Quadient Accounts Payable Automation Reviews

Pros

Everything is electronic. Subs/Vendors can email their invoices directly to our Beanworks, which cuts down on incoming mail. Approvers can be located in various locations and still access and approve even via mobile. The search features to find an invoice are exceptional.

Cons

Since their recent update the PDF files are much smaller outside of Beanworks which is NOT great.

Pros

Document Flow, Sync with SAGE 300, Audit trail for approvals

Cons

Payment feature through a 3rd party. Nvoicepay is not always in sync with SAGE APA or SAGE 300. The change in Customer Support was not an improvement. Still waiting for minor fixes.

Pros

The product is easy to implement, configure and put to use.

Cons

Recently implemented the tool faced the following challenges -
- Customer support sucks, no SLA adhered. Subscribed for 2 hours of support to realize there are no timelines called 2 hours.
- Not able to process any USD Invoices as claimed by the product team. Needs to be processed and entered manually outside Beanworks.
- A single report can handle only 80 invoices in it. But if want to select more than 80, which is normal for any large organization, need to report a separate report each time, which sucks and defeats the entire purpose of automation.
- The line description on the HST line doesn't get posted in GP Ledger from Beanworks and again we need to manually copy and paste the description before the Invoices get posted in ERP.
- The expense Module doesn't have the OCR Capabilities and requires manual entry by the users of all the receipts, which is not the case with some other AP Automation tools.

Alternatives Considered

SAP Concur

Reasons for Switching to Quadient Accounts Payable Automation

We chose because of the Sales pitch which claims all is possible in Beanworks.

Pros

Friendly and accessible customer service

Cons

Inability to lock a date from being input; after the close, we do not want billing dates for the closed quarter to be input, and Beanworks does not offer an option for this. Also, sync errors are difficult to find and no alerts for such as given.

Pros

The implementation process was the easiest I have ever experienced.

Cons

No negative aspects so far. We would only wish for the Purchase Order Module to be a bit more robust.

Pros

It is good at reading handwritten words. More than I would have expected.

Cons

There is room for improvement in the area of integration. There are instances of duplicate entries on rare occasions.

Alternatives Considered

Stampli

Reasons for Switching to Quadient Accounts Payable Automation

It would definitely integrate with our accounting software and it was questionable how/if it would integrate well with Stampli.

Pros

A great tool for automating a lot of accounting work, such as payroll, invoices, vacations, expenses, and payments. Cost savings, especially for small and medium-sized companies. Easy to integrate with other accounting software.

Cons

There are no major negatives that prevent the program from working successfully, but it may need to add some features to increase work efficiency. Also, please reduce the price a little.

Pros

Easy to use, easy to set up, customer-friendly software. Very fast and responsive. Excellent customer service department as well.

Pros

Support has been fantastic. I love the exporting to excel

Cons

It does not provide a receiving function. Especially with Po's that have multiple lines. This creates a lot more time to create a PO for each service on Projects.

Pros

I like the smart code functionality the most. It takes the most recently approved invoice's expense coding and applies it to the same vendor with a simple tap of the button. The approval process is also simple and easy for other departments to pick up. And my absolute favorite thing about Beanworks is their customer service. You will always get a response and more often than not, it will help address the issue you're having.

Cons

There are times that the invoice number was inputted incorrectly so it is unable to pick up a duplicate invoice. This happens rarely and can be prevented by reviewing Beanworks' work on the backend.

Pros

This Accounts Payable solution has brought our business into the 21st century and we could not be happier with the result. All of our invoices and corresponding payment information is now available with a few clicks of a mouse. We no longer need to store mountains of banker boxes filled with obsolete records to maintain our data archive for historical record audit -- saving us valuable internal space and saving money as we no longer need to call a professional shredding company to purge old records. Our approval workflow was customized to our business and we now have a complete audit log noting each person's approval and processing of every invoice. All of the corresponding invoice data syncs seamlessly with our ERP software so there is minimal data entry which has saved our AP personnel a significant amount of time on a previously tedious clerical task.

