Bank Of America Rolls Out AP Automation Platform

To help businesses automate and digitize their accounts payable (AP) divisions, Bank of America is rolling out Complete AP. The offering can be connected with nearly all enterprise technology, according to a Wednesday (April 21) announcement.

Complete AP digitizes vendor invoices, sending that documentation for coding and approval by the way of a digital portal. Firms using this offering have a complete view into invoices and payments in addition to being able to manage them.

After the AP workforce chooses an invoice for payment, Complete AP makes a payment through an automated clearing house (ACH), virtual card or check, whatever is in line with the vendor’s preference.

Brad Garfield, global head of Commercial Card Product in Global Transaction Services at Bank of America, said that a number of firms don’t notice their back-office treasuries as places to locate efficiencies or set as a focus for technology investments. Instead, they put greater importance on “the more visible revenue-generating initiatives of their business,” Garfield said.

“With Bank of America Complete AP, however, a company can quickly see results from reduced manual processing and human error while also improving employee and vendor satisfaction,” Garfield said.

The bank described Complete AP as a “holistic AP solution” — not just a technology offering. To that end, Complete AP’s servicing team handles communications for the client.

Candidates for the Bank of America Complete AP offering would be companies that have a “dispersed back office,” wish to centralize AP and that presently handle over 200 invoices monthly with over three-quarters of overall payments provided by check, according to the announcement.

“Complete AP could be the perfect solution for a company looking to advance its digital transformation and reduce friction caused by manual invoice processes and paper-based payments,” Stephanie Wolf, head of Global Financial Institutions, Governments and Business Banking in Global Transaction Services at Bank of America, said in the announcement.

Separately, corporate automation software company Kofax rolled out the latest iteration of its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Kofax AP Agility system, which has the functionality to “digitally transform” AP processes.