Accounts payable
In your bookkeeping fee no separate AP subscription
- Bill capture and coding
- Accountant review, weekly or daily
- Open payables, always current
- Payments matched to bills
Automation · Money in and out
Automated accounts payable systems that stop bills getting lost or paid twice.
Excello's automated accounts payable systems capture every vendor bill, code it to the right account and track it until it is paid, inside the QuickBooks, Xero or Odoo you already use.
Accountants review the coding every week or every business day, flag duplicates and match each payment to its bill when it clears, so your payables are always current.
Bills are paid from your own bank or bill-pay tool, and every payment is matched in the books.
- Payables
- Bills captured on arrival
- Coding reviewed weekly or daily
- Due dates tracked
- Payments matched as they clear
Lost invoices, re-keyed data and bills paid twice
The cost of manual payables
How Excello handles accounts payable, from bill to books
Four steps
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Step 01
Capture
Bills are forwarded by email or dropped in a shared folder. Software reads the vendor, dates, line items, totals and payment terms.
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Step 02
Code
Each bill is matched to its vendor and given an account code, and accountants check the codes and tax details every week or every business day.
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Step 03
Track
Open bills sit in your ledger as payables with their due dates, so the list of open payables always shows what is owed and when.
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Step 04
Match
When your team pays a bill, the payment is matched to it and the payable cleared. Everything reconciles at the close.
What is an automated accounts payable system?
Definitions
Inside the automated invoice processing system
| Field on the bill | How it is handled |
|---|---|
| Vendor | Read from the bill and matched to an existing vendor record, or set up as a new one |
| Invoice number and date | Read from the bill, and checked against earlier bills to catch duplicates |
| Line items | Read from the bill and kept with the entry for reference |
| Amount and tax | Read from the bill and checked against the line items |
| Payment terms and due date | Read from the bill so the payable is tracked to the right date |
| Account code | Proposed by software from past coding, then reviewed by an accountant every week or every business day |
Automated accounts payable system reviews: how to compare
A buyer's view
| What to compare | Self-serve AP software | Excello |
|---|---|---|
| Who reviews the coding | Your team, bill by bill | Accounting experts, weekly or daily |
| Where the bills live | A separate AP platform synced to your ledger | Inside your own QuickBooks, Xero or Odoo |
| Duplicates and discrepancies | Flagged for your team to investigate | Flagged and investigated by accountants |
| Matching payments to bills | Your team reconciles | Matched as payments clear, reconciled at month-end |
| What you pay for | A subscription plus the staff time to operate it | Included in the monthly bookkeeping fee |
Automated invoice processing software pricing
What it costs
Automated accounts payable best practices
Controls that scale
Automation handles the volume. These five controls protect your cash as that volume grows.
Centralize bill intake
Ask every vendor to send bills to one monitored address, so nothing lives in someone's personal inbox.
Set approval thresholds
Require a second approver above an amount that suits your business, so large payments always get two sets of eyes.
Separate approving from paying
The person who approves a bill should not be the person who releases the payment.
Verify changed bank details
Confirm any new vendor bank instructions by phone before paying, to stop payment redirection fraud.
Reconcile payables every month
Match the aged payables list to the ledger at month-end, so the balance sheet shows what you really owe.
Payables that live in your existing ledger
Nothing to migrate
Frequently asked questions
What is an automated accounts payable system?
An automated accounts payable system captures vendor bills, reads their details and codes them to the right accounts. It then tracks what is owed until it is paid. At Excello, accountants review that coding every week or every business day inside your existing ledger.
Which bills can Excello process?
Supplier invoices, utility bills and software subscriptions, whether they arrive as PDFs, scans or forwarded emails. Unusual documents such as progress billings go straight to an accountant, who records them by hand.
Who approves and pays the bills?
Your team does, from your own bank or bill-pay tool, using the approval process you already have. Excello records each bill, keeps the aged payables list current and matches every payment to its bill as soon as it clears.
Do you need access to our bank account?
Read-only bank and card feeds are enough. Excello uses them to match payments to bills and reconcile your accounts, and all payment permissions stay with your team.
What happens if a bill is wrong or a duplicate?
It is flagged before it is recorded. Duplicate invoice numbers, repeated amounts and changed vendor details are checked against past bills, and an accountant contacts you before anything unclear goes into your books.
What does accounts payable automation cost?
It is included in Excello's monthly bookkeeping fee, so there is no separate AP software subscription. The fee is fixed and quoted up front, based on your monthly bill volume, the number of vendors and accounts, and any multi-currency needs.