Automating AP Invoice Management – Benchmark Research Report

⇨ Manual AP invoice management processes are inefficient, resulting in longer processing throughput times for incoming invoices.

⇨ 80% of respondent organizations reported average throughput time for incoming invoices exceeding 14 days or 2 weeks.

⇨ Top performing organizations are more likely to invest in AP process automation solutions relative to their peers by a significant margin.

Reducing operational costs and increasing productivity requires strategies for automating accounts payable (AP) invoice management, as manual or partially automated processes no longer provide efficiency. An expanding digital economy and increased competition require organizations to have efficient processes to support and maintain supplier relationships and keep pace with industry peers. With a hybrid workforce and increasing global e-invoicing requirements, organizations must ensure visibility into their AP invoices across multiple countries, currencies, and payment methods.

This report explores the need for SAPinsider organizations to consider automating AP processes to save time, reduce operational costs associated with manual labor, and minimize human errors that result from repetitive or complex tasks. Our findings show that most survey respondents (76%) do not digitize incoming paper invoices, while eight in ten (80%) survey respondents reported an average throughput time for incoming invoices exceeding 14 days. By utilizing strategies for automating AP invoice management, organizations can optimize their entire AP invoicing process, gain full compliance with global regulations, and improve cash flow.

From October to December of 2022, SAPinsider surveyed 188 finance community members to learn more about the strategic priorities of SAP organizations regarding their approach to automating AP processes. The research identified some significant trends in the organizational priorities and challenges around automating AP processes, some of which are:

• Insufficient automation leads to manual work and manual processes represent the primary factor impacting an organization’s strategic approach to automating AP processes. This was followed by business growth and evolution creating a need to optimize AP processes as the next most critical factor.
• Many SAPinsiders plan to address their core drivers by leveraging capabilities in SAP S/4HANA to reduce the errors and inaccuracies due to manual processing (47%).
• A majority of survey respondents (56%) view digitizing to streamline workflows and reduce manual processes across systems as the leading requirement to automate AP invoice management.
• Underperforming organizations (respondents reporting invoice throughput times greater than 14 days) are less likely to invest in AP process automation solutions and more likely to report difficulties mitigating fraud attempts in their AP departments, than top-performing peers (respondents reporting invoice throughput times of 14 days or less).

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