Unlock the full potential of Xero and your firm with Lightyear

Remote working has increased the demand for business process automation (especially regarding collaboration and approvals) within the Accounts Payable (AP) and Procurement sphere. Xero Expenses and HubDoc are great tools for basic expense and AP automation, however complex businesses need a much more robust and flexible solution. Features such as line item extraction, customisable approvals workflows, multi-currency capability, auto-statement reconciliation, bill to PO matching and group analysis are all key components of larger business’ AP requirements.  

What can Lightyear do for you?

Lightyear is a 5-star rated Purchasing and AP Platform that extends the functionality of Xero and offers a market leading all-in-one solution for large SMEs and accounting firms. Whether you need Purchasing, AP, or both, we’ve got one of the most comprehensive and feature-packed purchasing to payment platforms in the world; unbeaten when it comes to value for money, ease of use and customer satisfaction.

Free your data entry from the chains of repetitive tasks

Lightyear’s proprietary data extraction technology delivers line-by-line data by default, including product codes, quantities and unit costs in real-time. One transparent cost per document: unlimited pages, unlimited line items. Not only do we provide immediate and detailed extraction, we give you the tools to run detailed spend analysis reports with richer data to help you make informed decisions.

Never overpay a supplier again

Lightyear’s automated price checking system is a great way to make sure that you aren’t being overcharged. When bills are received, Lightyear will automatically check them against the supplier’s price lists and, with its handy traffic light system, tell you if the price is correct on every single item!

Get your team on the same page

Route all of your documents through a multi-tiered approvals workflow, including departments, to get one-click approval at each stage. You can have up to 5 levels of approval triggered by various routing rules, and with the Lightyear mobile app, your team can approve and collaborate from anywhere, anytime! You’ll also be able to approve in-browser or via email if that’s more convenient for your team.  

Automated Statement Reconciliation

Reconciling bills against supplier statements is a time-consuming task which can become very  costly for large organisations. Lightyear’s unique supplier reconciliation feature automates this process, giving you back valuable time to spend in other areas of your business.

Need an end-to-end purchasing solution? 

Lightyear’s purchasing system allows your teams to create detailed purchase orders for services and/or products! It’s so simple thanks to our integrated solution, with no need to worry about data entry as our intelligent AI engine will auto-populate details from your suppliers’ catalogue. Our seamless approvals workflow routes Purchase Orders directly into the hands of approvers without any user input needed whatsoever. So, whether you need a simple or complex workflow, there’s no need to hesitate, we can accommodate you. 

Record stock received and update inventory levels 

Easily mark stock as received with Lightyear’s intuitive Goods Received function and automatically export that stock data into any third-party inventory system, saving hours upon  hours of manual stock data entry and giving you a more up-to-date view of your stock on hand.

World first line-by-line 3-Way Matching

Lightyear is the first Xero AP provider to release automated line-by-line 3-way bill to PO matching. This is a huge benefit for your financing teams, as a task that once took hours can now be done in seconds. It completely revolutionises how payments are done. 

Apps - All for one and one for all 

One of the biggest problems faced by accounting and finance teams is meshing multiple apps together. Extract data in one app, export to xero, re-extract info into the next app, put it back into the first...it not only becomes time-consuming, but keeping track of that process can be a job in and of itself. Not to mention multiple bills, logins and training sessions. Lightyear removes the pain and provides the all-in-one solution that you and your clients have been looking for. 

How to use Lightyear to secure higher value clients

Lightyear enables you to service larger value clients that previously may have been outside of your firm’s capabilities. The flexibility, level of customisation, and the sheer amount of features available means that you have a solution at your fingertips for businesses that ordinarily you would be unable to take on.

Conclusion

At Lightyear, we know that the last thing anyone wants to do is spend hours on manual, repetitive tasks. Not only is this process prone to human error and (quite frankly) boring, it takes precious time away from growing the business and generating revenue. 

That is why we purpose-built this platform with businesses and accounting firms in mind.

When we asked Lambro Manouras, CFO of St Basils Homes (SA), what he would tell anyone considering automating their Purchasing and Accounts Payables with Lightyear, he had this to say; 

“Go For It! It’s such an easy platform to use. It saves heaps of your time and every invoice is at your fingertips. The support team is awesome and you never have to wait more than a minute to speak/chat online to someone for advice or help.”