Cons

Originally when we signed up with Beanworks, the company was unable to print our account number on the physical checks mailed to our vendors. This meant that bills for credit cards or utilities were still paid manually so we could include the information. As of 2018, we can now print our account number on vendor checks so this problem has been alleviated. One note is that you will still need to print your own check should you need to include any paperwork with the physical check as the check printing service is a third-party provider so only the check itself is mailed to the vendor.

Pros

Beanworks is a true AP Workflow application that seems to cover all aspects of the Accounts Payable process. From invoice electronic capture, invoice coding, invoice approval, payment selection, payment approval, payment authorization and cheque issuance, it is an all encompassing piece of software. Bottom line, it works as advertised!!

Cons

If there is something I can say I like the least about the software, it would have to be the per transaction cost. Although I can appreciate everything the software offers and so I understand and can justify the need for the per transactional cost, one must keep in mind that as volumes increase, so can your monthly fees. As a result, no matter how good it works, the cost may not make it appropriate for everyone. For us however, well worth the investment!!

Pros

Beanworks is easy to use and manage. I like that we can upload the invoices, code, and have them reviewed by different departments. It's also amazing how it links to Jonas with updated information. It keeps everything organized and if I need to view anything in particular, the search options are very helpful. They are just one click away. It is also nice to write in comments to communicate with other departments. I like how I can create customized reports for payments and invoices as well.

Cons

There are some instances where I have to do manual checks in Jonas, but I am not able to mark those invoices as paid in Beanworks, only having the option to mark the invoice as "do not pay."

Pros

Very easy to use, logically designed and very intuitive to pick up. Amazing, extremely helpful customer service - issues are dealt with immediately and resolved well. Good at picking up our internal general ledger coding categories. Great for our organization, where we have a lot of remote/travelling staff who are able to approve invoices/payments from anywhere.

Cons

As of yet, we aren't able to send wire transfers to the US because we are a Canadian not-for-profit, so this is done outside of BeanworksAP. In the case of a vendor with multiple locations who has non-centralized accounting (so each location has it's own finance team), the system sometimes gets confused on which vendor address to select (because all locations have the same name but different addresses).

Pros

ease of use, practical, keeps a record of all invoices for easy lookup, approval channel so authorized approvers can see and approve invoices in timely manner

Cons

little bugs once in a while but they are quickly remedied. inability to change approval channels. this may be more company specific and attached to function vs actual software limitation.

Pros

I find BeanworksAP to be very easy to use and very versatile. Beanworks service team is always quick and friendly.

Cons

I least like when an user wants to reject an invoice, it goes all the way back to the starting point, when sometimes it just needs to go back one approval level.

Pros

That it feeds to Sage 100. Less papers to handle

Cons

The errors from the Beanwork typers. Wrong Vendor numbers and Invoice Numbers. Have hand written some on the invoice and they still type it wrong.
Using date as Invoice number which them makes it appear to be duplicate when it is not.
Also issues with Channels for Approvals, have been challenging to fit our needs.

Pros

features, simplicity, user friendly, customer service,

Cons

all my cons have been already improved in the software.

Pros

Automates and digitizes the accounts payable process.

Cons

Beanworks does not have the functionality to process wires at the moment.

Pros

Very easy to use. Options are very clear.

Cons

I type very fast, sometimes can keep up with my keystrokes

Pros

I really like the ease of forwarding invoice s via email and saving on data entry time.

Cons

It sometimes take a while to manually sync with Quickbooks when adding a new vendor.

Pros

It's easy to use and understand the functions

Cons

It's also easy to have sync errors without any reasons

Pros

Truly helps eliminate the back and forth of emails, waiting on responses, overlooking an email etc. saves a lot of time.

Cons

Would love to view the check that was disbursed with the option to save as PDF.

Pros

Less paperwork, less filing, chequer runs a click of button

Cons

Cheque numbers not always recognized by our banks ocr software

Pros

BeanworksAP is SO intuitive and easy to learn/easy to use! Their customer support is also fantastic.

Cons

The BeanworksAP pricing plans are a little expensive, but you're paying for quality. In the end, it's well worth it.