Study Shows ~20% of Businesses Plan to Automate Accounts Payable Within One Year

Corporate finance departments of financial institutions continue their push to automate manual functions, according to the fourth annual State of Accounts Payable Report automation solution provider MineralTree. 

Among the major findings, 43% of financial professionals surveyed said their company has already implemented accounts payable automation technology  

There was a 30% increase over the number of companies responding compared to last year’s survey in terms of those that intend to automate. This means that by 2020, more than half the financial industry will use accounts payable automation technology. 

The report also revealed a continued rise of electronic payments. The percentage of companies paying using ACH grew by 17% and companies using B2B card payments grew by 26% from a year earlier.

The number of fraud attempts in the middle market also increased substantially with 60% of all finance professionals surveyed reporting fraud attempts against their organization. In addition, there was more challenging news when it came to cost. Finance professionals have consistently underestimated the cost of manually processing and paying invoices which eats into profits. This has been consistent over the past several years.  

“Our fourth annual State of AP Report shows that the macro trend of digitization in the finance function is gaining significant momentum. Forward-thinking companies are automating the manual components of the finance function, and the AP process is quickly becoming the central point of those automation efforts,” said Micah Remley, Chief Operating Officer of Mineral Tree. 

The survey, called the State of Accounts Payable report, has further information for financial professionals that will help benchmark a bank or financial institution with similar midsize financial corporations.