprise software: not easy. You can’t just pick something that’ll alleviate the challenges you’re facing now. It needs to scale with you, integrate and cooperate with your ERP platform and other systems of record, take some of the maintenance burden off your IT teams, and comply with all the regulations in the markets you do business in.
It’s a big investment. To help you make it the right way, we’ve created this guide. In it, you’ll find a list of the top 10 players in the space as of 2025, along with a few pointers on making the pick that’s right for you.
9 signs you need to automate accounts payable
- Your teams have too much work to do meaningful work
Excess manual workloads are one of the first signs your AP teams can benefit from automation. Businesses currently lose an average of 44 hours per week to rote manual tasks in finance. If you’re processing tens or hundreds of thousands of supplier invoices in the year, manually handling them won’t scale. Automation aside, your only options are to increase headcount or to put even more pressure on the people you’ve already got.
- Your processes are outdated, not standardized, or highly manual
This needn’t mean you’re still processing paper invoices through the mail: even if your suppliers are emailing you PDFs, your teams will lose minutes or hours re-entering data, switching between systems, and conducting basic security checks to guarantee invoices are legitimate. In these circumstances, AP automation software is a must.
- Error rates in approvals and payments are high or increasing
59% of AP workers make several errors every month. Most of these are driven by high workloads and dysfunctional processes. Switching to rules-based automated AP software platforms significantly reduces error rates and speeds up processing and approval times.
- You can’t enforce your invoice approval policies
Your organization likely has an official set of steps through which all invoice approvals should travel before a vendor gets paid. However, without some kind of automated governance, it becomes almost impossible to guarantee adherence to these systems as your organization grows and evolves. This not only leads to rogue approvals, but exposes your organization to significant risk from fraudsters.
- You can’t enforce regulatory compliance—and it’s slowing your expansion
Managing tax records and processes is difficult enough in one market. But with more organizations operating internationally and increasingly strict regulations and frameworks like e-invoicing, verification of payee, and continuous digital reporting coming into force, a lack of accounts payable automation can actually stop your business from growing and embracing opportunities. And expose you to significant criminal and civil penalties.
- Legacy systems are disrupting your finance operations
Most organizations buy enterprise software on an ad hoc basis to solve specific challenges. Unfortunately, this creates IT landscapes where multiple “best-of-breed” solutions operate without any kind of data integration. Passing information between systems like your ERP platform, your accounting software, and your procurement and vendor management systems either has to be done manually or requires complex customizations. The right AP automation software can easily solve these challenges and ensure smoother, faster workflows.
- Poor visibility leads to poor cash flow control
An AP department that relies on manual processes and disconnected systems is an AP department that isn’t in full control of the payments it’s authorizing. Especially if you’re dealing with multiple bank accounts, departments, and business entities with their own reporting protocols. This means compiling reports and deriving insights on cash flow performance becomes a protracted and tedious affair—and accurate forecasting, strategic payment approaches, and decision making become a real challenge. Many companies find that AP automation software not only makes navigating their available working capital simpler, but also reduces time needed for routine events like month-end close from weeks to just a few hours.
- Vendor queries are on the rise
Poor AP processes mean unhappy vendors. And they mean teams that waste their time responding to vendor queries rather than finding opportunities for strategic improvements. AP automation software ensures your suppliers are never paid late, and that you can take full advantage of any dynamic discounts included in your procurement agreements.
- You’re missing out on opportunities due to poor cash allocation
There’s an art to paying your suppliers. Obviously, late payments mean worse relationships. But paying too early means you might not be putting your limited working capital reserves to best use. Accounts payable automation software helps optimize payment schedules so your organization always has the resources on hand to make strategic investments that drive growth, rather than simply paying the bills and treading water.
What is AP automation software?
AP automation software is exactly what it sounds like: a solution or set of solutions that digitizes and automates some or all of the processes involved in accounts payable workflows. These include invoice capture, invoice processing and approvals, vendor relationship management, payments, and data capture, analysis, and report generation on all of the above.
Deploying accounts payable automation software comes with tangible business benefits like:
- Faster invoice approvals (Serrala’s customers see up to 90% improvements here).
- Straight-through or fully automated processing for frequent suppliers (Serrala’s customers typically see 50% or higher rates of straight-through processing).
- Reduced cost per invoice (Serrala’s customers report 50%-60% reductions).
- Reduced data entry workload through automated data capture from invoices in a variety of formats.
- Improved cash flow and working capital availability through optimized payment schedules.
- Better risk management and security against fraud, illiquidity, and unauthorized payments.
