The Future Payables Process Survey which was carried out by the IFOL; Institute of Financial Operations & Leadership which saw 160 Accounts Payable professionals from 12 countries take part, investigating the current state of accounts payable processes and resulting challenges faced by team members.

It went on to reveal low levels of Full Automation with many companies still handling paper documents and spending more time than they would like on manual data entry.

In summary

We can see there is a long way to go for businesses to be fully automated; we are still in the early stages of digital transformation. The process challenges facing AP are starting to shift, but many of the common challenges remain.

The manual processes, paperwork and other associated issues could perhaps be helped by digital transformation. Stress on the AP team and relationships with suppliers are key improvements needed. There are lots of areas in which automating can help businesses – certainly, mitigating risk and the time manual processes take. There is potential the time spent on processing invoices could be cut down through use of technology.