The State of Accounts Payable

Business and financial leaders are reacting to a changing economy and a work environment that’s been forever altered by the events of the last three years. As they work to establish a permanent “new normal” and adjust to economic uncertainties, they’re looking at how to modify business processes to meet their new needs. How and when money goes out is one of the most important.

Their suppliers are doing the very same thing. For them, the money coming in is losing consistency, and they’re spending a lot of time asking questions and waiting for payments.

For both sides of the transaction, accounts payable teams are under scrutiny.

Here are the major challenges:

• Hybrid work demands mean less time physically in the office, which can slow down manual processes like AP.
• Difficulty hiring leads to short staffing, which can lead to slowdowns in invoice processing and payment.
• Disrupted supply chains cause speedbumps in supplier delivery and complications to invoicing.
• AP processes remain inherently inefficient, with too many manual touchpoints and too many possible points of failure.

These issues are the subject of the 2022 State of Accounts Payable Report from Pinnacle and MineralTree.

Download the full 2022 State of Accounts Payable Report.

For the first time ever, this report includes survey data from suppliers for a 360-degree view of AP processes. What’s most important to them? What frustration points do they encounter with customers? How do they like to be paid, and what would it take to strengthen relationships?

Here are a few of the major takeaways. For more, and for survey data and details, download the full State of Accounts Payable Report below.

• Vendor relationships are more important than ever—71 percent say they've grown in importance over the past year.
• Supply chain disruptions cause significant invoice processing issues and delays.
• Invoice and payment inquiries waste too much time for AP staff and vendors. Payment delays lead to vendor inquiries, which eat up 1-10 hours each month.
• Hiring qualified AP staff is getting harder.
• AP remains a No. 1 digitization priority for business owners.
• Mindset is the greatest barrier. People believe their current processes are working.
• Nearly half of vendors (44.4 percent) did not feel their AP teams respond to payment-related inquiries in a prompt and satisfactory manner.
• Automation is key to supporting a hybrid work environment.

Download the full 2022 State of Accounts Payable Report.

See how AP Automation cut invoice coding and key entry time in half for a franchisee.

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