Finance leaders turn to digital technologies for procure-to-pay automation

According to a new white paper by Corcentric and the Institute of Finance and Management (IOFM), titled 4 Ways Procure-to-Pay Automation Helps Accelerate Business Growth, the role of the finance department, particularly that of the CFO, is no longer being pigeon-holed to the back-office.

As the Corcentric-sponsored white paper explains, 81% of CFOs see identifying and targeting areas of new value across the business as one of their main responsibilities. They are prioritizing investment in digital solutions that automate the procure-to-pay cycle from end-to-end in order to improve net profit margins, increase enterprise agility, free up cash flow, and mitigate compliance risks.

Those best-in-class companies are reaping the benefits. According to the report, compared to their peers with little or no automation, highly automated procure-to-pay departments:

• Spend three-quarters less to process a single invoice

• Spend 60% less to pay a supplier

• Process more than 11 times as many invoices per full-time equivalent (FTE) per month

• Match more than 30% of their invoices to purchases automatically

The report also details how automation unlocks valuable data that can be used to assess how a business is performing and to improve functions like forecasting, decision support, finance planning and modeling, and exceptions detection. This complete visibility across the procure-to-pay cycle is crucial to identifying what is holding a business back from taking advantage of growth opportunities.