Top 5 AP Automation solutions for Business Central

Review the 5 best accounts payable automation solutions for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in July 2024 and has been revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Accounts Payable (AP) automation is freeing up precious time for SMBs compared to those who rely on manual invoice processing.

Implementing AP automation enables finance teams to digitize invoice processing. This includes automatically entering data into your ERP or finance system, matching supplier invoices to purchase orders and receipts, and chasing managerial approval for the spend.

This frees up time for AP professionals, reduces the risk of human error and increases the level of control AP teams have over the buying process. It’s no wonder so many companies are turning to AP automation.

In this blog post, we compare some of the most popular AP automation solutions that integrate with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, to help you identify which will be the best fit for your business.

Top 5 AP automation solutions for Business Central

Zetadocs Capture AP Automation

Zetadocs Capture AP Automation enables you to accelerate invoice processing with AI-driven document capture, automated data entry, order matching and simple approval. It can be set up in hours rather than days, offering immediate time savings and enabling you to focus on what matters most to your business.

The technology learns as you use it, remembering GL account or Item codes assigned to specific invoice lines for future use. Finance teams also benefit from greater control over payments thanks to 3-way PO matching, both in terms of accuracy and ensuring payments are only made after goods or services have been received.

Benefits include:

• Custom field extraction: Zetadocs Capture AP Automation lets you tailor how invoice data is extracted, previewed and created inside Business Central where needed to suit your business requirements.
• Expert support: The Zetadocs support teams are fully in-house and are based in the UK and the USA. This guarantees the best possible help, should you require it.
• Predictable pricing: Simple, competitive pricing is based on a fixed rate per-page, regardless of the number of invoice lines. This makes it easy to get started without a large upfront commitment, while volume discounts are available to reduce the cost per invoice.

Zetadocs also offers enhanced document management by leveraging SharePoint. Original vendor documents are archived securely in SharePoint in Microsoft 365, with file copies of documents accessible via the Zetadocs FactBox on the relevant Business Central record. This enables finance teams to review invoices during approval without leaving Business Central. Storing documents in SharePoint leverages your existing investment in Microsoft 365 (with reduced additional storage costs) and minimizes the risk of your Business Central database becoming bloated, which can affect system performance.

Microsoft Payables Agent

Microsoft’s Payables Agent in Business Central pulls invoice attachments from a Microsoft 365 email account where the user receives invoices from vendors and imports them into Inbound E-Documents in Business Central.

The invoice data is extracted automatically and entered into Business Central in the e-document. Once processed, a purchase invoice is created that can be approved and posted. Human interaction with the process is required when reviewing the original Inbound E-Document entry, if the Payables Agent cannot identify the correct vendor in Business Central, and when approving the purchase document draft before it is finalized.

The Payables Agent is available at an additional cost (i.e. it is not included as part of a standard Business Central licence). It consumes Copilot Credits based on usage, including the number of invoice lines processed, meaning more complex invoices are more expensive to process.

Datahaven 365 Business Central

Datahaven offers increased visibility of invoices and supporting documents, thanks to their workflow and document access on the relevant Dynamics transaction (this includes Purchase Invoice, Purchase Credit Memos, Purchase Orders, Purchase Return Orders, Vendor Ledger, Payment Journals, General Journals).

Datahaven workflow queues are flexible, allowing members of the AP team to work together on similar documents or divide work into separate work lists.

All associated purchase documents, such as credit memos and vendor invoices, can be accessed via the Payment Journal Datahaven FactBox. This saves valuable time during the payment journal review process. More details on the associated transactions can be accessed quickly as required, and with the Datahaven workflow being used to send the Payment Journal for approval.

ExFlow AP Automation

ExFlow automates the entire invoice process, while staying within Business Central. This includes the capture of invoice data, validating and then pre-coding the data, automatically matching invoices to purchase documents, approving, before final posting and archiving in Business Central.

This offers AP and finance teams greater efficiency, transparency and control over their AP process. Various types of invoices are supported, whether in paper, PDF and or other electronic formats, and these are all pre-coded. Following the 3-way matching of invoices to purchase documents, the approval workflow is determined by the invoice data. For example, if there is a discrepancy between the data on the invoice and the related purchase documents, ExFlow can route the approval to a specific user.

Continia Document Capture

Continia Document Capture offers an end-to-end alternative to manual invoice processing. Data capture, order matching, approval workflow and a digital archive are just some of the features available with their AP automation solution.

The software captures data by recognizing text in an invoice and placing it into the appropriate fields in Business Central. 3-way matching then matches data on the invoice to the relevant purchase order and receipt. Approval workflows are automated, before all relevant data is stored in Continia’s digital archive, enabling users to index and preserve their data.

Ready to take the next step?

If you’re ready to take your search for an AP automation solution to the next step and arrange demonstrations from some providers, we’d love for you to consider Zetadocs Capture AP Automation.

We can provide a free, online demo. If you like, we can personalize this for you by using real invoices your company has received. Just let us know and send a couple of examples in advance of the demo. Simply fill in this form and one of our friendly team will be in touch to arrange your demonstration.