Study identifies operational trends for supplier payments

According to the survey, released by Tipalti, another 22% of those surveyed spend an excess of four hours a week onboarding new payees.

The survey found that this workload impacts profitability and productivity since supplier payment operations are essentially a cost center. Many finance teams must trade off time spent on more strategic, analytical, and value-added finance activities in order to manage day-to-day supplier payment processes effectively.

Additional findings from the study include the fact that the highest organizational priority was to stay compliant with accounts payable tax and regulatory requirements, with 48% of respondents saying this was their top AP business goal.

In addition, 82% of respondents said that streamlining supplier payment processes is high priority. Automating supplier payment processes was the second highest priority of accounts payable teams overall, with 44% of respondents identifying this as their top top near-term business goal.

The study shows that 98% of respondents organizations send payment to North American suppliers, but the majority also pay suppliers throughout the world. Respondents also foresee an increase in payments to Asia Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.

Many types of payments are used worldwide. Respondents report making payments by check (86%), wire transfer (83%), ACH (82%). Another 49% used Global ACH / eCheck to pay their international suppliers.

More than that, 79% of new suppliers are onboarded using manual processes. New payees are manually onboarded via email (43%) or by direct contact (36%).

In terms of technology in place to collect tax information, respondents report collecting tax information via email (43%), in-house software (32%), or third-party software (18%).

The survey was conducted earlier this year between February and May 2016. Gatepoint polled 100 finance executives: including C-level, vice presidents, director and managers. Participants represented US-based companies across a range of industries including retail, business services, technology and media sectors with annual revenues between USD 20 million and over USD 1.5 billion.