[Editor’s Note: Ardent Partners recently published its Accounts Payable-themed report, “The State of ePayables 2025: AP’s Unfinished Journey.” Over the next several weeks, this site will feature our series highlighting key AP management strategies and top priorities for 2025.
Bye, Hurdles. Scaling Obstacles.
AP leaders are prioritizing different strategies to overcome big hurdles in 2025. Over the years, priorities have mirrored AP’s shift away from tactical operations to one with a sharper focus on larger, strategic, and more holistic initiatives. In 2025, AP’s top priority is, once again, deploying comprehensive ePayables solutions (“ePayables” is Ardent’s term for any technology that automates some or all of the AP process). This is a key initiative for nearly half (46%) of all AP leaders today. Ardent Partners maintains that AP’s ability to leverage its unique data to provide actionable information to key stakeholders is vital for enterprise operations and results, a capability that is fundamentally reliant on robust ePayables tools.
Another top priority is the drive to improve overall reporting and analytics, selected as a top priority by 44% of AP leaders. This signals AP’s commitment to becoming a “hub of intelligence” for procurement, treasury, and the lines of business. Visibility into and an understanding of the opportunities and risks that reside within its data can be a transformational catalyst for any AP operation.
Meanwhile, enhancing collaboration and communication with procurement is a consistent top priority for AP teams, where 37% have prioritized it this year.
Finally, enabling more suppliers to submit electronic invoices remains an essential focus for 35% of teams. Visibility is paramount to success, and self-knowledge is the primary ingredient for improvement. While ePayables systems uniquely rely on third-party (supplier) adoption for maximum returns, the rising tide of global e-invoicing mandates underscores the need for continued progress in supplier enablement.
SIDEBAR
AP’s Achilles Heel
From the beginning, Ardent Partners has described supplier enablement as the Achilles heel of ePayables technology deployments. After all, AP utilizes one of the few enterprise-level technologies that requires third-party participation for success. Certainly, there are hurdles to suppliers becoming enabled — like integration challenges and the costs of managing customers across multiple platforms/technologies. Nonetheless, AP teams serious about digital transformation should do a better job explaining the supplier value proposition for participation and work to better understand the challenges that suppliers face.
Enabled suppliers frequently report the following benefits:
Reduced costs: Being able to electronically submit invoices to customers can deliver significant savings (assuming there are no [or low] transaction fees for suppliers). Examples include a reduction in printing and mailing costs, savings from not having to reprint invoices, fewer customer service calls, etc.
Fewer disputed invoices: Suppliers can flip POs into invoices or submit eInvoices straight-through from their AR system. eInvoicing eliminates the buyer’s need to manually create an invoice, reducing the potential for errors. As a result, invoices are less likely to be rejected and customers can start processing them without delay. In the event a dispute does occur, it can easily and quickly be resolved online as opposed to via the phone.
On-time payments: eInvoicing can impact invoice processing and approval cycles on the buyer side, and when combined with ePayments, suppliers often see an improvement in on-time payments.
Improved ability to forecast: Having access to real-time data around submitted invoices, invoice status, payments, and more adds a level of predictability and visibility to the supplier’s AR process and its ability to forecast cash flow.
Accelerated payment: If suppliers are able to receive payments quicker via a simple and effective tool that doesn’t require heavy investment of time and resources, significant value may be created.
Global compliance: Mandates are exploding, causing perhaps the single-biggest driver to get more suppliers enabled. More and more countries, particularly in Europe and Latin America, are mandating eInvoicing. Failure to comply can result in significant fines, penalties, and even operational disruptions. AP departments must ensure they can both send and receive compliant eInvoices.
