Quadient Accounts Payable Automation

Purchase Order module is functional, approvals can be efficient

As a finance professional, I feel compelled to warn others about our disastrous experience with Quadient's AP automation system. What began as a promising solution turned into a nightmare of wasted time, broken promises, and potential financial risk.

From the outset, Quadient's sales team employed deceptive tactics to secure our contract. They assured us of seamless integration with Sage 50, boasting about their OCR capabilities and automatic tax calculations. However, the reality couldn't be further from their claims.

The most egregious issue? Their "automated" system requires users to manually select tax codes and MANUALLY calculate tax amounts for each line of every invoice. Let that sink in. In 2024, they're selling a system that adds manual work and introduces significant room for error in tax calculations. This is not just a step backward; it's a leap into the dark ages of accounting.

When confronted, Quadient claimed this was a "known Sage 50 limitation." This is patently false. Other vendors provide this functionality without issue, and Sage's own marketplace offers solutions that handle this seamlessly. More importantly, if this truly was a known limitation, why wasn't it mentioned during the numerous demos where they explicitly confirmed tax code capture and automatic calculations?

The OCR functionality, a key selling point, is the weakest I've seen in the market. Test invoices took over 12 hours to process, likely because they rely on manual data entry behind the scenes. This explains their per-invoice pricing model, which is among the most expensive in the market.

Any finance professional should immediately recognise the risks this system introduces to a business. A supplier willing to lie to sell a product, exposing clients to such financial and compliance risks, demonstrates a complete lack of integrity.

We've had a lucky escape, discovering these issues before full implementation. Even when confronted, senior individuals at Quadient failed to acknowledge their mistakes or provide any assurance.

To anyone considering Quadient, especially those using Sage 50:

1. DON'T. Just don't.

2. If you must, insist on a demo using your own invoices.

3. Demand at least a 3-month break clause in any contract.

4. Request end-to-end demo with a Sage 50 , most vendors should have a license

There are reputable vendors on the Sage Marketplace (like Agilico Verify, PaperLess, and Compleat) who demonstrate integrity, transparency about their systems' limitations, and a willingness to build solutions around those limitations. In contrast, Quadient seems intent on hiding their shortcomings for as long as possible until you've signed a contract and wasted hours and days on presales.

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.

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.

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!!

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!!