Quadient AP’s take on the Forrester Accounts Payable Invoice Automation Landscape, Q4 2023

Introduction

Forrester is a leading provider of global research and advisory services. Here at Quadient AP, we're proud to have been included in Forrester's ‘The Accounts Payable Invoice Automation Landscape, Q4 2023' report. We believe our inclusion in the report reflects our place at the top table of AP automation providers and recognizes the impact of our technology in a crowded sector.

But how do Forrester's research findings on the market relate to Quadient AP and our solution? Read on for our take on the research.

Quadient AP & the three elements of AP automation

Forrester identifies the three elements of AP invoice automation as:

• Receiving and processing electronic invoice data
• Automatically approving invoices based on 3-way matching
• Feed to AP for payment with cash forecasting, discount optimization, and access to dynamic discounting & payment financing

Let's discuss these three elements and explore how Quadient AP supports and addresses each one.

Receiving and processing invoice data

Every business needs to pay their bills, and this process invariably starts with the receipt of vendor invoices. Invoices can be received in different ways — via email, through snail mail, or uploaded to an online portal — and the format of each invoice may vary, too.

Manually scanning, printing, emailing, and filing invoices consumes a lot of time — in fact, accountants spend up to 57% of their time on manual data entry alone. Quadient AP offers full-service invoice data capture, with optical character recognition and machine learning technologies — plus human verification — to capture header data with 99% accuracy. With line-item data capture included if needed, teams experience a drastic reduction in manual data entry — up to 83% in some instances.

Automatically approving invoices based on 3-way matching

Invoice approval is the next step in the AP process. As the procurement process evolves, it shifts from simple manual verification of invoice amounts, to confirming that the invoice and purchase order match — and further, that the goods receipt matches both documents. In other words, 3-way matching. For businesses that process a high volume of transactions, manually performing the 3-way matching function becomes practically impossible — at least without a high degree of error.

Quadient AP offers fully automated 2- and 3-way matching, ensuring consistency between invoice and purchase order, or invoice, purchase order, and goods receipt. You can either create purchase orders entirely within our PO module or import them from your ERP solution. Automating the 3-way matching process with Quadient AP greatly accelerates approval workflows and enhances the productivity of the AP department, while reducing the risk of error and fraud.

Feed to AP for payment

Once invoices are approved for payment, there's a whole host of other processes to navigate — as well as the potential for unnecessary complexity and risk. Handling the various payment methods demanded by each vendor, sending payments to different geographies, mitigating the risks associated with transferring funds without verification, processing any discounts previously agreed with vendors, the list goes on. There are myriad potential roadblocks at this stage of the AP workflow.

Quadient AP's payment module simplifies this process, offering vendor management, strong financial safeguards and certificates to minimize the risk of fraud, and lightning-fast execution — reducing late fees and helping to maintain strong vendor relationships.

Trends, challenges, and disruptors

The Forrester report also identifies trends, challenges, and disruptors within the AP automation sector:

The main trend is the delivery of AP automation via the SaaS model, and compliance with e-invoicing mandates.

The primary challenge is that "siloed systems" are causing "integration and communication issues".

And the top disruptor is of course advanced artificial intelligence, which Forrester identifies as "the new differentiator".

Quadient's take on the above

The main trend:

Most legacy ERP solutions are predominantly on-premises, but the world's leading providers are increasingly developing cloud-based systems. As accounting software transitions to the software as a service (SaaS) model, so must AP automation providers. Quadient AP is, of course, a SaaS solution — helping customers effortlessly embrace a cloud-based future. Our SmartSync technology offers best-in-class integration with the world's leading ERP solutions across providers and industries, and can easily adapt to the integration requirements of both on-premises and cloud-based ERP systems.

Although there are currently no e-invoicing mandates in the U.S. or Canada, the trend toward invoice standardization is clear — and it's happening all over the world. The benefits of e-invoicing are obvious, but this transition is not without its challenges from a business perspective — particularly for those that operate across multiple countries. Each country or region has its own subtly different e-invoicing standards, with potential implications for tax and compliance. 

Quadient AP is part of the Quadient Intelligent Communication Automation (ICA) suite of solutions, which also offers accounts receivable (AR) and intelligent document automation to fully prepare your business for mandatory e-invoicing.

Primary challenge

For most companies, digital transformation is an ongoing process — with new systems and processes sitting alongside legacy workflows. For finance professionals, budget control requires coordination and collaboration between numerous departments, with true visibility over the planning and purchase-to-pay processes. Paper-based manual workflows preclude that ability. Quadient AP integrates with both new and legacy accounting systems to effectively eliminate manual, paper-based AP workflows. By adopting Quadient AP, teams can centralize the approval process across multiple entities, take control over the purchase-to-pay process, and gain full visibility into their AP data with a straightforward dashboard and powerful reporting capabilities.

The top disruptor

AI could be considered the top disruptor in almost every industry — not just accounts payable. Quadient AP already employs machine learning for invoice data capture — a system that improves exponentially as more invoices are processed through our software. We're also working on specific, applied use cases for artificial intelligence and machine learning — including smart invoice coding and payment fraud prevention — keeping us at the cutting edge of "the new differentiator" in accounts payable.

Notable vendors

The bulk of Forrester's report is a series of tables listing the focus areas deployment models, and size of 33 AP automation providers. The report also lists these solutions with their self-selected top three extended use cases. So how do we believe Quadient AP stands out in this field?

Quadient AP and extended use cases

Quadient AP's automation solution is supported by leading technologies and next-gen architecture. It provides a futureproof solution with enterprise-level features, but the simplicity and ease-of-use SMEs demand. With fully compliant security features including single sign-on, tax compliance, 2- and 3-way PO matching, unlimited approval workflows, comprehensive reporting, and both single-instance and multi-entity support, our solution offers all the functionality a growing AP department requires. On top of that, our next-gen architecture provides an intuitive, user-friendly interface that allows for quick and easy implementation and operation.

Quadient AP stands out from the crowd by striking the perfect balance between feature richness and ease of operation — making it a truly scalable solution capable of growing alongside your business, without limiting your ambitions or pricing you out of the features you need.

Conclusion

We're extremely proud to have been included in the Forrester Accounts Payable Invoice Automation Landscape, Q4 2023 industry report. 

There are many AP automation solutions on the market, as seen in the 33 listed in the Forrester report, but we believe Quadient AP is uniquely positioned to have a transformative impact on your AP function.

Let us prove it to you. Contact us today to arrange a demo and we'll show what Quadient AP can do for your business.