Accounts payable (AP) is traditionally viewed as a back-office, transactional function where staff spend the majority of their time on manual, paper-based tasks. Even though most of these processes are ripe for automation, research shows only 9% of accounts payable managers describe their departments as fully automated.

Manual, paper-driven processes are inefficient and risky, as they make it difficult to document chain of custody and maintain an audit trail. Most significantly, they prevent AP teams from unlocking the full value of data, which would enable them to add strategic value to the enterprise.