Five AP best practices to increase efficiency

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How to Increase Accounts Payable Efficiency

‍We’ve all seen the worst of AP:

• Paper bills that pile up in the finance office as they await manual data entry
• Complex approval chains, where chasing down the right signature can take days or weeks
• Outdated or isolated accounting software that offers fragmented visibility into vendor relationships and company spend

Now, let’s consider the best. Innovative platforms are transforming AP into a fast, easy, and automated process, with tools that offer real-time insights into your corporate finances.

Rho is helping to lead the way on AP efficiency, with smart solutions built right into our business banking suite. Rho’s AP tools sync directly with your accounting software, so you can receive, approve, organize, and pay all of your invoices on a centralized dashboard, instantly reconcile your expenses, and quickly close your books.

Here are five tips straight from Rho’s playbook to make your AP speedy, secure, and hassle-free.

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Go paperless.

Traditional paper invoices generate a lot of friction and frustration. If you’re still receiving hard copies, someone on your team likely spends hours typing the details of each bill into your financial program and troubleshooting input errors. Paper invoices can also get lost in the clutter or misfiled, resulting in missed payments, late fees, and unhappy vendors.

With platforms like the Rho business banking suite, invoices are directed to a dedicated AP inbox. From there, data is automatically uploaded, populated, and mapped to your company’s accounting codes, saving your team valuable time and energy.

Since digital copies are stored on the system, authorized team members can retrieve whatever information they need remotely, without having to ask someone to email, scan or fax materials. With quick, straightforward access to invoice data, payments need never again fall through the cracks.

02

Streamline approvals.

Identifying which managers need to review and approve which invoices—and then tracking them down—can hold up important payments and lead to misunderstandings.

Unified platforms like Rho were created with business teams in mind.

It’s easy to customize permissions and automate approval flows based on factors like department or dollar amount, with smart controls determining which and how many approvals are required for each invoice. For example, larger invoices might call for more (and higher-up) authorizations, while smaller charges may just need one quick sign-off.

Ultimately, this leads to greater oversight and accountability, a clear audit trail, and a collaborative approach to finance—with tighter security and less interruptions to everyone’s workday.

03

Make payments—and your AP tools—fast and fee-free.

With traditional AP tools, it’s not unusual to wait 4 to 5 days for payments to clear or to incur fees on each ACH transfer. Even at $0.35 per ACH, those costs can add up for a growing business.

Worst of all, you’re usually expected to pay for these services through monthly SaaS subscriptions. SaaS rates alone could set your business back thousands of dollars—not to mention the fees tacked onto each and every payment.  

Today, you can get fee-free access to AP tools through a complete business banking platform and choose from a variety of no-fee payment options.

Rho offers advanced AP functionalities through its digital business banking suite at no extra cost and with no additional software. Global payments—including domestic ACH, international SWIFT wires*, and checks—are always free of charge and executed with just a few clicks. Funds are withdrawn directly from your account, meaning payments will be crossed off your to-do list in a matter of hours.

*International wires in USD can be subject to additional fees set by recipient, correspondent, or intermediary banks, in addition to the SWIFT network.

04

Integrate with accounting.

Balancing statements and transactions is an essential part of every business’s finances, but it can be a headache when banking and accounting tools are on disconnected platforms.

Rho’s AP solutions sync directly with your accounting software, so all invoices and expenses are captured and reconciled automatically—significantly reducing AP workloads, processing times, and mistakes. The less platforms you have to juggle to close your books, the better.

05

Get instant, in-depth reporting.

If you’re tracking and analyzing company spend across multiple systems—or worse, across multiple spreadsheets—you’re probably getting a limited view of your overall financial performance.

You need a smart, responsive platform that gathers and sorts all of your financial data in one place. That way, you can get a high-level overview of your finances or take a deep dive into unique payee profiles to better understand how each vendor or service works within and impacts your business.

Rho’s intuitive, centralized interface reports transactions across your organization in real time, providing you with instant visibility and insights into your expenses and liquidity. You can use integrated budgeting tools to weigh team performance against departmental budgets or advanced accounting metrics to track the entire journey of an invoice from coding to approval to payment.

Having a single, comprehensive dashboard for all your AP needs makes collaborating on finances simple, safe, and accessible for your entire team.

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Make a move

Business banking technologies have advanced considerably in recent years, which means there’s no need to be stuck with a tiresome and inefficient AP process.

If you’re looking for somewhere to start, Rho offers fee-free, easy AP tools as part of our integrated business banking suite. Visit our AP hub to learn more about our AP services and how they work in tandem with our commercial banking platform, global payment options, and corporate cards.

Why Rho?

We’re building smart, intuitive banking solutions that help businesses tackle their finances safely as a team. Chat with our expert team to find out what our platform can do for you.

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