Inspyrus report unveils flaws in corporate Americas AP processes

The research, conducted by PayStream Advisors, surveyed over 400 employees across several industries and market segments to evaluate trends in payables management in North American enterprises. Companies handle millions of invoices annually in their Accounts Payable departments to pay vendors for goods and services.

According to the survey, 93% of accounts payable staffers found fault with their existing AP processes. In contrast, half of all top executives with the title of CEO, owner, founder, president, or managing partner, said they believed their AP current processes “work just fine,” negating the need for innovation.

Top pain points identified by survey respondents who had not fully invested in AP automation were manual data entry and inefficient processes: 54% of respondents were plagued by having to manually enter invoice details into AP systems.

The survey results also offer compelling evidence of return on investment from AP innovation. When participants were asked about the improvement seen after adopting an ePayables solution, an overwhelming majority of organisations (82%) reported seeing noticeable improvement. Specific top benefits cited were reduction in paper invoice volume (66%), faster approval of invoices (62%) and improved visibility into unpaid invoices/liabilities (40%). In addition, more than one-third of those surveyed cited improved employee productivity and achieving lower processing costs. The group that saw the highest rate of efficiency improvement in AP was the segment that leveraged all AP management tools—electronic payments, data capture functionality, invoice workflow automation, eInvoicing, and supplier management tools.