Updated: 04/08/2025
Looking to Automate Accounts Payable in 2025? Start Here.
Manual AP processes can slow down finance teams that are under increasing pressure to do more with less, close books faster, and manage cash more proactively. AP automation helps by streamlining tasks like invoice intake, approval routing, and payments—making it a practical necessity for many modern businesses.
Whether you’re struggling with approval bottlenecks, dealing with disconnected tools, or just tired of vendor payments being a black box, the right AP software can change everything. But with so many platforms on the market, how do you choose the right one?
This guide compares the 9 best AP automation solutions available today—breaking down the pros, cons, pricing, and ideal use cases for each.
Let’s get started.
Accounts payable (AP) automation is a type of technology that streamlines and enhances traditional AP operations. The software automates several key functions such as capturing invoice data quickly, matching invoices accurately to purchase orders, and routing invoices for prompt approval.
This proactive approach reduces human error and increases the overall efficiency of the AP workflow, enabling smoother and faster financial management.
By digitizing tasks like invoice processing and data entry, AP automation helps businesses to:
This automation also improves cash flow by giving AP teams clear visibility to strategically manage payments and seize cash discounts effectively.
Additionally, AP automation boosts cash flow forecasting accuracy and strengthens fraud prevention by providing detailed transaction audit trails and enforcing strict approval workflows.
Choosing the right technology from the start is crucial, but many factors will influence which AP automation software best suits your team. Here's a handy checklist to help you evaluate and compare different AP automation solutions effectively:
The best AP automation software will balance usability, scalability, and support—enabling your finance team to streamline processes without creating new complexity.
To identify the top AP automation tools of 2025, we evaluated dozens of solutions based on core capabilities like invoice capture, approval workflows, and payment processing. Our criteria included user experience, integration breadth, customer reviews (including G2 and Gartner Peer Insights), third-party recognitions, and platform scalability. We also factored in insights from Centime’s finance team and benchmarks across industries to ensure an impartial and well-rounded selection.
Centime's AP automation solution simplifies and enhances the entire accounts payable process, from invoice receipt to payment. By leveraging advanced OCR (optical character recognition) technology, Centime pulls key information from invoices, reducing manual data entry errors and increasing efficiency for AP teams.
Centime’s unique offering stands out by turning your AP function into a profit center. Unlike other solutions, Centime allows businesses to earn interest on their AP funds. This interest not only covers the estimated cost of AP automation but can also generate additional income, effectively making AP automation free and boosting working capital.
Centime’s flexible pricing plans and seamless ERP integrations with NetSuite, Sage Intacct, and QuickBooks ensure that businesses of all sizes can optimize their cash flow and enhance their financial health. Dedicated customer support and a comprehensive cash management platform make Centime the best solution for growing SMBs looking to control their cash and extend working capital.
Centime offers flexible pricing plans tailored to all business sizes and requirements. Clients can mix and match products from their platform suite based on their unique needs, making it easy for customers to choose the best package.
Centime's AP solution is designed for growing small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) looking to get control of their cash and optimize their working capital. These businesses know that they need to manage their cash position with high precision, and don't want to waste resources trying to manually manage these processes.
Centime is an ideal solution for businesses that need a high level of control over their cash flow while also automating their accounts payable process. The platform streamlines the entire invoice-to-payment process, helping teams save time, optimize efficiency and reduce costs. Even if you’re just looking for AP automation today, it may be worth considering a solution like Centime that can extend to AR and cash flow as your needs change in the future.
Centime is also noteworthy for its dedicated customer service team and best-in-class ERP integrations. However, Centime is slightly limited in terms of the number of ERP systems it can integrate with – currently just QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Sage Intacct, and Oracle NetSuite. Nevertheless, Centime is the best pick on the market today for businesses seeking a comprehensive AP automation solution that offers end-to-end cash flow management.
