Accounts payable is rarely glamorous work, but it's an area where inefficiency compounds quickly. A client who processes 80 invoices a month manually — chasing approvals via email, re-entering data, reconciling payments against statements at month end — is probably spending 8–12 hours on a process that could take 2–3 with the right setup. As their bookkeeper, improving that process is a real service you can offer, and it usually pays for itself within the first billing cycle.
Here's the streamlined AP framework I use with clients across a range of business sizes.
Audit the Current Process First
Before redesigning anything, spend 30 minutes mapping what actually happens. Ask the client (or their accounts person) to walk you through the last five supplier invoices from receipt to payment. You'll often find:
- Invoices arriving across multiple channels — email, post, WhatsApp, hand-delivered — with no single capture point
- Approval happening via verbal confirmation, sticky notes, or a shared email inbox with no audit trail
- Data entry happening twice: once by whoever logs the invoice, once by you when you reconcile
- Supplier statements being reconciled only at year end (or not at all)
Document the process as it is, including who touches each invoice and how long each step takes. This becomes the baseline you're improving from, and it's useful for selling the change internally to the client's team.
Centralise Invoice Capture
The first improvement is always the same: get all invoices into one place. The two practical options for Australian small businesses are:
Email-to-capture tools. Most cloud accounting platforms (Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks Online) have a dedicated bills inbox email address. Train suppliers to send invoices directly to that address, and incoming bills are automatically queued for coding and approval. For suppliers who won't change their habits, set up an email forward from the client's accounts@ address.
Mobile scanning. For invoices that arrive physically — tradespeople, hardware suppliers, vets, hospitality suppliers — a mobile scanning app like Hubdoc, Dext, or the built-in capture in cloud accounting platforms works well. The client photographs the invoice on their phone and it flows into the same queue.
The goal is a single AP inbox where every invoice lives from the moment it arrives. This alone eliminates the "I can't find that invoice" conversations that derail month-end.
Digitise Approval Workflows
For businesses with multiple cost centres or directors who need to sign off above a threshold, paper-based or email-based approvals create bottlenecks and leave no audit trail. Modern AP tools allow you to configure:
- Auto-approval for recurring, low-value bills from known suppliers (e.g., utilities, software subscriptions under $500)
- Single approver for bills from a defined list of suppliers or under a dollar threshold
- Two-step approval for capital items, unfamiliar suppliers, or anything over a nominated threshold
The specific thresholds depend on the client's size and risk appetite. A sole trader probably doesn't need any formal approval workflow. A 20-person business absolutely should have one.
Approval audit trails are also useful during ATO reviews — they demonstrate that payments were authorised and correspond to legitimate business expenses.
Implement a Weekly Payment Run
Ad hoc payments — where invoices are paid as they arrive or when the director remembers — are one of the biggest hidden time costs in AP. Every payment requires opening the banking portal, entering details, double-checking the invoice, and confirming. Multiply that by 20 invoices spread over a fortnight and it adds up fast.
A weekly payment run changes the economics entirely. Batch all approved, due invoices on a fixed day (Tuesday or Wednesday works well, giving time to clear before the weekend) and process them together. Benefits include:
- One login session instead of 20
- Easier bank reconciliation — a batch payment is one line to match
- Leverage for early payment discounts with key suppliers
- Predictable cash flow for the client
Most clients resist this initially ("what if a supplier needs payment urgently?") but come around quickly once they experience the time saving. Keep a small "emergency" exception process for genuine urgent payments.
Reconcile Supplier Statements Monthly, Not Annually
One of the most underused AP controls is regular supplier statement reconciliation. For clients with regular suppliers — building materials, wholesale goods, professional services retainers — request statements monthly and reconcile them against the bills captured in the system.
This catches:
- Invoices the supplier sent that the client never received (common with postal mail)
- Duplicate invoices processed by error
- Credits and adjustments not yet applied
- Disputed transactions before they become overdue
A monthly supplier reconciliation for the top 10 suppliers takes less than an hour once the process is set up. Waiting until year end means 12 months of discrepancies to untangle.
Measure the Improvement
Once the new process is running, track the metrics that matter:
- Average processing time per invoice (from receipt to payment)
- Number of invoices processed per hour of bookkeeper time
- Overdue supplier invoices at month end
- Supplier query volume (calls or emails asking about payment status)
Most clients see a 40–60% reduction in AP processing time within the first three months. When you can show a client concrete numbers — "we've cut your AP time from 10 hours a month to 4, saving you approximately $X in bookkeeper fees" — it builds the kind of trust that retains clients for years.
Summary
Accounts payable improvement doesn't require expensive software or a lengthy implementation project. It requires a clear-eyed assessment of where time is being lost, a centralised capture point for invoices, a structured approval workflow, and the discipline of a weekly payment run. For most Australian small businesses, these four changes alone will halve their AP processing time — and make your job as their bookkeeper significantly more straightforward at month end.