Running a law firm is running a business, but the financial side of that business still looks surprisingly analog. Checks get printed and signed by hand, invoice details get keyed in twice, and payments get tracked in spreadsheets. These are the kind of manual tasks that lower efficiency: hours lost to data entry, errors that take days to catch, cash that moves slower than it should. But a strategic shift is underway.
Centerbase CEO Michael Dunn describes the legal ERP standard as moving "from a system of record, to a system of action." A system of record captures what happened. A system of action makes things happen. Centerbase recognized the need to pull AR and AP into the platform firms use to run their business. Law firms need robust fintech tools, the same caliber of payment and financial infrastructure any growing business relies on.
Why AP, and why now
For years, law firm finance teams have run vendor payments outside their core system. Printing checks. Keying in account details by hand. Chasing payment status across disconnected tools. At the volume a midsize firm operates, that manual workflow burns hours and invites errors. It was an operational gap.
The Centerbase and AvidXchange partnership, announced in May 2026, closes that gap by embedding full payment automation directly into the platform through AvidXchange's Accounts Payable as a Service solution. Firms can now view unpaid invoices, initiate and approve payments, and watch status in real time without leaving Centerbase.
AvidXchange executes the payment on the firm's behalf across a supplier network of more than 1.5 million vendors, and the company reports its AP automation cuts the time finance teams spend on administration by up to 80 percent.
Beyond the time savings, embedding AP alongside AR improves a firm’s insight into its working capital. Centerbase Payments already captures the inflow; Centerbase AP captures the outflow. Together they put both sides of the firm's cash movement on one platform, in real time. For finance leaders, that provides a single source of truth, sharpening the command over liquidity, timing, and capital deployment that the firm depends on.
Comprehensive firm intelligence
Dunn notes the importance of strategic partnerships that extend Centerbase for its clients. “Money movement is hard. AvidXchange has spent 25 years and serious capital building rails that move money at scale across industries, and it operates as a licensed money transmitter. Partnering for this ability delivers value immediately to our Centerbase customers,” says Dunn.
With AvidXchange, Centerbase now provides a unification of operations and financial data, giving a total firm health view. Every payment flows through the platform tied to a client and a matter. That linkage produces something firms have historically struggled to see: matter-level profitability. A firm can usually tell you it was profitable last year. Far fewer can tell you which matters made money and which quietly bled it. When every disbursement, trust return, settlement payout, and filing fee is captured against the matter it belongs to, that question finally has an answer.
Centerbase is compounding a financial dataset that gets richer with every transaction the platform executes, and that no other solution delivers for midsize law.
Embedded finance, with legal's edges intact
General purpose AP and AR automation isn’t robust enough for law firm use. Legal payments carry obligations most other business types never face. Trust accounting rules. Disbursements that must be tracked to the dollar. The bright line between billable and non-billable expense, where a missed tag is lost profitability. Overdraw a trust account or make an improper disbursement, and the consequence isn't an accounting headache, it's a bar complaint.
Centerbase's contribution to the partnership is deep expertise, the legal-specific governance and audit structure wrapped around the money movement AvidXchange powers underneath. The Centerbase solution provides compliance, context, and the customer experience.
Centering the business of law, that includes fintech
Centerbase is building a financial operating system for midsize law, with embedded payments, billing, and collections as one pillar and AI-driven financial intelligence, through its Centerbase IQ layer, as the next. The platform's value increasingly sits in being the place where the firm's financial and operational data come together.
About Centerbase Centerbase is the operating platform purpose-built for midsize law firms. It unifies matter management, billing, financial operations, and the AI tools firms are adopting into a single governed system, eliminating the operational drag that costs firms time, revenue, and client confidence. The result is a practice that runs tighter, bills what it earns, and turns its operations into a competitive advantage. To learn more, visit https://www.centerbase.com.
In this on-demand session, we walk through the new AvidXchange integration built natively into Centerbase’s Vendor Pay module and demo the full workflow live.
You’ll see how AP automation works for the way law firms actually operate: selecting vendor bills, choosing payment preferences, validating with AvidXchange, and tracking everything in the Vendor Pay Dashboard, all without leaving Centerbase. We cover the three vendor-choice payment methods (virtual card, ACH, and check), built-in fraud protection through positive pay and single-use cards, simplified one-to-one reconciliation, and electronic approval workflows with a full audit trail.
What's covered in the webinar
How the integration works end to end — From selecting bills in the Vendor Center to submitting a batch and monitoring payment status in the Vendor Pay Dashboard — all inside Centerbase, with no external logins or portals required.
The AvidXchange supplier network — With over 1.5 million enrolled vendors, most of your regular payees are likely already in the system. AvidXchange manages outreach and enrollment for any that aren’t — your team doesn’t make a single vendor call.
Three payment methods, vendor's choice — Virtual card for fast settlement, ACH for electronic transfer with full remittance data, or check for vendors who prefer it. No payment method is forced on anyone, and vendors can update their preference at any time through AvidXchange’s supplier portal.
Fraud protection built into every transaction — Outgoing checks are issued from AvidXchange’s clearing account — not yours — so your banking information is never on a check. Virtual cards are single-use. Positive pay is maintained on every payment. Vendor bank accounts and legal entity details are verified before any payment goes out.