- Greater scalability and interoperability/integration with other systems like ERP platforms and accountancy software.
Not all AP automation software is created equal. Some solutions in the AP space are specialized for niche parts of the workflow. Others, like Serrala’s cloud-based Alevate AP and SAP-embedded FS2 AccountsPayable cover the entire workflow, and also integrate with other systems to seamlessly incorporate other sources like vendor master data, bank account data, and vendor performance and cost history.
The best AP automation software on the market today eliminates 80% or more of the manual labor associated with accounts payable workflows. Solutions achieve this by:
- Automatically capturing data from non-machine-readable invoice formats like paper documents, PDFs, and others.
- Performing automated 2- and 3-way matching with other data sources to verify invoices and their accuracy, along with any prior approval.
- Identifying exceptions and escalating them for review automatically (e.g. when approved limits are exceeded, invoices seem suspicious, or when the system identifies discrepancies between invoice and master data).
- Pushing approvals to channels where key stakeholders are more likely to act immediately (such as Microsoft Teams)
- Acting as a single source of truth that uses clean data sources and generative AI to create bespoke reports on your KPIs on-demand.
Must-have features for AP automation software in 2025
- Flexible, rules-based real-time automation
A worthwhile AP automation solution will significantly reduce your teams’ everyday workloads. Top performing solutions aim to eliminate around 80% of day-to-day tasks.
- Intelligent data capture and approval routing
The most advanced AP automation systems make use of AI to capture structured and unstructured data from invoice formats, approve payments against your organization’s policies where possible, and automatically route for higher approval when needed. Your people only become involved in basic invoice processing workflows when their intervention is specifically required.
- Self-service supplier tools
Vendor portals for onboarding, invoice submission, queries, and dispute handling are an increasingly common feature of the best AP automation platforms. These take further strain off your teams by giving your suppliers the ability to manage their part of the process and overcome obstacles frictionlessly.
- Continuous compliance and always-on security
Cloud-based AP automation solutions make use of their vendor-side architecture to manage the overhead of tax and legal compliance and security on your behalf. Protecting you from legal risk, data breaches, and traditional procurement fraud attacks like invoice and vendor spoofing, spear phishing, and whaling.
- Global visibility and control of all incoming invoices and outgoing payments
The best AP automation solutions don’t just automate the approvals process; they automate reconciliation, matching, spend tracking, and cash management. Helping your organization transition from retroactive period-based reporting to real-time visibility. And making more robust and accurate forecasting, planning, and analysis possible for the entire finance department.
Top 10 AP automation software solutions to consider in 2025
- Serrala Alevate AP
- Airbase
- HighRadius
- Tipalti
- NetSuite AP
- Coupa
- Concur
- Stampli
- BILL
- AvidXchange
1. Serrala Alevate AP
Serrala Alevate AP is a full AP automation solution with integrations for all ERPs. Key features include AI driven document capture and fraud detection, smooth workflows, and smart routing. It is perfect for fast growing companies facing scaling challenges due to manual and fragmented AP processes.
Alevate AP is the ideal choice for CFOs and AP teams in agile enterprises struggling with complex, error-prone invoice processing reliant on:
- Nonstandard and highly manual workflows
- Poor data quality and visibility
- Stringent digitized compliance regimes that demand instant reporting
Serrala Alevate AP completely automates invoice capture, processing, approval, and exception handling. Letting you auto-post over 80% of all outgoing invoices and reducing cost per invoice by more than 50%. And giving your organization the ability to pay suppliers efficiently, prevent fraud, eliminate error, and stay compliant. Advanced workflows like intelligent document processing (IDP) provide a more robust automation layer to invoice capture than older OCR technologies, allowing for greater efficiencies at every stage of the process.
All while achieving 90% faster approvals and eliminating 80% of the manual work that keeps your teams from more important tasks.
It integrates with all major ERP platforms, and makes use of unique extensions like a specialized Microsoft Teams app to further expedite approvals and data visibility for stakeholders at all levels. And incorporates predictive and generative AI in all workflows in order to ensure efficiency at every step, actionable insight into every possible KPI, and accelerated decision making from the office of the CFO to each member of a more empowered and flexible AP team.
2. Airbase by Paylocity
Recently acquired by HCM providers Paylocity, Airbase provides a unified spend management platform that integrates AP, expense management, and corporate cards. A solid solution for mid-market companies looking to consolidate processes as they scale up.
3. HighRadius
HighRadius’s AP automation software works across the entire accounts payable workflow. Key features include multi-channel invoice data capture, intelligent coding, real-time ERP integration, exception management, and proactive task generation for faster resolution.
