Tipalti, the supplier payments automation solution provider, have launched an new accounts payable automation platform for businesses. The holistic cloud-based solution, see figure below, features new invoice collection and approval technology, while streamlining the entire process of managing supplier payment operations: from supplier onboarding to tax compliance, invoice processing, global payment remittance, and payment reconciliation with ERP

Tiplati accounts payable automation platform

Source & Copyright©2016 - Tipalti Inc.

Expanding global supplier payments automation

The new solution builds on Tipalti’s successive years in the global supplier payments automation space. The enhanced Tipalti platform now manages the entire end-to-end AP operation including:

• Supplier Management: A brandable, web-based, self-service supplier portal to empower suppliers to enter and manage their own contact, payment, and tax details. Supplier data is validated using Tipalti’s proprietary Remittance Validation Engine that checks against over 26,000 international payment and regulatory rules to eliminate downstream payment errors and issues.
• Tax Compliance: A best-in-class AP tax compliance solution that helps reduce payer tax liability risk by providing an easy-to-use, web-based wizard questionnaire to collect W-8 and W-9 tax forms digitally from suppliers and then verifying the tax data provided against over a thousand rules, automatically calculating withholdings, and generating annual 1099 and 1042-S tax preparation reports. KPMG has concluded that Tipalti’s W-8 capability meets the standards as outlined by the IRS.
• Invoice Automation: Electronic invoice collection and approval workflow capability for effortless straight through processing of inbound invoices and automated payment scheduling. Invoice data automatically syncs with ERP solutions.
• Global Payment Remittance: A best-in-class payment remittance engine that pays suppliers anywhere in the world in a wide range of payment methods and currencies. Payment methods include US ACH, paper check, wire transfer, Global ACH (international local bank transfer), and other payment methods.
• Real-time Payment Reconciliation and AP Financial Reporting: Detailed payment reconciliation reports generate instantly, normalizing data across disparate payment methods and regions while feeding directly into ERP and GL accounting applications. A variety of additional detailed out-of-the-box financial reports are provided such as end-of-year 1099 and 1042-S tax preparation reports, including withholding as necessary.
• Enterprise-grade Cloud Platform: AICPA SSAE 16 SOC, ISAE 3402 Type II, multi-tenant cloud platform providing role-based access, signatory rights, configurable approval workflows, and API integration capabilities.

Overall impact

Tipalti claim that, “The addition of invoice automation, along with other platform enhancements, the solution can now help automate the entire end-to-end accounts payable process for enterprises with hundreds of invoices and supplier payments per month, reducing the amount of time finance departments spend managing supplier payment operations by 80 percent.” And that, “The expanded AP platform features new invoice automation technology that makes it easy for the accounts payable team to accomplish straight through invoice processing.”

User view: “Before Tipalti, our finance team was focused primarily on managing finance operations,” said Chanie Wiesenberg, Director of Finance of Seeking Alpha. “With Tipalti’s help, we are able to focus on deploying finance talent strategically across our business departments to accelerate growth, productivity, and profitability.”

Optimising supplier payments 

Corporate accounts payable departments might find Tipalti’s checklist identifies the 51 best practices that global accounts payable departments should institute to safeguard payments to a supplier or partner in optimising their supplier payments.