The 15 Best Accounts Payable Software & Solutions for 2024

‍Accounts payable software can efficiently manage large volumes of financial transactions between a company and its suppliers, while also automating ancillary activities such as approvals and reconciliations.

Most accounts payable solutions available today are either standalone products or part of a full stack accounting ERP. There are a variety of such tools available today, with varying levels of functionalities and features. In this article, we dive deep into the top 10 accounts payable software, their core offering, top features, ideal user/customer profiles, and their pricing.

What is accounts payable software?

Accounts payable software helps keep track of and streamline payables owed to external parties. Finance teams manage accounts payable end to end using AP software – from receiving/capturing and entering invoice data, categorizing and coding invoices, 3 way matching, approvals and final payment.

The best accounts payable solutions automate the most manually intensive and time-consuming tasks in the AP process workflow such as entering invoices, GL coding or posting to ERPs.

How does accounts payable software work?

Accounts payable software (without AP automation) works as follows:

• Receive supplier invoices with credit terms.
• Perform manual invoice data entry, including account coding, after matching invoices with supporting documents and verifying invoices for accuracy.
• Request and get invoice approvals from authorized approvers, and indicate invoice approval in the system.
• Schedule, make, and distribute invoice payments, recording payments that reduce the accounts payable balance.
• File paper-based invoices marked paid with supporting documents.

Manually completing these accounts payable processes in a traditional accounts payable software takes more time and AP staff than using AP automation software that’s integrated with your ERP system or accounting software.

When you integrate AP automation software with your accounts payable software, you’ll experience these advantages:

• Supercharge efficiency, reducing the need to hire extra staff
• Eliminate the need for manual processes and paper invoice filing and storage
• Reduce errors and fraud risks
• Gain visibility into cash requirements for paying invoices and your business spend
• Process and pay invoices quickly enough to earn early payment discounts, saving substantial money and increasing profitability

The top 15 AP software solutions: a detailed list

Let’s look at some of the best accounts payable software available in the market. We cover each software's core offering, its top features, prominent user/customer profiles, and a guesstimate of its pricing.

1. Nanonets

At its core, Nanonets is an intelligent automation AI for business processes and AP automation is one of its most popular use cases.

With Nanonets, companies get two distinct AP automation solutions - one for automating/streamlining existing accounts payable workflows and another that serves as a complete end-to-end AP automation solution. The key offerings are:

1. Manage supplier communication, process invoices in seconds, set up controls, gain visibility into spends, and streamline the financial close with an AI-based AP automation software.
2. Scan and approve invoices instantly, and make payments for free anywhere in the world. Reduce manual effort for your team by 10x.
3. Export to any ERP of your choice in a customized mapping.

It is a platform ideally suited for small-to-medium businesses that want to automate their AP process in a fully customizable yet scalable way.

Core Offering

• Automate data capture, build workflows and streamline existing AP processes completely
• End-to-end automated AP management - import, approve and pay invoices in the same platform

Best For

Small to medium businesses, large enterprises with legacy ERPs, accounting firms, multi-national businesses, and growing companies looking to formalise or automate their finance function

Pricing Details

• Starter plan is pay-as-you-go
• Pro and Enterprise plans are custom

2. Bill

Bill.com offers a range of financial automation tools particularly suited to freelancers, sole proprietors, and small businesses. In addition to AP automation, Bill.com offers flexible lines of credit to let owners smooth out cyclical business periods and facilitates a range of accounts receivable options that are ideal for smaller, nimbler firms that need cash quickly.

Bill.com syncs with software used by a range of clientele, including Oracle, Microsoft products, Slack, Quickbooks, and more. For individuals or small companies starting to expand beyond what they can reasonably manage manually, Bill.com is a simple, intuitive, no-frills option. Bill.com is one of the most popular accounts payable software for small business.

Are you an existing Bill.com user looking for an alternative? Check out our detailed post on the best Bill.com alternatives. Also check out this detailed comparison of Bill.com vs Tipalti to see how these popular AP software fare head to head.

Core Offering

Create and pay bills, send invoices, and get paid.

Best For

Freelancers, self-employed professionals, small businesses, independent accountants

Pricing Details

• Essentials plan (Accounts Payable) starts at $45/user/month
• Team plan (Accounts Payable) starts at $55/user/month
• Corporate plan (AP & AR) starts at $79/user/month
• Enterprise plan (AP & AR) requires custom pricing

‍

3. Airbase

Airbase combines a simplified user interface with advanced workflow customization and optimization. These traits create an enterprise-level AP automation solution that’s easily deployed company-wide with a quick learning curve.

