Streamlining your Accounts Payable Process with Sage Intacct
How are you currently paying your vendors? Are you issuing checks and printing them in the office? Wouldn’t it be great to be able to pay your vendors easier and faster without physically being in the office? Read this blog for additional information on how to automate your AP process within Sage Intacct.
Many businesses follow the below process to pay their vendors:
- Receive bills from vendors
- AP staff enters bills in the accounting software
- Depending on the approval process, review and approve bills
- Queue up weekly payments, route payment report to release payments, ensure available cash and maximize cash float opportunities
- Pay bills via check and do a weekly/daily check run
- Print checks and mail them to vendors
Sage Intacct enables businesses to automate the AP process which will save time and cut costs in the long run. Many of these options are add-on modules to your current subscription, eliminating the need for another software.
Add-on’s and Marketplace Partners for automating payments
Below are some of the most common options to automate your AP process.
Intacct’s standard ACH is part of Intacct’s standard functionality. Once your bank accounts and vendors are set up for ACH processing, you can pay your vendors or reimburse your employees with a standard ACH process. Intacct will automatically format the ACH file, and all you need to do is download the file and send it to your bank. (you can select ACH as a payment method, generate ACH file, upload to your bank and confirm the payment). Once the bank has cleared the payment, you can confirm the ACH payment which posts it to the general ledger.
Sage Intacct Check Delivery Service
Sage Intacct will print your checks and mail them out. In order to use this feature, you will need to subscribe to Vendor Payment Services and setup US banks and vendors for the service.
American Express ACH Payment Service
Unlike the Sage Intacct standard ACH process, with Amex, you don’t need to manually generate the ACH file. American Express will take care of generating the file and sending it to your bank. All you need to do is select the bills you want to pay and the payment is sent to Amex for processing. You are required to subscribe to Vendor Payment Services and enable your vendors to receive Amex ACH payments. You can configure your system to automate delivery and posting of payments to your General Ledger.
American Express Card Payment Service
This feature will only work if you have an Amex card. You can have an “Open Card” which is for small to mid-sized businesses or a “Corporate Card” which is for large You can pay your vendors with your Amex card and receive additional benefit from your card while saving time and money by automating your payments to vendors.
Wells Fargo Payment Manager Request
You need a Wells Fargo Checking account and need to subscribe to Wells Fargo Payment Manager. With this feature you can create your AP payments in Intacct and the system will send them to your bank (Wells Fargo) for processing. Wells Fargo offers “outsourced checks (WF check), wire transfer (WF USD Wire), or ACH (WF Domestic ACH transaction”.
Third-Party AP systems
There are also third party AP systems that directly integrate with Intacct. These 3rd parties typically have lower per-user costs, increasing the cost-effectiveness of automating processing, approvals, and payments.
Bill.com makes it a seamless process for businesses to enter their bills, process payments, and approve them. Their “PO-to-payment” workflow increases your efficiency and gives you better control over your AP process. You can also pay your international vendors the same way you pay your domestic vendors.
Provides two-way sync with Sage Intacct which allows businesses to enter their bills, process payments, and eliminate manual invoice entry. Once bills are entered, Mineral Tree processes your checks with your address, and signature so you don’t have to worry about paying your vendors on time.
You can use Expensify for employee expense reimbursement. It enables employees to use the mobile app and record expenses on the go as well as offering next day reimbursement. You can even take a photo of your receipt and upload it to Expensify.
What’s Next?
If any of these AP automation solutions have sparked your interest please reach out to your Sage Intacct team.
Mary Adabi is a consultant with CLA's Sage Intacct team. During her time with CLA, Mary has supported Intacct for a variety of non-profit and for-profit clients. She has a passion in customizing Intacct to fit the needs of clients and adapting it to meet their growing needs.
Great ideas to address your bill payment needs while you’re working remotely!