It’s far less work to pay for things electronically than writing and mailing a cheque. But, you still have to enter the data into your accounting software. The solution is to use a payment service. QuickBooks and Sage give you the choice of electronic payments. All you have to do is enter a bill into the software then specify an electronic payment. The bill is paid and the accounting is already done. Many Sage 50 users have discovered the benefits of using BeanStream. It is easy to use and integrates with the software. For Sage 300 users there is Sage Accounts Payable Automation (Sage APA). It accepts invoices as PDF or picture. All the machine readable information is pulled from the document including vendor, date, invoice number, taxes and amounts. You then review the invoice, code it, upload any supporting documentation and submit it for approval. The data is sent to your Sage 300 system. You have the option of printing cheques as usual or scheduling electronic payments via Sage APA. All they need is a vendor email address. The vendor will receive an email informing them there is an electronic payment waiting. They must then supply the banking information to complete the transaction. This releases you from the burden of having to handle banking information for every supplier.