New technologies are transforming AP departments from cost-centers to strategic partners. For the second consecutive year, MineralTree conducted a survey to uncover attitudes and preferences among finance professionals.
In this , there were additional questions surrounding electronic payment methods to measure how the AP and payment process has evolved over the past year.
Some of the most significant findings in this are:
An alarming number of ‘touches’ are involved in processing an invoice which greatly increases error rates, the time it takes for a vendor to receive a payment, and the odds of an invoice being lost in the process.- Check payments are the most popular payment method despite availability of better alternatives.
- Organizations are missing out on valuable rebate and cash back opportunities by not using corporate or virtual cards more frequently for vendor payments.
- For respondents who do use corporate or virtual cards, less than 5% of vendors are paid by card.
- Accounting and Accounts Payable professionals demand a complete solution that integrates with both their accounting system and bank account, and offers robust security features.
- Respondents were unclear on the timeline in which companies will adopt AP Automation.
- The number of companies who have a paperless AP department in place has decreased from 19.9% to 14.2%.
- More than half of the respondents pay 200 or more invoices every month; the average amount of those invoices is $2,000.
An alarming number of ‘touches’ are involved in processing an invoice which greatly increases error rates, the time it takes for a vendor to receive a payment, and the odds of an invoice being lost in the process.
