Accounts payable automation is becoming increasingly important for middle-market businesses as the COVID-19 pandemic exposes the limitations of manual, paper-based financial processes. With employees working remotely and companies focused on protecting cash flow, businesses have greater motivation to modernize invoicing, payments, and other back-office operations.
AvidXchange’s Boost Your Business Program is designed to accelerate that transition by helping companies move from manual processes to electronic invoicing and payments. The initiative provides businesses with a faster path to automating the invoice-to-pay cycle while reducing their reliance on paper checks and labor-intensive accounts payable tasks.
This announcement is posted in Cision and discusses a new program launched by AvidXchange, the Charlotte-based payments automation company that targets primarily middle market companies that need digital financial processes. The new initiative is called Boost your Business Program and appears to be an accelerated onboarding process for the invoice-to-pay cycle.
The pandemic has been motivating many corporates to review their analog processes and systems for a more modern approach given the work at home scenarios and inefficiencies of manual work. So the heretofore tepid adoption of digital financial operations among smaller firms has been given a kick in the pants due to cash flow issues for the most part.
“Three out of four businesses have adopted new technologies during the pandemic because they know investing wisely in core operations is key to creating new growth in 2021,” said Michael Praeger, CEO and Co-Founder of AvidXchange. “We conceptualized this new program specifically for companies that are still burdened by antiquated back office processes. By helping them shift to e-invoicing and e-payments, we’re pivoting their entire finance team to focus on what really matters right now – bolstering the balance sheet for the year ahead.”
We started hearing about this sea change as early as April, but the pace of change has been even more accelerated than we would have thought. In effect, smaller firms have fewer barriers to adoption and now a higher motivation to modernize the cash cycle given the working capital implications. Firms like AvidXchange are in position to capitalize on this wave utilizing APIs for faster implementation.
‘After automating with AvidXchange, customers continue to receive support from dedicated services teams, including a 400-person supplier services team that alleviates the burden of fielding payment inquiries and maintaining supplier payment preferences so AP managers can focus on more value-add tasks. AvidXchange offers multiple e-payment options through the AvidPay Network of more than 680,000 suppliers, helping customers minimize the need to send paper checks by paying via virtual card or AvidPay Direct (APD), AvidXchange’s enhanced ACH option.’
The pandemic is accelerating digital transformation among businesses that previously had fewer incentives to replace established financial processes. For middle-market companies, accounts payable automation can provide greater efficiency while helping finance teams improve visibility and devote more attention to cash flow and working capital.
Programs designed to simplify implementation can also remove barriers that have slowed adoption. By combining electronic invoicing with payment options such as virtual cards and ACH, businesses can automate more of the invoice-to-pay cycle and reduce their dependence on paper.
As companies continue adapting their operations to remote work and economic uncertainty, automation is becoming more than an efficiency initiative. Modernizing accounts payable can help businesses build more resilient financial operations while positioning themselves for growth.
Overview by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