One-to-one reconciliation — Every payment is assigned a unique Vendor Pay ID that flows through to your bank debit. AvidXchange debits each payment individually, so there’s no lump sum to reverse-engineer and no ambiguity at month-end close.
Electronic approval workflows — Set thresholds by dollar amount, account, or payment type. Approvers get notified and can act from anywhere — no physical presence required. Every approval is logged and timestamped, creating a complete audit trail.
Pricing — The integration is free to enable. No monthly fees, no implementation costs, no per-transaction fees for ACH or virtual card payments. The only cost is approximately $0.79 per physical check mailed — and through Centerbase’s partnership with AvidXchange, the standard $195/month platform fee is waived entirely.
About Centerbase Centerbase is the operating platform purpose-built for midsize law firms. It unifies matter management, billing, financial operations, and the AI tools firms are adopting into a single governed system, eliminating the operational drag that costs firms time, revenue, and client confidence. The result is a practice that runs tighter, bills what it earns, and turns its operations into a competitive advantage. To learn more, visit https://www.centerbase.com.
About AvidXchange® AvidXchange is a leading provider in accounts payable (AP) automation, offering intelligent AP software and payment solutions specifically designed for mid-market businesses and their suppliers. With 25 years of industry experience, AvidXchange modernizes the way businesses manage their expenses and payments by offering AI-enhanced software coupled with support from experts. Empowering over 8,000 growth-driven businesses, AvidXchange increases efficiency, control, and visibility in financial operations and has securely processed payments to more than 1.5 million suppliers through its proprietary payment network over the past five years. Additionally, AvidXchange is a licensed money transmitter for B2B payments in the United States, licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services, as well as all other states that require AvidXchange to have a license. For more information, visit https://avidxchange.com.
AvidXchange Media Contact: Alexis Riddick Public Relations Manager AvidXchange pr@avidxchange.com
The partnership gives law firms a fully managed accounts payable automation solution built directly into Centerbase, eliminating manual payment workflows without leaving the platform they already use to run their practice.
DALLAS, TEXAS, May 19, 2026. Centerbase, the operating platform purpose-built for midsize law firms, today announced a partnership with AvidXchange, a leading provider of accounts payable automation and payment solutions for mid-market businesses, to embed full payment automation directly into the Centerbase platform through AvidXchange’s Accounts Payable as a Service solution.
Law firm finance teams have long managed vendor payments outside their core practice management systems—printing checks, manually entering account information, and tracking payment status across disconnected platforms. At the volume midsize firms operate, that workflow costs time, introduces errors, and creates fraud exposure. Automated payments have been one of the last remaining workflows that didn’t exist inside the system.
AvidXchange reduces the time finance teams spend on AP administration by up to 80%, giving firms back hours each month that can be redirected to higher-value work.
Through this integration, Centerbase customers can now view unpaid invoices, select and initiate payments, and complete the approval process without leaving the platform. Once approved, AvidXchange executes the payment on the firm’s behalf, leveraging a network of more than 1.5 million suppliers and delivering payments through the methods that best meet each vendor’s needs. Finance teams gain real-time visibility into payment status, a complete audit trail, and built-in fraud protections, including secure digital payment methods such as virtual credit cards and reduced manual touchpoints that limit the exposure law firms face when handling vendor payments at volume.
Centerbase selected AvidXchange as its embedded accounts payable automation partner for its depth of experience serving compliance-driven industries and the breadth of its supplier network. The integration is available to Centerbase customers now.
"Centerbase is built around automating the business of law, giving people the visibility and control they need without requiring them to manually execute routine tasks," said Michael Dunn, CEO of Centerbase. "Payments are a perfect example. Firms need governance over every transaction, but they shouldn’t have to print a check or log into a separate system to make one happen. AvidXchange closes that gap."
"Law firms operate in a uniquely high-stakes and strictly compliant financial environment while balancing the day-to-day demands of serving clients," said Michael Praeger, CEO and Co-Founder of AvidXchange. "By embedding accounts payable automation directly into Centerbase, we help law firms spend less time on back-office work and more time focused on client needs."
Centerbase customers interested in automating their payments through the AvidXchange integration can contact their Centerbase account representative or visit https://www.centerbase.com/payments for more information.
About Centerbase Centerbase is the operating platform purpose-built for midsize law firms. It unifies matter management, billing, financial operations, and the AI tools firms are adopting into a single governed system, eliminating the operational drag that costs firms time, revenue, and client confidence. The result is a practice that runs tighter, bills what it earns, and turns its operations into a competitive advantage. To learn more, visit https://www.centerbase.com.
About AvidXchange® AvidXchange is a leading provider in accounts payable (AP) automation, offering intelligent AP software and payment solutions specifically designed for mid-market businesses and their suppliers. With 25 years of industry experience, AvidXchange modernizes the way businesses manage their expenses and payments by offering AI-enhanced software coupled with support from experts. Empowering over 8,000 growth-driven businesses, AvidXchange increases efficiency, control, and visibility in financial operations and has securely processed payments to more than 1.5 million suppliers through its proprietary payment network over the past five years. Additionally, AvidXchange is a licensed money transmitter for B2B payments in the United States, licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services, as well as all other states that require AvidXchange to have a license. For more information, visit https://avidxchange.com.
AvidXchange Media Contact: Alexis Riddick Public Relations Manager AvidXchange pr@avidxchange.com
