Leaders in AP Continue to See Reduced Costs
When it comes to accounts payable, best-in-class companies continue to forge ahead, streamlining processes and cutting costs. In fact, a recent study, “Global Payments: Maximizing Cash Flow with Electronic Payments and Process Automation,” by Aberdeen Group found that top firms need less than five days to process a transaction. That compares with more than nine days for average performers, and nearly 16 for laggards. The top performers also have seen their AP processing costs drop by more than 14 percent annually, versus an average decline of 3.3 percent, and a slight increase in annual processing costs among the bottom 20 percent of companies. Several attributes are common to many high-performing AP departments. For starters, they are 21 percent more likely to have established centralized processing or a shared service center for accounts payable than other firms. In addition, these firms are 37 percent more likely to have fully automated their procure-to-pay processes. […]