Esker vs Tipalti for AP Automation

For a 3-person AP team at a $120M services company processing 1,800 invoices monthly with no current automation, Esker addresses early payment discount detection at the capture and monitoring stages of the pre-processing journey. Esker's AI-driven invoice capture engine uses four layers of technology (OCR, deep learning, first-time recognition, and auto-learning) to extract invoice header data, which includes payment terms fields; this is the foundation for identifying discount-eligible invoices as they enter the system rather than after approval routing. Esker's AP automation explicitly tracks invoices eligible for discounts and alerts the AP team before the discount window closes, positioning the alerting mechanism upstream of payment execution. Esker provides enhanced pipeline visibility to help teams determine the best approach for capturing early payment discounts, with dashboards surfacing readily available information so users can spot problems or opportunities as soon as they arise. Dynamic discounting is also documented as a distinct feature of Esker Accounts Payable, enabling buyers to pay before agreed terms in exchange for an invoice discount. The alerting architecture sits between capture (stage 1, legitimacy and terms reading) and payment execution, meaning the buyer's AP team would see discount-flagged invoices in their worklist before the deadline, not after.

For a $120M multi-location services company processing 1,800 invoices per month with a 3-person AP team, Tipalti's approach to early payment discount capture is indirect: it relies on process speed and configurable approval deadlines rather than automated discount-term detection at the invoice level. Tipalti's invoice management product page states that the platform 'captures opportunities for early payment discounts' by unifying invoice automation with payment processing, and the EU invoice approval workflow documentation confirms that users can 'set up approval deadlines to pay invoices within a certain timeframe so you grab early payment discounts and avoid late payment penalties.' The broader alerts infrastructure supports 'automated reminders and alerts for upcoming due dates, pending approvals, and overdue payments.' What is not documented in any product, help-center, or feature-level source is an automated mechanism that reads discount terms (e.g., '2/10 net 30') directly from each invoice's text via OCR or AI at the capture stage, distinguishes discount-bearing invoices from standard terms invoices, and fires a proactive push notification to AP specifically tied to the approaching discount deadline window. The mechanism that exists operates at the approval-workflow-configuration level: AP can pre-set a deadline for how quickly invoices must be approved, which indirectly improves the odds of paying within a discount window, but it does not detect or flag ad-hoc discount terms printed on individual invoices that differ from the supplier master.

For a $120M services company running 1,800 invoices per month across two Sage Intacct entities, Esker delivers AP KPI tracking through role-segmented, customizable dashboards built directly into the platform. The mechanism is documented across multiple tiers: CFOs receive spend overview, AP cash flow, and AP process metrics; AP managers receive payment KPIs, process efficiency metrics, accrual reporting, and spend-by-category visibility; and cost center owners receive pending approvals and budget control data. Specific metrics surfaced in product documentation include average processing time per invoice (a direct analog to average days to approve), invoice volume by PO vs. non-PO type, and touchless processing rate. Esker's own blog content confirms the platform is designed to track touchless rate, exception rate, early payment discount capture, cost per invoice, and on-time payment rate as named AP KPIs. The Esker Anywhere mobile app surfaces these dashboards on the go, so approvers outside the office remain in the visibility loop. This reporting layer sits downstream of the pre-processing journey and reflects data generated by the automated workflow, matching, and approval modules, covering stages 2 through 5 of the pre-processing chain.

For a 3-person AP team at a $120M multi-location services company processing 1,800 invoices per month across two Sage Intacct entities, Tipalti provides a reporting and analytics layer described as offering 'real-time insights, customizable dashboards, and detailed analytics' via its AP Automation Reporting module. On the metrics the buyer specifically requires: cost per invoice and exception rate are explicitly cited in Tipalti's product documentation as tracked AP performance indicators; the PO matching documentation confirms 'reporting and analytics to provide insights into exception rates, validations, AP team performance'; and the ERP integration documentation references 'business intelligence: better spend visibility with real-time results, KPIs, and AI-assisted analysis.' Approval-stage visibility is documented -- spend analytics dashboards surface current invoice status (paid, pending, in review) -- but a formally computed 'average days to approve' KPI tile is not documented as an out-of-the-box named metric. Touchless rate is implied by the Touchless Invoice Data Capture product line but is not named as a surfaced dashboard metric in product documentation. Discount capture rate has no documented presence in the reporting module at all; early payment features and reporting capabilities are treated as separate product areas. Independent user reviews across G2 and Capterra consistently flag that 'reporting is limited' and 'certain reports or configurations require support assistance,' with some users noting that advanced AP analytics require data exports to external tools.

