Cloud-Based Accounts Payable Software: The Future Of AP For Small Businesses?

Accounting is an essential component of any business. It is known as the ‘language of business’. Given its criticality, companies need to pay closer attention to how they handle business accounts.  

For any organization, accounting primarily comprises accounts payable and accounts receivables. It typically involves making vendor and bill payments, tracking a variety of expenses, and managing money owed to your business. Surprisingly, a lot of small businesses manage their accounting manually through spreadsheets. Not only is this approach tedious but also prone to errors. Accounts payable automation for small businesses is not only beneficial but also a necessity for efficient account management. 

Before we get into what accounts payable software does, let’s understand what accounts payable comprises for businesses. 

Account payables 

Account payables refer to the amount that your business owes to vendors, suppliers, and other creditors. When you order office supplies or other goods for your business, the vendor will raise an invoice, which can be cleared in a few days. Until you pay the outstanding bill, the amount will be entered as a liability on your ledger.  

Once you receive the invoice, it will be tagged as accounts payable (AP), and the credit balance assigned to pay the invoice. The entire process involves data entry, matching purchase orders, filing, managing cash, and approving and processing payments. 

Although small businesses feel that they can manage the entire process manually, it takes more than 10-12 steps to get the payment out. Not only does this involve a lot of effort, but it will also create a chain of records. Given its importance, it is essential to have accounts payable automation for small businesses.

Cloud-based accounts payable software

With an accounts payable automation software, you can streamline your entire AP process including digitized invoice management. It helps you control, organize and track your company finances. Soon after the invoice is received, it is mapped and processed through an approval lifecycle until the payment is made. Following this, the invoice is stored for future reference. Automating AP will ensure that you don’t miss any payment deadlines and generate an audit trail with centralized recordkeeping. 

With cloud-based accounts payable automation for small businesses, you get the freedom of managing your AP across devices so that you are in control of the finances from anywhere and anytime. It also gives a significantly higher storage space, optimized pricing, better data security, and real-time reporting.  

Role of account payables automation software for small businesses 

With businesses aiming for better agility and accessibility to keep up with market conditions, adopting cloud-based AP software is a no-brainer. For small businesses, cloud accounting will reduce resource cost, and frees valuable workforce from repetitive tasks. It gives your business an edge over your competitors. 

Drop in administration tasks 

A cloud-based AP software, you can replace a range of accounting tasks with automated workflows. It will automatically load invoices, fetch transactions, generate reports, get approvals, and make payments. Your accounting team will be free of admin tasks like data entry, sending payment reminders, storing or classifying invoices, and calculating liabilities. 

No need for installation 

One major benefit of cloud-based AP solutions is that it eliminates the time-draining installation process. You don’t need to manage servers and other infrastructure to automate your account payables. This is especially lucrative for small businesses, as they can avoid extra overhead costs. 

Secure financial data efficiently 

With cloud solutions, the onus for the security of your data lies with the platform providers. That being said, the cloud-based AP software will feature several security features including encryption and access control. Cloud solutions enable automated backups and recovery plans that ensure data security even during disruptions. 

Scale your finances seamlessly 

Manually managing accounts payable on spreadsheets will quickly become unmanageable as you scale up your business. Even if you use desktop-based software, you only get access to limited features. Cloud-based accounts payable automation for small businesses can scale seamlessly with unmatched storage and add-on features.  

Centralize all accounting information 

In a traditional manual setup, invoices are stored in different locations making it challenging to keep track of them. The same goes for other finance records. Cloud AP software will allow you to keep every financial document in one centralized location. Anyone in the team can access any document based on access levels. This will ensure data consistency across reports. 

Access to real-time data & reports 

Ensuring a healthy cash flow requires a detailed look at payables, receivables, and other financial information. This is highly impractical with manual processes. To enable an accurate view of financial health, accounts payable automation software for small businesses is crucial. They produce easy-to-understand reports in appealing visualization so that you can proactively identify and address challenges. 

Better accessibility to finances 

Cloud solutions allow ultimate accessibility. If you pick a cloud-based AP software, you can keep an eye on your financial data from your mobile devices. You can allow your accounting team with authorized credentials to access the solution and manage finances from any place and device. It gives you an unprecedented level of freedom and control over your finances. 

Option to customization solution 

Most cloud-based software offers customizations to tailor the AP automation software to suit your business needs. Since no two businesses are the same, you will need to have workflows and processes that mimic your operations. You can also have a personalized dashboard to highlight the necessary information. 

Move to the cloud for efficient AP management 

With the world moving to digitalization aggressively, cloud-based accounts payable software for small businesses is critical for its sustainability. Regardless of your size and maturity level, cloud AP software will increase your efficiency, reduce operational costs and improve financial performance with comprehensive visibility into your account. It turns your accounts team agile as your team can access financial information, approve transactions and collaborate remotely without any hassle. Make the move to Zoyer for better and more efficient AP management.