Accounts Payable Vendor Portals: Streamline Your AP Process and Save Time and Money

Paying vendors requires you to inform vendors of the timeline, ensure their payment details are correct and confirm whether they have received the payment. All this is challenging and time-consuming to perform without the help of accounts payable vendor portals.

Vendor portals help your vendors gain visibility into where their invoices are stuck and when they can expect payment. They can also securely edit payment information or upload invoices without needing additional help from your accountants. 

What are AP vendor portals?

AP vendor portals allow vendors to view and manage invoices sent to your company for payment. It is a sneak peek for the vendor into the path of their invoice within your company. 

Vendor portals are typically online hosted platforms requiring a vendor sign-in. On entering the correct credentials, your vendor can view their invoices, which are yet to be paid, and payment history with the company. These portals are thus highly essential for both accounts payable and accounts receivable. 

Functions of an AP vendor portal

Invoice tracking

Tracking their invoices' stage is vital for vendors, but constantly following up with the AP department can be painful. With the help of AP vendor portals, vendors can easily track where their invoices are in the AP process - yet to be processed, awaiting approval, or already paid, without having to ask repeatedly. 

Payment tracking

Tracking payments can also become easy via a vendor portal, with check delivery tracking and predicted ACH or wire payment date. This also helps them easily verify payment dates against the due dates mentioned on the invoice, claiming late payment fees, if any. 

Vendor onboarding

Onboarding vendors and verifying their details can be a hassle for your AP and procurement departments. With the help of a vendor portal, you can quickly onboard your vendors and perform TIN matching without having to prepare and maintain long spreadsheets. 

Vendor communication 

You can also easily communicate with your vendors and resolve any issues via your AP platform with the help of vendor portals. These can be in the form of invoice comments or an inbuilt chatbox. 

Upload invoices and other documents

Invoices might get missed in long email threads and mails. Vendor portals allow vendors to upload invoices and other supporting documents directly, enabling easy access and tracking. The company can also easily track all vendor invoices via the AP software and perform invoice matching. 

Change payment modes

Vendors can also update or change their preferred payment method via the portal without the hassle of mailing and constantly following up. 

Historical data access

Vendors can also check their previous invoice payments when the contract was updated and how long the company takes to process the payment via the platform, allowing them to estimate when they will be paid and what goods or services have been billed. 

Gated login and accessibility

A vendor portal also creates a secure mode of communication between the company and its vendors via gated and secure logins. Some vendor portals can also be accessed via mobile phones and tablets, providing the vendor with good accessibility to the platform. This safeguards both the company and the vendors against invoice fraud. 

Benefits of AP vendor portal

AP vendor portal gives multiple benefits to both your company and your vendors. 

Improve vendor relationships

A vendor portal gives your vendor complete visibility into when their invoices will be paid and an effective mode of communication. This improves your relationship with your vendors, gaining you good negotiating power. 

Save time and money

Tracking down invoices, going through long emails and reverifying vendor’s payment information takes up much of your accountant’s time. Missing invoices and miscommunication might make you pay hefty late payment fees to your vendor. A vendor portal makes these tasks easier, saving you time and money. 

Safeguard yourself from frauds

Hackers nowadays can send over fake invoices or intercept an email thread to replace the vendor’s payment information with their own. Delivery of invoices and other communications via the AP vendor portal can safeguard you from such vendor fraud. 

Create a paper trail

Having a vendor portal also notes every movement of invoices, POs and other documents. This creates an elaborate accounts payable audit trail, making compliance easier. 

Ensure compliance

You can easily access all vendor documents on a single platform, such as W-9 forms and contracts. This lets you ensure your vendor complies with the government and other industry standards. 

Things to look for in a vendor portal 

Setting up the right AP software for your business can be tricky. You need to analyze your business needs and adhere to them before selecting a vendor. Here are a few things to consider before selecting a software suitable for you:

•  Select an AP automation software which integrates with your existing accounting systems. This ensures data flow between the two without any additional work. 
• Ensure your selected software allows payment through the platform via your vendor’s preferred payment modes. ClearTech’s AP automation software prints and mails checks for you at an economical rate. 
• With interactive vendor dashboards, both your vendor and you can check metrics such as payment trends, invoice frequency and percentage of early payment discounts captured. This allows you to be informed when extending the contract and negotiating further deals. 
• Some AP automation vendors, including ClearTech, allow you to communicate with your vendors while approving or rejecting an invoice via multiple mediums. This ensures accessible communication for both you and your vendors. 

Conclusion

Accounts payable vendor portals let your vendors know where their invoices are in the accounts payable process and when they will be paid. A common AP vendor portal contains functions like vendor onboarding, invoice and other documents upload, changing payment modes, accessing historical payment data, gated logins for vendors and secure communication. This helps improve vendor relationships and safeguard yourself from fraudulent practices. Maintaining an audit trail and ensuring compliance also gets more accessible with a vendor portal. Selecting a platform that integrates with your existing accounting systems and provides visibility, both for your vendor and you, is important. 

FAQs

• What is a vendor portal?

A vendor portal is a software interface for a vendor to upload invoices and view where their invoices are in the accounts payable process. 

• What is a customer portal?

A customer portal is an interface that allows a company's customers to view important metrics such as when payment is due, if any credit is available, etc. 

• What is the vendor portal used for?

A vendor portal is used to onboard vendors, upload invoices and other documents, view when your invoice will be paid and access historical invoice payment data. 

• What are the benefits of using a vendor portal?

A vendor portal helps improve communication between a company and its vendors, fostering better vendor relationships. It also creates transparency in the invoice payment process while safeguarding you from invoice fraud.