Top 8 AP Automation Software Solutions for Food & Beverage

For finance teams in the food and beverage industry, managing accounts payable (AP) efficiently is critical to maintaining smooth operations. With the industry’s unique challenges—tight margins, high invoice volumes, and the need for regulatory compliance—leveraging AP automation software can help businesses save time, cut costs, and improve supplier relationships. Here, we evaluate the top AP automation solutions for food and beverage companies, highlighting their features, benefits, and drawbacks to help you make an informed decision.

AP Automation and its Benefits

For food and beverage companies, the accounts payable process is uniquely challenging. From managing tight margins and perishable goods to handling diverse suppliers and seasonal cash flow changes, automation offers targeted solutions to these pain points. Here’s how AP automation specifically benefits the food and beverage industry:

• Streamlined Invoice Management: High invoice volumes from multiple suppliers can overwhelm manual processes. Automation tools efficiently capture, code, and approve invoices, reducing processing times and errors.
• Enhanced Supplier Relationships: By automating payments and providing transparency, businesses can foster better communication with suppliers, critical for maintaining consistent supply chains.
• Seasonal Cash Flow Insights: Advanced forecasting tools help businesses plan for peak and off-peak seasons, ensuring they can manage liquidity effectively.
• Improved Compliance: Automated workflows help maintain accurate audit trails and ensure adherence to regulatory requirements specific to food safety and procurement.
• Cost Optimization: Automation reduces labor costs, captures early payment discounts, and eliminates late fees, all crucial in an industry with tight profit margins.
• Adaptability to Diverse Supplier Needs: Multi-currency and multi-language support streamline transactions with international and local suppliers alike.

What is the Best AP Automation Software for Food & Beverage Companies?

1. Centime: Best all-around AP automation for food & beverage
2. Tipalti: Best for global operations and multi-currency support
3. Stampli: Best for collaborative invoice approvals
4. Beanworks (Quadient AP): Best for green initiatives
5. MineralTree: Best for multi-entity management
6. Yooz: Best for advanced OCR features
7. Corpay: Best for secure payment processing
8. AvidXChange: Best for simplifying vendor onboarding

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Ideal for growing businesses in Food and Bev

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Centime’s AP solution is purpose-built to address the challenges of food and beverage companies. With its seamless integration capabilities, intuitive features, and emphasis on cash flow management, Centime is uniquely positioned to transform AP into a profit-driving function.

Centime Features:

• AI-Powered Invoice Processing: Automates invoice capture, data coding, and approval routing, significantly reducing manual effort and errors.
• Two- and Three-Way Matching: Matches invoices against purchase orders and receipts to ensure accuracy and compliance.
• Customizable Approval Workflows: Tailors the approval process to fit organizational hierarchies and vendor-specific requirements.
• Seamless Integration: Embedded within leading ERPs like NetSuite, Sage Intacct, and QuickBooks for a unified user experience.
• Advanced Cash Flow Forecasting: Provides real-time visibility into upcoming cash needs and payment schedules, aiding in better liquidity management.
• Supplier Management Portal: Facilitates better communication and collaboration with suppliers, ensuring smoother operations and improved relationships.
• Earn While You Pay: With Centime, you can turn AP into a profit center by earning on your AP funds, effecrtively covering your automation costs.

Centime Pros:

• Industry-Specific Customization: Tailored features for high invoice volumes and perishable goods suppliers.
• Unparalleled Integration Depth: Two-way sync and embedded workflows within ERP systems reduce redundancy and enhance usability.
• Dedicated Support: Offers live customer support and onboarding specialists to ensure quick adoption and smooth transitions.‍
• Rapid Implementation: Onboarding timelines of 7-21 days to minimize disruption.

Centime Cons: 

• Built for Sage Intacct, QuickBooks, and NetSuite users only. Centime currently only integrates with three ERP systems: QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct, and Oracle NetSuite.

Why Centime Wins for Food & Bev

Centime stands out with its unique ability to address the specific needs of food and beverage companies:

1. Streamlined Operations for High Invoice Volumes: Centime’s AI-powered automation is designed to process large volumes of invoices with speed and accuracy, critical for companies dealing with multiple suppliers.
2. Support for Seasonal Cash Flow Management: The advanced cash flow forecasting feature ensures businesses can plan effectively for seasonal demand fluctuations and maintain liquidity.
3. Supplier Relationship Enhancement: The supplier management portal strengthens relationships by improving transparency and communication, vital for maintaining supply chain stability.
4. Integration Within ERP Ecosystems: By embedding directly into ERP systems like NetSuite, Centime eliminates the need for dual logins and manual reconciliations, making AP workflows seamless and efficient.
5. Profit-Driving Features: Centime’s cash-back rebates and ability to capture early payment discounts allow food and beverage businesses to turn their AP departments into revenue generators.

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A top contender for global operations management

Tipalti’s robust AP automation platform is ideal for food and beverage companies with international suppliers. Its multi-currency capabilities ensure seamless global payments.

Features:

• Comprehensive supplier management system
• Multi-currency and multi-language support
• Real-time payment reconciliation
• Automated tax compliance

Pros:

• Streamlines global supplier payments with multi-currency support.
• Automated tax compliance ensures adherence to international regulations, reducing errors.
• Enhanced payment reconciliation minimizes manual intervention for cross-border payments.

Cons:

• Long implementation timelines (2-3 months) may not suit businesses needing immediate solutions.
• Reporting functionality lacks customization, which may limit deeper financial analysis.

A strong solution for collaborative approvals

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Stampli’s collaborative platform focuses on team communication and fast approvals, making it ideal for food and beverage companies with complex internal approval hierarchies.

Features:

• AI-based invoice capture and processing
• Real-time collaboration hub for approvals
• Customizable workflows

Pros:

• Improves team collaboration through its real-time communication hub.
• Accelerates invoice approval processes, reducing bottlenecks caused by manual workflows.
• AI-driven tools reduce the risk of errors in invoice capture and data entry.

Cons:

• No built-in forecasting features, limiting its ability to assist with cash flow management.
• Multi-line invoice coding is not supported, which may slow processing for complex invoices.

A solid accounts payable option for sustainability

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Beanworks provides a seamless, paperless AP process with real-time dashboards for enhanced visibility, making it an excellent choice for companies prioritizing sustainability.

Features:

• Paperless invoice processing
• Real-time dashboards
• Multi-language and multi-currency support

Pros:

• Provides a fully paperless AP solution, aligning with sustainability goals.
• Real-time dashboards offer better visibility into AP performance.
• Supports global operations with multi-language and multi-currency functionality.

Cons:

• The interface can feel clunky due to redundant steps, slowing down efficiency.
• Invoice display is limited to 80 per page, which can be a challenge for high-volume users.

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A contender for multiple entities

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MineralTree’s TotalAP solution offers robust features for managing AP across multiple business entities, making it ideal for growing food and beverage franchises.

Features:

• Unlimited user accounts
• ACH and virtual card payments
• Two-way synchronization with Sage Intacct

Pros:

• Flexible payment options, including ACH and virtual card services, suit diverse vendor needs.
• Excellent for multi-entity businesses with its ability to scale and manage complex structures.
• Offers two-way data synchronization for real-time updates in ERP systems.

Cons:

• Delayed approvals with multi-tiered workflows can slow down payments.
• Offshoring for invoice coding results in 24-48 hour turnaround times, which might not meet tight deadlines.

A viable option to enhance productivity

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Yooz leverages AI and OCR technology for efficient invoice capture and purchase order matching, perfect for businesses with high invoice complexity.

Features:

• Advanced OCR and AI for invoice processing
• Real-time data integration with ERPs
• Purchase order matching

Pros:

• Leverages advanced AI and OCR technology for highly accurate invoice capture.
• Streamlines PO matching for faster invoice reconciliation.
• Provides real-time integration with major ERP systems for consistent data accuracy.

Cons:

• Performance issues may arise when processing high volumes of invoices.
• Customization options are limited, and the platform doesn’t adapt autonomously over time.

A reliable choice for payment processing

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Corpay focuses on enhancing payment security and fraud prevention, making it ideal for companies with high-value transactions.

Features:

• Vendor portal for payment management
• Automated invoice data capture
• Emphasis on payment security

Pros:

• Emphasizes fraud prevention with advanced security measures for high-value transactions.
• Offers flexible payment options, including ACH and international payments.
• Vendor portal centralizes supplier communications, improving transparency.

Cons:

• Implementation can be complex, requiring extensive setup time.
• Payment delays and occasional billing discrepancies reported by users.

A good choice for vendor onboarding

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AvidXchange stands out for its ability to streamline the vendor onboarding process, making it ideal for food and beverage companies that frequently work with new suppliers or small vendors unfamiliar with automation platforms. AvidXchange simplifies AP for small and midsize businesses with its user-friendly platform and flexible pricing, perfect for those with tight budgets.

Features:

• Automated invoice capture and approval workflows
• Vendor payment management

Pros:

• Simplifies the vendor onboarding process, making it ideal for businesses working with small or new suppliers.
• Easy-to-use platform lowers the barrier for adoption, even for teams new to automation.
• Scales well with growing businesses that need flexible AP solutions.

Cons:

• Limited advanced features may not cater to larger enterprises.
• Lacks some of the deeper analytics and forecasting capabilities offered by competitors.

When selecting AP automation software for your food and beverage business, it’s essential to consider criteria tailored to the industry’s unique challenges:

1. Handling High Invoice Volumes: Opt for software with AI-powered automation and efficient data processing to manage large numbers of invoices from diverse suppliers.
2. Seasonal Cash Flow Management: Look for tools with advanced forecasting capabilities to help navigate fluctuating cash flow due to seasonal demand.
3. Supplier Diversity Management: Choose solutions that simplify relationships with local and international suppliers, including multi-currency and multi-language support.
4. Compliance with Food Regulations: Ensure the platform maintains accurate audit trails and facilitates adherence to industry-specific compliance requirements.
5. Integration with ERP Systems: Prioritize software that integrates seamlessly with ERP systems like NetSuite and Sage Intacct for unified financial management.
6. Speed of Implementation: Consider solutions with quick onboarding processes to minimize disruption during adoption.
7. Cost Efficiency: Leverage platforms that offer cash-back rebates or help capture early payment discounts to offset costs.

Conclusion

For food and beverage companies, choosing the right AP automation software can transform accounts payable from a cost center into a strategic asset. Centime stands out as the best overall solution with its tailored features, seamless integrations, and focus on cash flow optimization. Whether your priority is global operations, collaborative approvals, or secure payment processing, there’s a solution to meet your needs.

To book a demo of Centime today, talk to us here.