Hyland Publishes State of Accounts Payable 2018 Report: Findings Reveal a Need for Increased Visibility and Control

As a leading global provider of software solutions to manage content, processes and cases, Hyland partnered with Statista to research the current state of accounts payable (AP), focused on providing an inside look at the biggest challenges facing the industry. The research, conducted by Statista, included a survey of 200 AP professionals from across the United States regarding invoice management and processing. The survey found that AP professionals seek greater visibility and control in invoice processing through the use of AP automation technologies.

The 2018 State of Accounts Payable Report showed that while almost two-thirds of the respondents claim to be fully or mostly automated, these organizations still face the issue of low visibility over aggregate information on all invoices in process and their corresponding documents.

In this report, 87 percent of the respondents stated invoice status and due date were among the two most valuable pieces of invoice information. Other key visibility findings include:

• A majority of AP professionals, at 83 percent, identified workload per AP employee as an important performance metric, which cannot be visible without utilization of advanced automation technologies.

• The greatest risks of not having an auditable trail of activity were noted as late and duplicate payments.

The report highlighted control as another essential measure that AP professionals seek from automation technologies. In terms of ways to manage participation of non-AP employees, 48 percent of AP professionals use email, 35 percent use phone and 27 percent use spreadsheets – all of which prove to be inefficient methods of controlling AP processes.

Report findings concluded these inefficiencies can be resolved through the uniformity of AP automation, leveraging content services technologies, such as Hyland’s product portfolio, to bring greater visibility to AP information and provide tighter controls over processes.

“Identifying key challenges is the first step to solving some of the biggest issues facing AP departments within their day-to-day tasks,” said Danielle Simer, solution marketing manager at Hyland. “Once challenges are identified, the next step is to look for automation solutions that will work with existing enterprise systems and provide greater control and visibility across the procure-to-pay lifecycle.”

Additional findings highlighted in the survey include:

• Eighty-two percent of survey respondents feel their organizations could handle an increase in invoice volume well or very well. Of those organizations, 95% are fully or mostly automated.

• Paper filing, manual data entry and invoice exceptions were cited as the top accounts payable process challenges.

• Nearly half of AP organizations spend two to four hours a week enforcing invoice processing rules.

Hyland AP solutions include OnBase, Brainware Intelligent Capture and Perceptive portfolio to automate AP processes, including invoice capture, exception handling and invoice approvals. To learn more about Hyland’s offerings for AP professionals, please visit OnBase.com.