4. Tipalti
An end-to-end AP automation platform that offers AI-based invoice automation alongside PO matching, supplier self-service, and automated approval routing. Strong ERP integrations make it a realistic option for businesses of all sizes looking to reduce AP workloads.
5. NetSuite AP
A module of the Oracle NetSuite ERP platform. A great choice for those either already using or planning to migrate to NetSuite, with real-time cash visibility, full financial controls, and automation for invoice processing.
6. Coupa
A go-to for large enterprises looking to gain control over AP, spend, and procurement. Coupa’s platform incorporates AI heavily, allowing for predictive insights and more detailed reporting alongside enterprise-tier controls for processes, compliance, and governance.
7. Concur
Part of the SAP family, Concur is an American company specializing in travel, expense, and invoice management. It’s ideal for SMEs and smaller enterprises that have more complex needs in the realm of travel and expenses but require less sophisticated AP automation and management tools.
8. Stampli
Stampli provides a unified platform for AP and payments processes and their accompanying documentation and communication. The company claims it can achieve 5x faster approvals, and uses AI to make coding and notification automations more efficient over time. A good choice for businesses with specific communication needs in their vendor relationships.
9. BILL
BILL is a specialist player in the SME space, and handles simpler AP processes, integrations, and digital payment management via an intuitive UI. It’s favored by smaller companies looking for quick implementation and ease of use.
10. AvidXchange
A strong player in construction, real estate, and utilities. AvidXchange specializes in high volumes of invoices and payments and offer tools for all stages of the AP workflow.
Which AP automation software is right for your business?
The answer to this question depends a lot on your size, trajectory, priorities, and needs. If your company has less complex AP needs and a relatively simple operating environment, you might not yet need to consider more specialized or advanced AP tools.
Companies with high growth potential in the mid-market and growing enterprises looking to simplify, rationalize, and advance their AP and payments processes to weather global uncertainty, scale to the next level, or expand into new markets will want to consider more advanced systems.
At every level, you’ll need to make your choices based on your immediate tactical needs and pain points, your medium- and long-term strategic goals, and considerations like your existing technology investments.
How can Serrala’s software solutions help your organization automate its accounts payable workflows?
Serrala’s AI-powered AP automation solutions are trusted by over 2,800 world-leading brands to achieve the highest possible process automation rates. Eliminating over 80% of manual efforts in accounts payable, saving weeks’ worth of time, and unlocking new possibilities in strategic decision making and company achievement.
Serrala solutions enable fully-touchless processing and improve working capital availability through intelligent cash flow optimization, allowing global organizations to confidently power key strategic investments.
Serrala’s AP automation software solutions are available as fully standalone cloud or hybrid deployments with multiple ERP integrations, or as fully-embedded extensions of SAP S/4HANA and EEC.
If you’re interested in learning more about what we can do for you, get in touch with us today to book a demo.
Frequently asked questions
What is AP automation?
Accounts Payable automation uses technology to streamline and automate the process of managing and paying vendor invoices. It typically involves the use of software tools to digitize and automate the manual tasks associated with accounts payable processing. These tasks include invoice capture, data entry, invoice matching, coding, approvals, exception handling, and posting to confirm an invoice is ready for payment.
Why AP automation?
AP automation helps organizations improve efficiency, reduce errors, and lower costs associated with processing vendor invoices. It digitizes the accounts payable process to provide better visibility and control, enabling finance organizations to track outstanding liabilities and payments and manage cash flow. Additionally, AP Automation can help reduce the risk of fraud and improve compliance with regulations and internal policies.
What are the benefits of AP automation?
Organizations implement AP automation software to boost efficiency, cut costs, and strengthen financial control. By automating manual invoice processing, they can handle higher volumes faster, reduce labor and error-related expenses, and avoid late payments or duplicates. Real-time visibility improves cash flow management and compliance, while faster, more accurate processing enhances vendor relationships. Secure, end-to-end workflows and digital audit trails also minimize fraud risk and simplify audits – ultimately driving smoother, more compliant financial operations.
AP Automation pricing: how much does AP automation cost?
Discover potential cost and time savings with the Serrala AP Automation Savings Calculator.
What are the potential cost savings if we implement Serrala AP Automation solutions?
With the Serrala AP Automation Savings calculator you can easily calculate your AP Automation ROI. With a few simple inputs, the calculator will illustrate the potential time and cost savings you can achieve with AP Automation. Use these estimates to determine the possible return on investment (ROI) you can achieve with the implementation of a new AP solution.
