Integrating Kofax AP Essentials Into Your Company's Workflows

In every business process, there's always room for improvement—the pursuit of perfection never ends, especially in workflows such as accounts payable. Often an area of business that still relies on paper-based processes and manual workflows, AP can also be a source of consistent problems. There are powerful modern solutions for bringing intelligent automation into this space, including Kofax AP Essentials.

How can you adopt and integrate this robust platform into your business so your teams work more effectively? Here's what you need to know.

What does AP Essentials offer to businesses?

With AP Essentials, companies can bring automation to one of the most mission-critical tasks: capturing, validating, and routing invoices for approval. This process typically requires a high amount of manual work because invoices may arrive from many channels, such as by email, via fax, or in the mail. Traditional methods are time-consuming and highly prone to errors.

AP Essentials uses exceptional OCR technology to automate the extraction and classification of data from invoices of all types. Advanced functionality includes 2- and 3-way matching solutions, data analysis, and more. There's no need to worry about creating yet another software silo in your business, either. AP Essentials is easy to integrate into your existing setup without major disruptions.

What can you do with effective integration?

Integrating an innovative automation solution into accounts payable lets you unlock the full benefits of a well-designed cloud-based platform. When you can set up a system that automatically ingests invoices from any point of arrival and begin the process of extracting its data, you bring agility to a typically slow process. When you can quickly pass data between your main business systems, including an ERP, you start unlocking benefits such as:

• Enhanced security and fewer opportunities for fraud or costly errors.
• Fewer needs for manual data correction.
• Eliminating the need for file drops.
• Greater visibility into the company's daily finances, and more

Getting started with integration is easy.

How does AP Essentials integrate into business systems?

You can choose to integrate accounts payable automation into your business in several ways. One common solution is integrating AP Essentials directly using the platform's API. Configuring this REST API is a straightforward process that will let you knit core business systems together more closely. Third-party platforms are also an option.

Another solution exists in the Kofax Marketplace, an online resource filled with professionally developed solutions for enhancing automation tools. The AP Essentials Integration Package contains several pre-built connectors facilitating simpler connections between the platform and major software systems. Connections available include:

• MySQL, Oracle, and OLEDB databases
• Microsoft SharePoint
• Laserfiche, Documentum, and many others

No-code data mapping ensures that even citizen developers inside an organization can actively participate in integrating and automating these workflows. You can use the integration package to transmit both extracted data and document images from their point of origin to your various business databases.

The Marketplace can facilitate other key integration opportunities, too. The AP Essentials Collector Converters Package is an ideal pairing for the integration package. Invoices may sometimes arrive in non-standard formats, such as an HTML file or a Microsoft Office document. The Collector Converters take this data and convert it into a format usable within AP Essentials, eliminating much of the need for manual intervention.

Choosing the right deployment method for your teams

Before adding new elements to business processes, best practices demand a careful consideration of the road ahead. Choosing the appropriate way to integrate AP Essentials into your business requires first looking at the existing process and determining where you need to make connections. Doing so ensures a clear goal for your automation project and an understanding of where the most crucial data hand-offs occur.

Once you've selected a method, invest appropriate time in setup and testing. Bring employees involved in the process up to speed on how to work effectively in conjunction with automation. Once you've assessed your needs, developed a solution, and tested it thoroughly, you can go live and start enjoying the future of work.

Explore Getting Started Today

The cost and time savings possible with effective accounts payable automation represents an incredible potential value for all kinds of businesses and organizations. Everyone needs to ensure the bills get paid on time—but not everyone does so as efficiently as possible. With a powerful automation suite and rich integration opportunities, a better way to work is possible.

When fully intertwined into your operations and extended with Marketplace solutions, AP Essentials offers the versatility and flexibility today's teams need. From reducing cost per invoice to a richer, more robust way of visualizing financial data, the opportunity to transform your financial processes exists right now. Find out more and explore the opportunities that the deep integration of advanced automation creates today.