BILL (formerly Bill.com) is a well-known name in AP automation and is a favorite among small businesses and outsourced accounting firms. It offers an intuitive interface, standard automation features, and is often bundled with CPA services. But while BILL is affordable and familiar, it struggles to meet the needs of scaling teams.
BILL primarily serves small businesses and startups that process a low volume of invoices (typically under 50 per month). It’s also widely adopted by CPA and bookkeeping firms offering outsourced AP services.
BILL offers pricing packages starting at $45 per month and ranges all the way up to $79 per month for their corporate package.
BILL is a reliable entry-level choice for small businesses looking to automate basic AP functions. It’s especially handy if your accounting firm already uses it. However, growing businesses may quickly outgrow its capabilities due to limited cash control, lack of forecasting, and absence of real customer success support.
Nanonets leverages AI and machine learning to automate invoice data extraction and AP workflows, making it a strong fit for enterprise companies with $100M+ in revenue or those operating on an upmarket scale. The platform is particularly suited for large organizations managing high invoice volumes, enabling them to dramatically reduce manual data entry by automatically transferring invoice information into their existing systems.
Nanonets offers pricing packages starting with a free tier, a pay as you go plan, and 2 more custom quote-based plans.
Enterprise companies or mid-market companies over $100M in revenue, accounting firms managing high volumes, and multi-national businesses with complex AP needs.
Nanonets provides a nimble and customizable AP automation middleware tailored for large enterprises and multi-national businesses with high invoice volumes or complex workflows. It is a strong choice for modernizing AP processes, particularly in legacy ERP environments. While it doesn’t offer native payment processing, its focus on advanced capture and flexibility makes it a great fit for enterprise-scale businesses seeking to streamline operations.
Airbase is a spend management platform that consolidates AP, corporate card programs, and employee reimbursements into one system. It’s designed to improve control and visibility across all company spending, offering real-time reporting and automation tools that reduce manual effort. With powerful card features, it’s popular among startups and mid-market businesses with decentralized finance operations.
Airbase offers a three-tiered pricing model that includes a free Essentials plan, a Growth plan billed annually, and a custom Enterprise plan tailored to larger businesses with advanced needs.
Airbase is designed for mid-sized businesses and startups with growing finance teams that want to unify AP, spend management, and card programs into a single platform. It’s especially attractive to companies with decentralized employee spending and strong card usage.
Airbase is a solid choice for companies focused on controlling company-wide spend, especially those with lots of corporate card usage. However, it lacks native forecasting, yield-earning potential, and deep ERP flexibility—making it a spend platform, not a full cash management solution.
Stampli is a communications-first AP platform designed to keep AP teams in control while simplifying collaboration across departments. Every invoice becomes a centralized conversation thread, reducing email back-and-forth and speeding up approvals. Stampli's approach is especially helpful for organizations with messy approval workflows or frequent invoice disputes.
Stampli is built for mid-market companies that want to digitize and streamline their AP process without fully outsourcing or overhauling their internal controls. It’s especially appealing to teams that value human oversight, need flexible approvals, or want a fast implementation without an ERP migration.
Stampli offers custom pricing based on invoice volume and the specific modules a business chooses to implement, such as AP automation, cards, and payments.
Stampli is a great choice for AP teams that want to keep control, streamline collaboration, and reduce invoice chaos without a massive system overhaul. While it lacks broader financial tools, its communication-first design makes it uniquely effective for managing complex internal approvals.
Tipalti is a global payables automation platform that streamlines invoice capture, PO matching, approvals, and vendor payments in one system. What sets it apart is its ability to handle international payments in 120+ currencies, automate W-9/W-8 tax form collection, and support multiple subsidiaries from a centralized hub.
Tipalti is purpose-built for global finance teams that need to manage mass payouts, complex tax compliance, and multi-entity structures across borders. It’s especially common among large SaaS companies, marketplaces, and digital media organizations operating in 10+ countries.
Tipalti uses a modular pricing model with custom quotes based on volume, features, and number of entities. Expect higher pricing tiers for global payment features.
