AP automation

Frequent visitors to Payables Place will know that the complex category of business travel has increasingly become a bigger line-item at the average enterprise. In fact, the current business travel industry has not seen this level of growth since long before the economic downturn of last decade. As we move into a new year, what [...]

For small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) experiencing rapid growth, two key differences between long-term success and failure are (1) how well they manage cash flow and (2) the infrastructure they have in place to support growth. SMBs that are fast growing need a robust operational infrastructure to help support and control that growth and ensure [...]

Cash management is a critical function in any enterprise, no matter the size. If cash isn’t managed effectively, the enterprise risks running low on operating funds, which could result in staff and/or bills going unpaid or lenders calling their loans ahead of schedule (because certain financial liquidity thresholds are crossed) — among other financial consequences. Nowhere [...]

For many enterprises, the accounts payable (AP) function is one of the last bastions of manual processes. Invoices in these organizations are still approved by hand, with paper checks sent out via mail or third-party to pay suppliers. This is slowly starting to change, as Ardent Partners research has shown over the last five years; [...]

Collaboration is more than important in the modern marketplace. It’s downright essential to reaching top-performing status as a company. Collaboration in the procure-to-pay (P2P) process is no different, as it’s only through a strong collaboration initiative that companies can reach new heights of profitability. We expand on this in the new Ardent Partners report, “Collaboration and [...]

Once upon a time, small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) expended significant effort to automate business processes such as accounts payable (AP). With the advent of cloud solutions, this is no longer the case. SMBs no longer have to deal with inefficient, paper-based processes that are a waste of costly resources or long-running technology implementations. And [...]

Our 2013 annual ePayables study [Sidebar: Make sure to visit Payables Place next week when we unveil this year’s study] introduced accounts payable’s new dawn wherein AP departments have realized the need to automate their manual invoice and payment processes and move to an ePayables solution. These solutions are designed to eradicate manual- and paper-based processes, and [...]

  Ardent Partners recently published a new AP focused report. Entitled AP Metrics that Matter (click to download, registration is required) and sponsored by Kofax, this Ardent Partners research report discusses the importance of capturing and analyzing data and presents a set of “metrics that matter” for finance and AP leaders alike to track, evaluate, [...]

The war is on in the B2B payments and last month at its annual user conference, AribaLIVE, Ariba, an SAP company fired off a big shot. As has become customary, Ariba uses the event to bring together its customers, partners, and staff, as well as industry thought leaders and media to share best practices and [...]

Ardent Partners’ research over the past few years has shown that while the average accounts payable department still lacks automation, executive focus, and general alignment with the enterprise, leading enterprises are using their AP function to a competitive advantage. That said, why is it that so many AP departments continue to face time, cost and [...]