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Glossary · Updated Sep 24, 2026

Business process automation (BPA)

Business process automation is the use of software to run a defined business process, such as onboarding or invoice approval, with less manual handling at each step.

BPA is the broad umbrella that more specific tools sit under. It can mean simple rules that move a record between systems, robotic process automation that clicks through an older application, or AI steps that read and classify a request. Most automation programs combine several of these rather than relying on just one.

The misconception is that BPA is one product a company buys. In practice it is a capability built from several tools plus the mapped process itself, and the hardest part is usually agreeing on the actual steps and exceptions in the current process, not the software that will run it.

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