Tipalti is a powerhouse for multinational businesses managing vendor payments at scale. Its robust compliance tools and global reach make it hard to beat for enterprise use cases. However, for companies that need broader visibility across AP, AR, and cash flow—or that aren’t operating globally—Tipalti may be more than they need.
MineralTree is a cloud-based AP automation platform offering invoice capture, approval routing, and payment processing. Known for its clean interface and ease of use, it helps finance teams move away from spreadsheets and email chains while maintaining transparency across the invoice lifecycle.
MineralTree is aimed at mid-market finance teams that want to eliminate manual AP tasks without overcomplicating their existing process. It’s especially useful for companies that rely heavily on QuickBooks, Intacct, or NetSuite and want a user-friendly layer of automation without disrupting their ERP setup.
Custom quote-based pricing based on features and invoice volume. May incur additional fees for integrations or payment types.
MineralTree is a solid AP automation choice for mid-sized companies that want to digitize invoice processing without heavy IT overhead. It’s simple, fast to adopt, and highly functional—but lacks the broader financial features found in platforms like Centime.
AvidXchange offers end-to-end AP automation, including invoice capture, approval workflows, and payment execution. It also provides outsourced payment services, cutting checks or delivering ACH payments on behalf of clients. The platform is often used by companies that prioritize scale and invoice throughput over modern UX or deep cash visibility.
AvidXchange is designed for large organizations with high AP volume and complex vendor networks—particularly in industries with heavy invoice loads like property management, utilities, and construction. It’s built to help teams manage high throughput and paper-heavy AP processes with robust automation.
AvidXchange is a reliable, well-established AP platform for organizations with high invoice volumes—particularly in industries with complex vendor workflows. But for teams that want strategic cash tools, forecasting, or a more modern UX, it may feel outdated.
Quadient AP, formerly known as BeanWorks, offers AP automation features like invoice capture, multi-level approval routing, PO matching, and payment execution. Its modular structure allows teams to start small—just with approvals or POs—and expand into full AP automation over time.
Beanworks is best suited for finance teams that care deeply about customized approval workflows and audit trails. It’s commonly used by organizations in education, nonprofits, and healthcare—industries that value tight internal controls, clear accountability, and grant or budget oversight.
Beanworks is a strong fit for organizations that want structured approvals, spend control, and audit readiness without complex implementation. However, it lacks the cash-centric features and financial flexibility of more complete platforms.
Adopting AP automation doesn’t have to mean disrupting your entire finance function. The most successful implementations start with clear goals: reducing manual entry, improving visibility, tightening controls, or optimizing cash flow. Choose software that aligns with your ERP, supports your internal workflows, and offers the flexibility to scale with your business.
Start by mapping your current AP process—including intake, coding, approvals, and payments. Identify where the biggest bottlenecks or risks occur, and prioritize those areas for automation. Look for tools with strong implementation support (Centime, for example, offers white-glove onboarding and connects to your GL on day one) to avoid burdening your IT team. It’s often easiest to roll out AP automation in phases—starting with invoice capture and approvals before expanding into payments and forecasting.
In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, an accounts payable automation software will empower your team to optimize its financial processes, drive efficiency and gain a competitive edge. Embracing this technology will undoubtedly pave the way for a more streamlined and agile future in financial management, but selecting the right accounts payable software isn’t always a straightforward decision.
In reality, the answer varies depending on your team’s unique needs, budget and accounting system. Make sure to consider the specific needs of your business, including software integrations, payment processing and workflows, before finalizing your decision.
The top AP solutions ensure data security by adhering to industry-standard encryption, conducting regular security audits, and complying with financial regulations such as GDPR and SOC 2. They offer features like role-based access controls and real-time monitoring to safeguard sensitive financial information.
Many AP solutions, like Centime, offer customization options to fit different business needs, including customizable workflows, user permissions, and integration capabilities with other financial systems.
Migrating from a manual to an automated AP process usually involves data transfer, system integration, configuring workflows, and training users, but the specific steps can vary by provider and business requirements.
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