The effectiveness of your AP tools can make or break your finance team’s success. As businesses strive for growth, future-proofing processes become imperative to effective decision-making. It’s no longer viable to consider only the current needs of your organisation; management must think to the future, anticipate growth potential, and ensure they are selecting the correct tools to aid long-term business success.
Let’s take a look at how decision-makers can navigate choosing the right AP provider to link seamlessly with Xero’s accountancy software. With the aim of overcoming future AP challenges, we’ll explore ways to align your current and future software requirements.
Confirm your budget
The most obvious but often forgotten starting point is finding a provider that fits within your budget. Make sure to clarify the budget you have available and select providers that fit within this range. You should also consider:
How does the pricing work as your business scales? For example, are you charged per user, per entity or per document?
Are there additional charges for premium features?
Are there additional support or set up fees?
Evaluate your position
Take a step back from the day to day running of your finance team. Establish current areas that need improving. This could be identifying bottlenecks in processes, recurring errors or incompatibility between Xero and your AP solution.
Once you’ve pinpointed your current challenges, think of the company's 5 year plan. Some questions you could ask are:
Is the business planning to increase staff?
Will be operating globally?
Are we going to establish additional entities?
Do we plan on integrating other technology?
Create a requirements list
When you have a clear picture of the businesses goals, it becomes easier to create a requirements list for your new AP solution. Areas to consider for the future include:
Product development: Is the system you’re considering continuously developing. There may be requirements in the future that you have not thought about.
Scalability: Is the system robust enough to handle your business growth?
Flexibility: Are you able to create customised workflows, tracking or reporting?
Download our checklist
Stay on top of planning and research when looking for a new software provider by using our detailed checklist
Assess integration capabilities
When selecting an AP provider, it’s crucial that it is able to integrate with your existing systems easily, whether that be your Xero accounts package or other 3rd party apps. Things you should consider:
Does it offer API integration?
What information is passed between applications?
How easy is the integration to set up?
Take the time to research if they have other Xero customers successfully using the system. Check to see if the important information you need like supplier details or PDF invoices are exported to Xero.
Only 27% of business buyers purchase software that meets or exceeds their expectations without compromise.
Capterra
Research support services
Moving to a new solution can be daunting, however, having the right support services available will take the stress off your team so they can continue to focus on their finance roles. Ask your potential provider:
What type of support is available: Telephone, email, live chat, online or in person
Do they offer transitional support in the beginning?
Do they have case studies from other Xero customers?
Key Takeaways
Selecting the right AP provider that works seamlessly with your Xero software can be straightforward if you follow and stick to a process. Key points to consider include:
