Meet Spendesk Invoices: the simplest way to automate your accounts payable process

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Spendesk Team

Published on November 8, 2022

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Article
4min
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The finance team is the secret weapon in any successful business. It keeps the cash flowing, the trains running on time, and prevents the worst from happening.

This is important no matter the economy. But as companies struggle to deal with rising inflation and harsh conditions to come, finance teams must free themselves from slow, tedious busy work, and focus on what really matters.

Case in point, invoice processing. Supplier invoices are second only to manual reporting as finance team time-wasters:

which tasks take time for finance teams

The process also adds very little value. There’s no analysis or deep work involved. And while payables must be paid, your highly trained finance experts could be better deployed elsewhere. 

So why not automate the whole thing? Eliminate these slow, repetitive tasks, and focus on building a resilient, thriving business.

It’s time to switch to a full end-to-end automated AP process.

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Why automate your accounts payable process?

The average business pays over 100 invoices every single month. This typically represents more than half of non-payroll spending, and can quickly become a time-consuming and expensive problem for the whole organization. 

Yet ⅔ of companies approve and track invoices manually, either by email, phone, or chat. Which wastes enormous amounts of time and resources on very low-value tasks.

This probably sounds all too familiar.

Thankfully, Spendesk Invoices is the fast and effective way to put this work behind you - for good.

We’ve incorporated new ways to save massive time and money on your AP process, with the same system as your card spend and expenses. The goal is to transform the complicated and bureaucratic process of managing company money.

Get a faster, more reliable and more secure AP process, from procure to pay.

Finance teams’ challenges will always be front and center at Spendesk. Last year, we added the ability to track Purchase Orders and spend committed to team budgets. This solves the usual lack of visibility and security in the purchasing process.

This time, the whole invoicing workflow has been reimagined. Introducing our end-to-end AP automation tool:

NEW! Completely automate your AP process with Spendesk

This new workflow is utterly simple. Here’s how it works:

1. Go paperless & submit invoices via email or mobile

It’s already convenient to drag and drop an invoice into the Spendesk app. But since most suppliers send invoices by email, it’s now even easier and faster.

Simply forward an email with the invoice attached, and Spendesk automatically completes the details and makes a payment request.

(Tip: You can also create forwarding rules in your email inbox settings to fully automate this process.)

And if you happen to have paper invoices lying around, you can submit those in a snap. 

Just open your Spendesk mobile app, take a photo of the invoice, and that’s it!

What our customers say:

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2. Use OCR to capture details and save time

Forget about manual data entry. Spendesk’s powerful technology extracts key invoice information to fill all mandatory fields such as invoice number, issue date, or the total amount.

Not only does this save everyone’s time, it also leads to less miscommunication and human error.

Most important: it frees your teams up to work on what’s important.

3. Automate invoice approvals and update budgets

No more lost emails or missing attachments. Invoices and purchase orders are immediately sent to the appropriate budget owner for approval.

Managers receive instant notifications when an invoice is submitted (by email, Slack or through the Spendesk app), to review and approve it wherever they are.

And you can track spend against existing budgets.

This empowers every budget owner to be accountable for their spend and provides better visibility for the finance team over committed purchases.

4. Accelerate month-end closing

For accountants who need to keep track of the books, invoice management is now a breeze. 

​​Our Prepare tab lets you check, approve, and schedule invoice payments for a sleek process that liberates you from the back and forth invoice-chasing game.

You can drastically reduce the time spent on month-end closing. Automate VAT extraction, expense account allocation and payment reconciliation.

5. Pay your suppliers with confidence - right from Spendesk

You can now pay invoices directly from your Spendesk wallet.

As an Account Owner, you get the full context behind every invoice so you can confirm payments with peace of mind. 

And payment reconciliation is completely taken care of!

COMING SOON! Record credit notes in record time

More AP automation features are coming your way! You’ll soon be able to record credit notes for your bookkeeping and payment process on Spendesk. 

This means having one source of truth for account balances - leading to fewer errors, clean and accurate books, and the capacity to record your credit notes for current or future invoices.

Way more than just an automated AP solution

Spendesk centralizes payments from multiple solutions into one place, making it easier for employees, and giving the finance team more control. We've combined all non-payroll purchasing - from supplier invoices to card spending to expense reimbursements - into one standardized process, giving all stakeholders peace of mind with one single source of truth. 

Bringing all non-payroll spend into one system isn't just easier for employees, it's smarter for the company and brings massive time and money savings.


New to Spendesk? 

Our team is here to help! Book a demo to learn more about spend management automation. 

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Already a Spendesk customer? 

Spendesk Invoices are included with every plan. Activate the Invoice payment method in your settings and try it for yourself!


Please note above mentioned features are available from the Essentials plan.