How to Find the Right Payments Vendor to Complete Your AP Invoice Lifecycle

Working with the right vendors is key to your business’s continued success and operational efficiency. If you’ve been trapped by buyer’s remorse of the wrong software system or spent hours on the phone with an uncooperative vendor customer support team, chances are you understand this better than most. A great vendor can make your important back-office processes flow smoothly—a bad one can break them.  

When it comes to finding the right payments vendor in particular, there’s one goal your business likely has in mind: completing and elevating its AP invoice lifecycle. But how can you weed out the good vendors from the bad? And why is it so important? 

In this blog, we investigate how automated payments benefit your AP lifecycle and what features an ideal payments vendor should have.  

Automated Payments’ Impact on Your AP Lifecycle 

Payments are a cornerstone in the AP lifecycle. They need to be accurate and on time to ensure your business continues to operate smoothly. Automation is a powerful tool for boosting your payments in the following key areas:  

• Improved Cash Flow: Automated, efficient payment scheduling can reduce your business’s DSO and minimize exception items.  

• More Visibility into Your Payment Lifecycle: Automation takes the guesswork out of the how, when, and “where” of your payments, as the right solution will allow you to track their movement in real time.  

• Better Supplier Relationships: More timely payments mean happier suppliers, which could result in dynamic discounts for your business.  

• More Secure Payments: Payment fraud is skyrocketing—but automated payment processes can reduce the risk of fraud by up to 75%. 

Now that you understand the scope of what automated payments can do for your business, it’s time to examine what qualities the ideal payments vendor should possess—and why. 

Top 5 Features of an Ideal Payments Vendor 

No one wants to invest time and money into a solution that doesn’t meet their business’s needs. When choosing an automated payments vendor, it’s vital that they can provide their customers with: 

1. Diverse Payment Capabilities 

Modern customers require a mix of payment options. While old standards still are leveraged across many industries—options like credit cards, wire transfers, checks, and ACH transactions—newer digital methods are on the rise, like Apple Pay and Google Pay. Virtual credit cards are also becoming more popular, as they add another layer of protection against fraud for important payments.  

An ideal payments automation vendor understands this and has made sure that their solution is up to the challenge. 

2. Top-Tier Customer Support 

There’s nothing worse than relying on a vendor who never seems to have the answers about their own services and solutions. In a recent Zendesk survey, 80% of respondents said they would rather do business with a competitor than remain with a vendor with poor customer support after one bad experience.  

On the flip side, a good payments automation vendor will provide your business with high-level customer support. From thorough implementation assistance to having a dedicated support staff to handle any issues or questions your staff may have, the vendor you choose should be a communicative, engaged partner.   

3. Integration Capabilities 

Tech consolidation is a hot topic—and so are integrated payment solutions. Working with a vendor whose solution can easily integrate with your business’s existing ERP, cybersecurity system, and other important software in your tech stack is vital for efficient, accurate, and timely payment processing. An integrated payments automation solution spares your staff the headache of having to re-enter payment information or manually perform 2 and 3-way invoice matching into different systems.  

4. Processing Speeds 

Automation is known for simplifying complex processes, like those found in the AP invoice lifecycle. Instead of your AP team spending valuable time writing and delivering paper checks, manually matching invoices, and emailing approvals, they’ll be able to focus on more strategic tasks while automated payments run in the background.  

This will increase your ever-important processing speeds, which can have a direct impact on your cash flow, supplier relationships, and more. The right payments automation vendor knows how important this is and has designed its solutions to be able to operate efficiently for its customers, regardless of whether they’re processing 500 or 50,000 invoices a day. 

5. Strong Security and Compliance Protocols 

As we touched on earlier, payment fraud is at an all-time high. Hackers and other bad actors are getting more sophisticated—and payment software must do the same. A prepared payment automation vendor will have ensured that their solution can protect its users’ important, sensitive payment information from a variety of threats. 

With this higher level of payment protection also comes an increased compliance capability. No matter what industry your business is in, being able to rely on a system that meets industry regulations is vital to avoid costly fines or risk a data breach. The right vendor and solution will be able to help your business meet these standards with ease, improving security and efficiency from one central platform.  

Relevant Reading: 7 Essential Tips for More Effective Payment Processing 

If your business is ready to team up with an automated payments vendor who has the solution, the knowledge, and the scalability to meet your unique needs, look no further than DocuPhase.  

Schedule a demo with one of our experts today to see how our AP payment solution can transform your invoice lifecycle!