Best practice in AP automation is mostly about the order things are done in. Most projects begin with the most visible product and improve the part that was already cheap. Measuring first, fixing the free upstream constraints, then putting the record and the approval path in place, produces benefit at every step rather than only at the end.
Measure before choosing anything
For a week, record per invoice how it arrived, whether it had an order and a receipt behind it, the minutes of attention it took and the days it waited. Keying minutes point at capture, a large minutes-to-days gap points at approval routing, and exceptions dominated by absences point upstream at a free fix.
Raise the ceiling first, because it is free
Purchase-order coverage and receipt timeliness cap how much of your queue can ever clear without a person. A threshold people know, a policy for invoices arriving without a reference, and receipts recorded at the delivery point are all free and all raise the ceiling for whatever you buy afterwards.
Record and approvals, then capture
An invoice record with statuses, owners and ages, with approvals happening on it rather than in email, removes the largest single block of elapsed time and works while paper is still arriving. Capture then has somewhere to deliver rather than producing images alongside a spreadsheet that disagrees with them.
State the limits in the business case
Name what will not improve: judgement on exceptions, supplier disputes, and anything about invoices with no order behind them. A case that names its own limits is read as honest, gets approved, and avoids the disappointment that follows one implying everything would get faster.
Questions people ask about ap automation best practices
What is the commonest sequencing mistake?
Buying capture when the constraint is approval waiting. It produces accurate data that then sits in a queue, and the elapsed time a supplier experiences does not change.
How conservative should the case be?
Cap the labour saving at your measured order and receipt coverage, because invoices with nothing to match against still need a person whatever the software does.
How long does the upstream work take?
A quarter or two, because it is habit change across other departments rather than configuration. Start it early and in parallel with everything else.