The Basics of Automation for Accounts Payable (AP) Specialists 1 CPE

What is Accounts Payable (AP) Workflow Automation?  Even if your company uses such a system, do you understand how it works?

Automation of Accounts Payable can match invoices to Purchase Orders and Goods Receipts, route invoices to the appropriate parties for review and approval and can even apply company specific business rules.  Learn the basics on how all this is done.

This course also includes an introduction to other automation options such as Electronic Receipt Settlement, Travel and Expense reporting, the management of Credit Card charges, Automatic Clearing House payments, and outsourcing the printing of checks. 

Discover how data can be “moved” from a company’s system of record into any automation tool or software when needed.  Understanding the flow of data can be instrumental in identifying the root causes of some issues.  It can also benefit an AP Specialist interested in working on automation related projects.

Hear how automation software systems are implemented.  Such projects do take time and resources.  It has been my experience that Accounts Payable staff with even basic knowledge of automation can be a significant benefit to the team.  

Prerequisites

Please review the Glossary of Terms available in the Supporting Materials section of the Course Overview.

Learning Objective

• Explore what Accounts Payable (AP) Automation is.
• Discover how Accounts Payable Workflow Software can increase efficiency and improve compliance of company specific business rules.
• Identify how automation can be applied to other Accounts Payable functions.
• Recognize the type of data that may need to be sent from a Company’s system into the automation system.
• Discover what is involved in implementing an automation tool.

Last updated/reviewed: March 23, 2024