People are working at desks with multiple computer monitors displaying data in a modern office setting.

Hightouch Cuts AP Processing Time 95%, Scales 5×

People are working at desks with multiple computer monitors displaying data in a modern office setting.

450+

staff supported by 2 in AP

95%

less time on AP processing

80%

reduced monthly close time

Hightouch is a fast-growing B2B SaaS company that helps marketing teams pull data from data warehouses to run targeted campaigns and better understand their customer base. Controller Jessica Lu joined when Hightouch had around 86 employees. Since then, the workforce has grown to over 450, with plans for continued expansion. 

Throughout this growth, Hightouch kept its accounting team to just two people: Lu and a lead accountant. Instead of adding staff as headcount quintupled, they scaled by building an automated finance stack anchored by NetSuite and Tipalti.

We got an email from a vendor's actual registered email, with a real W-9 and a real bill, but a fake bank account. Because we go through the Tipalti process, we caught it. There's no way we would have caught that before.

Jessica Lu

Controller, Hightouch

Challenge

Manual AP processes could not scale with rapid growth

When Lu joined Hightouch, every aspect of finance operations ran on Excel and QuickBooks with no automation in place. Bills arrived through a patchwork of channels. Some went to a shared accounting email, while others came via Slack from employees who had listed themselves as the vendor’s billing contact.

Here’s what the manual environment looked like in practice:

  • Fragmented bill intake led to lost invoices and late payments. Misplaced invoices caused frequent delays and stakeholder friction. When found, the lead accountant manually saved and uploaded each bill into QuickBooks, emailed approvers for sign-off, and archived the confirmed email back to the record. 
  • Payment execution was entirely manual. To process payments, the team exported weekly bill lists and entered each payment into the bank portal one by one. 
  • Limited financial controls increased risk. The team paid bills upon receipt without approval workflows, duplicate detection, or W-9 collection. Consequently, they were chasing down missing tax forms every 1099 filing season.

Outgrowing QuickBooks + Excel: How manual AP burned 3 days a week

AP alone consumed three full days each week for the two-person team. Lu and her lead accountant handled AP entirely by hand, entering bills, requesting email sign-offs from internal owners, and executing weekly payments manually through their bank portal. With Hightouch on a trajectory from 86 to 450 employees and planning to reach 650, the process was unsustainable.

Things were getting lost, and people had to do it manually. They'd ask, 'Why is it not paid?' And we'd say, 'We never got it. We can't pay something we don't have.

Jessica Lu

Controller, Hightouch

Decision

Prepaid amortization and W-9 verification set Tipalti apart

Lu was already confident in Tipalti’s capabilities from a previous implementation—she had discovered Tipalti through a NetSuite preferred partner presentation—yet she still put every vendor through a thorough evaluation. Hightouch evaluated AP automation solutions with varying capabilities from Tipalti, Rippling, Ramp, and BILL. 

Tipalti stood out in three ways:

  • Built-in prepaid amortization: Tipalti was the only solution that supported prepaid amortization directly within the bill workflow. Hightouch pays for software licenses, data, and trade show sponsorships well in advance, and Lu needed amortization schedules attached at the time of approval, not added after the fact in NetSuite, where they would inevitably be forgotten.
  • W-9 verification: None of the other vendors offered the ability to validate that a supplier’s legal name matches their EIN before payment is issued. Given the team’s prior experience chasing down incorrect tax forms and resubmitting rejected 1099s, this capability eliminated an entire category of year-end rework.
  • Prior implementation experience: Lu’s previous experience with Tipalti gave her a clear understanding of what the platform could deliver. 

These key differentiators proved to Lu that Tipalti could easily scale alongside Hightouch without requiring manual interventions.

When we were looking for a solution, W-9 verification was one of the big things with Tipalti that other providers didn't address. Making sure the tax information people enter into the portal actually matches their EIN saves so much back and forth.

Jessica Lu

Controller, Hightouch

Solution

Tipalti AP automation and NetSuite integration replace manual workflows

Hightouch deployed Tipalti Accounts Payable integrated with NetSuite as part of a broader finance stack that also includes Ramp for credit cards and reimbursements, Rippling for payroll and HRIS, Carta, and Celigo for Salesforce-to-NetSuite invoicing. 

Two-week implementation

Lu knew how the platform could help Hightouch clean up AP, save time, and improve accuracy, so she focused on AP automation right after setting up NetSuite. 

Invoice Capture Agent and Invoice Coding Agent reduce manual work

Tipalti’s Invoice Capture Agent automatically ingests bills for Hightouch, eliminating manual downloads and ERP uploads. For recurring vendors, Tipalti’s Invoice Coding Agent pre-populates GL accounts, departments, locations, and approvers based on prior bill history, reducing processing time. 