Airbase’s approval flows are its highlight, as users can automate the entire stream to notify approval authorities as procurement proceeds, and those authorities can easily validate the request digitally. The approval flows are highly customizable, too, and clients can adapt the platform to suit their individual needs and address a variety of use cases - though full customization does take more work upon adoption, it pays dividends down the road.

Core Offering

Bill payments, corporate cards, expense reimbursements

Best For

Small businesses, independent accountants, mid-sized to enterprise-level businesses

Pricing Details

Airbase offers 3 quote-based plans that each require custom pricing:

• Standard (Up to ~200 employees)
• Premium (Up to 500 employees)
• Enterprise (Up to 5,000 employees)

4. Ramp

Ramp offers a range of financial products and automation solutions to businesses (mostly) concentrated within the tech sphere. Ramp is unique in that it offers a spectrum of services, including vendor management, corporate credit cards, and billing to smaller companies and startups that ultimately let leaders focus on growing the business.

The initial learning curve startups navigate when expanding their financial footprint is steep and costly from a time perspective. Entries, approvals, syncs, and more all take precious time that could be better spent managing the company. Ramp also offers payment management systems, including virtual cards and recurring billing, that let clients automate both payables and receivables.

Core Offering

All-in-one spend management, price intelligence, and automation

Best For

Large Enterprises, Mid Size Business, Non Profit, Public Administrations, Small Business

Pricing Details

Ramp offers 3 pricing plans:

• The Ramp plan starts at $0 per user/mo
• The Ramp Plus plan starts at $15 per user/mo
• The Ramp Enterpise plan requires a custom quote/pricing

5. Stampli

Stampli is tailor-made for companies with efficient and useful systems in place that want to bring AP automation into the fold. Stampli integrates with more than 70 existing ERPs, meaning you can fold AP automation and improved management into your existing ecosystem with minimal hassle or adoption difficulty.

Stampli’s plug-and-play, modular nature also makes it a top pick for companies actively seeking M&A, as integrating an acquisition’s workflows and books into your own is simplified via Stampli compared to manual methods or trying to migrate the processes and systems via brute force.

Check out this detailed comparison Stampli vs Tipalti to see how these popular AP software fare head to head.

Core Offering

AP communication, document workflows, and payments

Best For

Small and midsized businesses

Pricing Details

Stampli only offers quote-based plans/pricing

6. Tipalti

Tipalti targets the “next-gen” eCommerce market by letting businesses automate their payables to affiliate marketers, freelancers, and similar unique contractor positions that primarily operate digitally. True to form, Tipalti’s vision extends beyond national borders as the platform lets clients pay vendors in more than 200 local currencies.

Tipalti syncs with more obscure affiliate and influencer platforms that other AP automation tools don’t even consider, so it’s a digital marketing team’s best friend. At the same time, by automating those payments, Tipalti helps companies keep their affiliate or influencer campaigns going without operational disruption and keeping their brand top-of-mind.

Check out these detailed comparisons of Tipalti vs Bill.com and Tipalti vs Stampli to see how these popular AP software fare head to head.

Core Offering

Accounts payable and global payables management

Best For

Small to medium-sized businesses

Pricing Details

Tipalti offers two scaled pricing plans:

• Tipalti Express starts at $149 per month
• Tipalti Advanced is quote-based

7. AvidXchange

AvidXchange focuses on B2B middle-market clients - too big for basic startup financial automation tools but not yet needing cumbersome enterprise-level solutions. AvidXchange streamlines vendor payments by nesting itself within your existing accounting software or ERP, meaning you don’t need to rewrite standard operating procedures in order to automate accounts payable.

AvidXchange’s middle-market focus means it also has a host of account managers standing by ready to help deploy AP automation, rather than leaving financial teams on their own to figure out AP best practices leveraging the software.

Core Offering

AP automation and bill payment software

Best For

Medium to large middle-market companies

Pricing Details

AvidXchange only offers quote-based plans

9. Netsuite

NetSuite, owned by Oracle, offers a comprehensive suite (hence the name) of accounting, inventory management, payroll, vendor management, and more tools to small and medium businesses and enterprise-level clients. 