For a $120M multi-location services company paying subcontractors, professional services vendors, and other non-employee payees, Tipalti covers the full 1099 lifecycle without requiring a separate tax tool. Classification begins at supplier onboarding: the system presents a guided tax form wizard that determines whether a W-9, W-8BEN, W-8BEN-E, or other form is required based on the payee's country of residence and business structure, then applies 1,000+ validation rules including real-time TIN matching against IRS records to catch mismatches before they become B-Notices. Throughout the year, Tipalti tracks cumulative payments per payee against IRS reporting thresholds and flags contractors who cross the $600 NEC threshold, eliminating manual year-end aggregation. At year-end, the platform generates 1099 preparation reports and then electronically files 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC, and 1042-S forms with the IRS via its integration with Zenwork's Tax1099.com, with digital or USPS delivery to recipients. The KPMG-approved tax engine underpins this workflow. Electronic filing covers both federal transmission and state agency submission.

For a $120M services company processing 1,800 invoices per month across two Sage Intacct entities, the 1099 compliance chain has four links: TIN collection, vendor classification, rolling threshold tracking, and electronic filing. Esker addresses only the first link. Its Supplier Management module supports a self-service onboarding portal where vendors submit data directly, and specifically documents the ability to 'check the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) to ensure compliance in exchanges' during the onboarding questionnaire flow. This positions Esker upstream of the classification and filing steps, not across them. No Esker product page, help article, or fact sheet claim documents automated 1099-reportable classification tagging (distinguishing 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC, and exempt vendors), rolling payment accumulation counters against IRS thresholds, year-end form generation, or electronic filing to the IRS FIRE or IRIS system, whether natively or via a named tax compliance partner such as Sovos or Avalara. In practice, the buyer's team would need to rely on Sage Intacct's native 1099 module for threshold tracking and form generation, and a separate e-filing tool for IRS submission, with the reconciliation burden falling on AP to bridge Esker's supplier data against Intacct's 1099 records manually.

For a $120M services company running Microsoft Azure AD as its identity provider, Esker on Demand supports SAML 2.0-based SSO through a dedicated federation infrastructure. Esker operates a live `sso.esker.com` subdomain with an `/adfs/ls/` endpoint that accepts SAML 2.0 SAMLRequest parameters, confirming SP-initiated SAML flows are active in production. The platform exposes a WS-Federation/SAML metadata document at `https://as1.ondemand.esker.com/FederationMetadata/2007-06/FederationMetadata.xml` — the same metadata exchange format Azure AD uses natively — which allows your IT team to register Esker as an enterprise application in Azure AD and establish trust without a third-party IdP bridge. Esker's own R&D blog documents the deliberate engineering of an ADFS farm so that 'customers would be able to use [it] to SSO into our application,' and customer-facing certificate renewal communications confirm that 'automatic authentication has been implemented within your company, via SSO certificates that have been trusted both by your organization and by Esker.' SSO coverage also extends to the Esker Anywhere mobile application, covering your AP team's full access surface across all 6 locations.

For a 6-location services company managing AP access across a Microsoft environment, Tipalti provides native Azure AD (Microsoft Entra ID) SSO through a dedicated, step-by-step setup guide in its help center. A payer admin navigates to Administration > General > Single Sign-On inside the Tipalti Hub and activates SSO, then selects either OIDC (OpenID Connect) or SAML as the authentication protocol. The Azure setup guide covers configuring Azure as an OIDC SSO provider for the Tipalti app, walking through Microsoft Entra ID app registration, client ID, client secret, and redirect URI configuration. Within the SSO settings, the admin selects either OIDC (OpenID Connect) or SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) as the authentication type. Tipalti explicitly states it supports all SSO providers, with guides for the most popular ones, and confirms support for both OIDC and SAML types. For SAML configuration, the admin uploads the IdP metadata XML or link from Azure, defines the SAML audience/entity ID, and safelists Tipalti's ACS URL; once complete, employees authenticate via Azure AD credentials and Tipalti accepts the federated assertion without maintaining separate AP platform passwords.