While covering her lead accountant’s recent leave, Lu managed all AP in just 10 to 15 minutes per day on average, down from three combined days per week.

Automated approval routing replaces email-based workflows

Tipalti cuts out the manual back-and-forth of chasing down invoice owners and saving email replies. After implementation, Hightouch automatically routes every bill through a two-step approval process: a default manager handles the first review, and Lu handles the second. Approvers get an email notification and can approve in a single click. There are no attachments to download and no threads to chase. It’s a process that runs largely on autopilot.

The Duplicate Bill Detection Agent protects data accuracy

When vendors or internal teams submit the same invoice twice, Tipalti’s Duplicate Bill Detection Agent flags the potential duplicates right away. Lu and her lead accountant can investigate to protect data accuracy at the point of entry, rather than catching errors during or after a payment run. 

Self-service supplier onboarding and W-9 validation strengthen controls

Tipalti’s supplier portal takes the burden of data collection away from Hightouch’s two-person team. Suppliers directly manage their own banking details, tax information, and profile updates, while the platform automatically validates W-9 details and matches EINs to legal entity names before issuing payments. 

NetSuite integration enables real-time financial reporting

Tipalti’s native NetSuite integration syncs bills and payments directly to the ERP in real time, giving Hightouch up-to-date financial data without manual imports or reconciliations. 

Combined with automated prepaid amortization schedules attached at bill approval, the system keeps the general ledger current all month long.

I knew what Tipalti could do, and I knew what I wanted, and they matched. There wasn't that back and forth—let's just move quickly.

Jessica Lu

Controller, Hightouch

Impact

Hightouch scales 5× from 86 to 450 employees without adding finance headcount

The cumulative effect of Tipalti’s automation shows up in three places: time, accuracy, and protection. Here’s what that looked like in practice:

  • 95% less time spent on processing AP: Cut weekly processing from three combined days per week to 10–15 minutes per day, even as invoice volume doubled or tripled alongside company growth  
  • 80% faster monthly close: Reduced close from 25 days to 5
  • A clean AP audit: Completed its second-year financial statement audit with no AP issues 
  • 2 fraud attempts were stopped in 12 months: Caught a fraudulent bank-account change and a fabricated invoice before any funds moved 
  • 5× employee growth without additional accounting headcount: Supported growth from 86 employees to more than 450 with a two-person accounting team 

The same automation that freed Lu’s team from manual processing also caught what manual processing would have missed, enabling them to support hundreds of employees without adding headcount.

We got an email from a vendor's actual registered email, with a real W-9 and a real bill, but a fake bank account. Because we go through the Tipalti process, we caught it. There's no way we would have caught that before.

Jessica Lu

Controller, Hightouch

Next

Expanding AP automation with PO Matching Agent and Reporting Agent

As Hightouch projects rapid growth, Lu is already looking at Tipalti’s next layer of capabilities. While the company does not currently use purchase orders, she plans to activate Tipalti’s PO Matching Agent as procurement processes mature, adding another control point.

She also intends to dive deeper into Tipalti’s Reporting Agent, aiming to gain additional visibility and decision-making insights beyond what the team captures today. 

Tipalti will continue to serve as the operational backbone, scaling alongside Hightouch without requiring added headcount.

See how Tipalti Accounts Payable can help your finance team scale without adding headcount.

FAQs

Still Have Questions?

How did Tipalti help Hightouch reduce its monthly close?

Before Tipalti, Hightouch operated on a 25-day monthly close. By automating invoice capture, approval routing, payment processing, and NetSuite synchronization through Tipalti Accounts Payable, the team cut the close to five days. Real-time data syncing and automated prepaid amortization were key contributors to the faster close.

Why did Hightouch choose Tipalti over Rippling, Ramp, and BILL?

Two capabilities set Tipalti apart from other providers: built-in prepaid amortization, which other platforms lack, and W-9 verification, which validates vendor tax information at the point of entry.

What Tipalti products and integrations does Hightouch use?

Hightouch uses Tipalti Accounts Payable integrated with NetSuite. Key capabilities include AI-powered invoice capture, auto-coding, automated approval routing, duplicate bill detection, supplier self-service onboarding, W-9 validation, and prepaid amortization, all syncing directly with NetSuite for real-time financial reporting.

How did Tipalti help Hightouch prevent fraud?

Tipalti’s supplier self-service portal and approval workflows helped Hightouch catch two fraud attempts within 12 months: a fraudulent bank-account change and a fabricated invoice.

Is Tipalti a good fit for fast-growing SaaS companies with lean finance teams?

Yes. Tipalti is built for fast-growing SaaS companies with lean finance teams. You can automate up to 80% of AP work, so your team scales without adding headcount. Tipalti’s AP automation helped Hightouch scale from 86 to over 450 employees without expanding the two-person finance team by reducing weekly processing time from roughly three days to 10–15 minutes per day.

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