Accounting automation for multi-location businesses

As a business grows, so does the complexity of its financial operations and requirements. Operating a business across different locations creates challenges for an accounting department like monitoring and processing payments, maintaining accurate data, supporting strong communication across locations, and navigating the different tax laws that vary state to state.

Of course, within an accounting department, accounts payable is one of the most tedious processes, especially if you are managing payments from a single system across multiple locations. Within this article, we will be exploring the process of managing the accounts payable workflow for a business that operates multiple locations.

What is multi-location accounts payable?

Multi-location accounts payable, to put it literally, is just what it sounds like. The technical definition of accounts payable is: the task of processing invoice payments for multiple business entities through a single, centralized accounting system or department.

Whether you own a franchise business or have a small professional business firm with multiple branches in different states, if you have more than one location, you’re likely going to have a large number of vendors and suppliers to pay in different locations. Under these circumstances, your business is likely to require multi-location management. Within the umbrella of multi-location management, you find multi-location accounts payable automation.

Starting New vs. Upgrading Your AP system