Fridays (in 2023) means that it’s time for another CPO Rising Listicle.

Ahead of our annual State of ePayables report (this year’s subtitle is Paying the Way to a Smarter Future), publishing soon, I wanted to share a few recommendations that Procurement, AP, and P2P teams can take to make AP smarter now.

Six Recommendations to Help Make AP Smarter

As AP leaders push deeper into 2023, they should remain focused on achieving their top priorities while also keeping an eye on the future. This year, AP teams are striving to improve their reporting and data analytics capabilities, enable more suppliers to submit invoices electronically, implement AP automation, eliminate paper invoicing and reduce manual tasks, and reduce processing costs. While each of these priorities has its unique challenges, there are some commonalities that AP teams can leverage to achieve them. Here are six things that AP teams can do to meet these objectives:

1. Embrace Data and Analytics: The growing importance of data analytics for AP teams cannot be overstated. AP teams should leverage their reporting and analytics capabilities to capture the streams of data created across and within the AP function. Better reporting and analytical capabilities will help promote AP as an important player in business intelligence efforts, and serve as a strategic intelligence hub.
2. Push for Digitization: In the modern era, AP departments should prioritize digitization, automation, and the reduction, if not, ultimate eradication of paper-based tasks. Enabling suppliers to submit electronic invoices, deploying AP automation, and eliminating paper invoices are crucial priorities for AP leaders, as well as their finance and procurement counterparts. Enterprise executives should push more AP leaders towards digitization, automation, and the reduction of paper-based tasks to ensure success.
3. Move Up the Value Chain: Only after AP processes have been automated and the function is in a position to focus on handling exceptions (and not handling every invoice), can it begin to move up the value chain and focus on the more strategic aspects of the operation, including data gathering, analysis, and dissemination of intelligence. AP’s ability to leverage its data to provide actionable information to key stakeholders can be critical to enterprise operations and results.
4. Cultivate Strong Collaborations: Collaboration and communication with functional partners like procurement and treasury should be viewed as a fundamental strategy that will keep AP more relevant and engaged in support of overall business objectives. The improvement of collaboration and communication with procurement is a priority for AP teams this year. Partnership is a key element of the modern AP operation.
5. Focus on Eliminating Paper: Finding more savings and driving more dollars to the bottom line is a top priority for procurement and finance teams in 2023. Eliminating paper from the operation helps do both. It is crucial for teams to explore every available opportunity to streamline their processes and, where budgets allow, invest in tools that can help automate their processes and eliminate paper.
6. Stay Updated on Technological Advancements: Prepare for the future by thinking about it. Keep abreast of the latest technological advancements and industry trends in AP and P2P automation. Visit CPO Rising and Payables Place. Attend this Webinar!!!!

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