The complexities and demands of modern accounts payable (AP) processing have grown to a level where traditional manual methods struggle to keep pace. In a global economy marked by intricate multi-entity corporate structures, diverse compliance requirements, and the need for real-time data management, companies are often left searching for solutions that allow them to maintain control without having to overhaul their existing processes. These challenges highlight the need for a solution that is not only efficient and adaptable but also emphasizes human validation in the workflow.
Enter Stampli, a company that seeks to address these needs through a commitment to seamless integration and intelligent automation. Stampli's core AP product was made to center the workflow around the invoice as a communication hub. It has also started building artificial intelligence capacities that can manage manual tasks, though emphasizes a human-in-the-loop model that verifies outputs to ensure accountability and accuracy.
Founded in 2014 out of a critical need to improve traceability and auditability in invoice handling, Stampli has developed a philosophy of building its own ERP integrations from scratch, offering support for more than 70 ERPs. Eyal Feldman, co-founder and CEO, spoke with Accounting Today about recent developments and future plans.
How would you best describe what your company does?
Feldman: Put simply, Stampli provides accounts payable automation with integrated payments and credit cards. It's ideal for businesses that want to manage invoices more efficiently, but don't want to rework their ERP or change their existing AP processes. We're especially suited for businesses with complex multi-entity corporate structures, for reasons I'll describe in a moment.
We always tell people that there are three basic principles underlying Stampli. First, all of the workflows orient around the invoice, so that the invoice acts as a communications hub, even for conversations with vendors. Second, AI takes care of the manual AP tasks like coding and routing, but every decision the AI makes is validated by a human. And third, the system is easy for approvers and AP team members alike.
Beyond that functionality, what sets Stampli apart is how fully and easily we integrate with ERPs. Stampli can be deployed in days, not weeks, with no disruption to your ERP or existing AP processes.
What is in your product line, and what is your flagship product?
Feldman: Our core AP product brings together all AP-related communications, documentation and workflows into one place for visibility and control, making the AP process far more efficient. We've designed it to be easy to learn and use, especially thanks to Billy the Bot, our AI that automates nearly all of the capture, coding, routing, fraud detection and manual tasks.
Our core product is complemented by a suite of integrated fintech products for executing payments and managing your credit card spend. The benefit of getting all of them from a single system is that the efficiency, visibility and control our AP product provides can extend across your entire invoice lifecycle.
What was the last big initiative or project your company completed?
Feldman: So many to choose from! We regularly roll out new ERP API integrations. We recently released SAP S4HANA & SAP ECC, Oracle Fusion, Acumatica and Sage CRE. In fact, we're a Sage Recommended Solution and work especially well with Sage Intacct.
We're also very excited about the Stampli Card, which we released last year. The integration with your AP system creates a number of really interesting use cases. For example, you can configure cards to enforce company policies through set spending limits, MCC codes, approvals, and other controls. And we've invested a lot of work into reducing card management blindspots with immediate access into all cards, transactions and details. It all syncs immediately to the ERP — no more waiting for monthly statements.
Many of our customers have started paying their vendor invoices using Stampli Card. In this economy, vendors really appreciate instant payments.
What is the most exciting new thing you're working on?
Feldman: There's one or two in particular that we'll be announcing later this year, but we can't spill the beans just yet. Stay tuned!
What differentiates your company from others similar to it? What makes you different? Unique, even?
Feldman: Our approach to ERP integration. We aren't aware of any other AP automation software with a philosophy to build its own ERP integrations from scratch. They hire third-party integrators. As a result, their integrations rarely encompass the full native functionality of the ERPs, and they are beholden to the schedules of their integrators to address customer requests or bug fixes.
We do it all in house. Our process includes learning how businesses use the ERP both deep and wide — deep, meaning that we understand all the functionality; and wide, meaning we don't just focus on one type of configuration, but rather we learn to support all possible configurations from the start. Then we dive into the inner workings to ensure the API we're building supports the ERP's full functionality, even when there's no clear and simple solution. And we're extremely responsive to customer requests.
This approach leads to integrations that are fully adaptable to any given business structure. This is especially true for complex multi-entity corporate structures, or highly regulated industries such as healthcare — we can fully support the way they're configured and still deploy in days, not weeks. If they want to migrate between ERPs, we can easily support that, too.
What is the biggest challenge with selling to this market? Of being a company whose customers are primarily accountants?
Feldman: We look at it from the opposite perspective: What are the biggest challenges for accountants or AP teams that are buying our software?
In our personal experiences, it's technical support — specifically, when the person on the other end of the conversation has no experience in accounting and doesn't know your ERP. There's nothing more frustrating than when you know the software better than your support person does. How are they supposed to help you?
That's why we carefully choose to hire people specifically with backgrounds in finance and accounts payable. When our customers contact us, they know that they're speaking to someone who understands their business, their function and especially their ERP.
If your company has been experimenting with generative AI, how have you incorporated it into your business?
Feldman: Generative AI is kind of a terrifying idea to most CFOs and CPAs for a simple reason: they can't risk AI hallucinating even a single incorrect decimal point.
Stampli has incorporated AI in our framework since our early days. But we've adhered to a human-in-the-loop model, which ensures every decision made by Billy the Bot, our AI, is validated by a human operator.
Billy's advanced machine learning algorithms quickly learn your specific coding and routing systems by identifying patterns based on complex data analysis and pattern recognition. But every recommendation Billy makes is clearly labeled for the AP team to verify his work.
We know we've got a well-balanced mix of AI technology and human oversight from our customer feedback. Customers constantly request Billy t-shirts, and in the reviews they post on sites like G2, they thank Billy by name!
Stampli at a glance:
HQ: Mountain View, Calif.
Offices: Nashville, Austin and Tel Aviv
Staff: 250+ employees
Website: https://www.stampli.com/
This has been part of our regular Vendor Spotlight series. To see previous Vendor Spotlights,