NetSuite is cloud-based, ideal for dispersed teams or companies that demand frequent travel. NetSuite also integrates CRM tools to create a single-stop management platform that encompasses the most common accounting, financial, and management needs that SMBs experience. Because of its wide-ranging features, NetSuite is also popular amongst startup founders who expect rapid scaling and don’t want to switch platforms as they grow. 

Core Offering

Project management, advanced accounting, procurement

Best For

Startups, small-to-medium-sized businesses

Pricing Details

Netsuite only offers quote-based plans

10. Xero

Xero offers cloud-based accounting services targeting the small business segment. Xero helps maintain flawless records, whether fed by digital or manual sources and automates processes to save time while generating unique business intelligence insights and data management.

Core Offering

Payment processing, records management, bills, and expense management

Best For

Small businesses

Pricing Details

• Early: $3.75/month
• Growing: $10.50/month
• Established: $19.50/month

11. MineralTree

MineralTree helps a range of business sizes manage accounts payable and their payment ecosystem by offering an end-to-end AP platform to automate and streamline accounts payable. MineralTree also helps smooth out the rough edges B2B operators often experience when managing multiple payment platforms or ecosystems by building an automated series of tools to ensure accurate payments are made on time. 

Core Offering

B2B payment management, accounts payable

Best For

Medium or larger businesses; B2B operators

Pricing Details

MineralTree only offers quote-based plans

12. QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks is one of the most popular “one-stop shop” digital accounting software options available to small and medium-sized businesses. The software helps owners manage a range of financial and accounting services, including income and expense tracking, inventory management, payroll, and similar basic accounting functions.

Since Quickbooks is one of the most commonly-used platforms, there’s a host of existing documentation, user guides and a host of QuickBooks add-ons to help even the most inexperienced founders and owner/operators integrate advanced financial services into their daily business operations. And, since Quickbooks Online is a browser-based platform, it’s ideal for digital nomads and remote workers used to doing business in a variety of locales that may not have the digital infrastructure to support more demanding software.

Core Offering

Accounting software that also handles expenses, payroll, stock tracking, bank reconciliation, automating workflows, and more

Best For

Smal and mid sized businesses

Pricing Details

QuickBooks Online offers 4 pricing plans:

• Simple Start starts at $30/mo
• Essentials starts at $60/mo
• Plus starts at $90/mo
• Advanced starts at $200/mo

13. Sage Intacct

Sage Intacct leverages next-gen cloud technology to deliver advanced business solutions to small and medium-sized businesses, including customer satisfaction management, procurement and supply chain functions, business intelligence, compliance, and inventory. 

Sage Intacct serves as another “one-stop shop” for users seeking a holistic financial backbone to support expansion or more complex transactions while saving time and effort through automation. The company also hosts frequent user informational sessions and webinars to help clients maximize the platform’s benefits.

Core Offering

AICPA-endorsed ERP software

Best For

SMall to medium businesses and accountants

Pricing Details

Sage Intacct only offers quote-based plans

14. SAP Concur

SAP Concur is part of the SAP ecosystem and one of the top choices for businesses that send employees offsite frequently. SAP Concur offers various travel and expense management services, including guided trip documentation, automated expensing, expedited invoicing and more. Since travel spend tends to balloon quickly, SAP Concur also leverages AI and analytics to help owners identify spending trends and prevent overspending. 

SAP Concur ultimately helps employees deliver the best value to offsite clients by letting them focus on the task at hand rather than fighting to manually upload expense tickets or juggle time zone complexities when trying to manage spending accounts overseas.

Core Offering

Manage invoices, expenses and employee travel

Best For

Medium to large businesses with more than 1000 employees

Pricing Details

SAP Concur only offers quote-based plans.

15. Lightyear

Lightyear helps users combat fraud, waste, and abuse by offering advanced Purchase Order workflows that leverage 3-way matching to ensure the right amount of cash is allocated to the right receivable. Lightyear’s invoice storage solutions also help clients shield against audit risk by offering an accessible, perennial depository to easily reference past invoicing quickly.  

Lightyear also leverages advanced OCR technology to ensure users can migrate a range of invoicing documentation - PDF, XML, pen and paper - into that digital repository accurately and simply.

Core Offering

Intelligent purchasing and accounts payable

Best For

SMEs to large businesses and multi national companies

Pricing Details

Lightyear offers 3 pricing plans:

• Starter starts from $125 per month
• Business starts from $199 per month
• Enterprise starts from $1199 per month