AP automation (or accounts payable automation) is automating and streamlining the management of companies’ payment cycles, allowing them to save time, money, and resources. The interest in AP automation has grown exponentially over the years.
A research firm suggests that AP automation can lead to the following transformations:1
- Up to 80% reduction in invoice-related expenditures
- 50% contraction in daily sales outstanding (DSO)
- Invoice turnaround accelerated by 75%
AP Automation case studies
We’ve compiled 20 diverse case studies to showcase how AP automation is reshaping workflows across industries, highlighting operational transformations, financial outcomes, and strategic gains.
| Customer | Country | Industry | Business Function | Vendor | Solution | Use case | Benefits | Benefits Details | Short Summary | Partner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Angel Trains | UK | Railway | Accounting | ARCivate | Mi Invoices | - Document management - AP automation | - Reduced human errors - Saved time | - Resolved issues with VAT invoices - Enhanced accountancy work - Adapted GUI to any language | The processing of supplier invoices are automated. | Claremont |
| Ascend Properties | UK | Property Management | Accounting | Nanonets | Invoice OCR | - AP automation | - Reduced operational costs - Enhanced approval workflow - Contibuted business' growth | - Saved processing costs by 80% - Growth in properties managed from 2,000 to 10,000 | - Used for training the AI to extract required information from invoices, checking to make sure all fields are accurately supplied and meet expectations. | NA |
| Blue Star | India | Manufacturing | Accounting | Datamatics | TruBot | AP automation | - Saved time - Increased demand | - Improved invoice processing time by 33% - Enhanced efficiency by 70% - Increased payment requests by 98% | Used for improving efficiency of AP operations. | NA |
| Capita | UK | BPO Services | Accounting | Kofax | Kofax ReadSoft Invoices | - Document management - P2P automation | - Reduced operational costs - Saved time | - Redcuced costs per-invoice by almost 80% - Saved £1 million pounds annually by decreasing office staff by 50% - Boosted invoice process by almost half a million with the new system integration - Increased payment on-time - Enhanced reputation | Used AP automation to classify, sort and distribute incoming documents. | NA |
| Colas | France | Civil Engineering | Accounting | Itesoft | FreeMind for Invoices | AP automation | - Saved time - Reduced operational costs - Enhanced visibility | - Enhanced visibility of the AP process - Reduced paper and storage costs - Improved supplier service | Used for total automation of manual process. | NA |
| Cypress Creek | US | Renewable Energy Manufacturing | Accounting | Rillion | Invoice Capture, Invoice Processing, PO Matching, Archive & Audit Trail | AP automation | - Saved time - Enhanced accuracy - Reduced operational costs | - Improved accuracy rate of vendor invoices by 98% - Provided vendor invoices to purchase orders | Used for invoice data capture automated | NA |
| Domino Printing | UK | Manufacturing | Accounting | ARCivate | Mi Invoices | - Document management - AP automation | - Saved time - Improved customer service | - Improved document capture and OCR functuality - Enhanced implementation speed | Used AP automation to manage their financial reporting and budgetging. | NA |
| KEW Electrical | UK | Electrical Distribution | Accounting | Canon | Canon P2P | AP automation | - Reduced operational costs - Improved visibility - Enhanced fraud protection | - Enhanced control over cashflow and spending - The rate of fraud and duplicated payment are decreased | AP automation for increased invoice visibility, compliance and higher productivity. | NA |
| Land Securities Group (Landsec) | UK | Real Estate | Accounting | Rossum | Rossum AI | - AP automation | - Saved time - Reduced manual workload - Improved productivity | - Saved up to 92% time on manual data capture and validation | - Used for connecting Landsec's workflow and ICE, a proprietary app, to the AI engine and validation screen. - Used for capturing the data from the remittance advice, and matching it to Landsec’s bank statement data | NA |
| Lidl | Germany | Retail | Accounting | Itesoft | Itesoft Streamline for Invoices | AP automation | - Enhanced security - Improved compliance | - Over 70% of invoices processed without human intervention - Fully secure and encrypted process - Increased copmliance by automating 75% of invoices - Increased invoice reading rate of over 95% | Used for automated data reading and control | NA |
| Mitsubishi Electric | Japan | Electronics | Accounting | Itesoft | W4 | FreeMind for Invoices | AP automation | - Reduced operational costs - Saved time - Reduced human error | - Increased speed of coding and approval - Improved flexibility of locating documents - Invoices are processed automatically by 90% | Used for invoice automation with seamless SAP integration. | NA |
| Molson Coors | Canada | Retail/ CPG | Accounting | Rossum | Rossum IDP | - AP automation | - Saved time - Improved accuracy rate | - 76% saved time per document - Reduced approval time to 17 seconds per document - Reduced the processing time( from purchase to deployment) to 3 days - Enhanced accuracy rate by 90% | - Blue Prism robots directs invoices to Rossum - Rossum's AI imports and collects invoice data upon receipt. - Rossum delivers high-confidence data back to the robot, which matches purchase orders with extracted data. - The Blue Prism robot stores results in SAP. | Blue Prism & EY |
| Network Rail | UK | Rail infrastructure and asset management | Accounting | Itesoft | SWIM (scanning, workflow, invoice management) | Finance Automation | - Reduced operational costs - Saved time - Enhanced invoice analysis | - Reduced processing costs by 60% - Processing time decreased by 90% - Reduced operating costs by downsizing AP team from 20 to 14 and procurment staff from 10 to 4 - Provided better analysis with invoice matching automation by 82% | Used for a more integrated and automated approach to finance | NA |
| Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust | UK | Healthcare | Accounting | Itesoft | Itesoft Streamline for Invoices | AP automation | - Increased productivty - Reduced operational costs - Saved time | - Reduced costs while doubling invoice volumes - Increased staff productivity by 78% - Improved data quality by 80% - Saved time is equivalent to 16 full-time employees in a year - Benefited from supplier discounts thanks to early payments | Used for invoice automation. | NA |
| Schroders | UK | Investment Management | Accounting | ARCivate | Mi Invoices | - Document management - AP automation | - Reduced operational costs - Saved time | - Cost savings by more than a 300% - Improved efficiencies with 'No PO No Pay' policy - Increased payment rate by 90% in a month - Reduced average processing time from 10 to 3 days - Enhanced data-extraction and OCR recognition with 100% language capability - Allowed for flexible and remote access by ceating a centralised hub - Support for localised payment formats | Used for invoice management and improving data extraction | NA |
| Tacala | US | Franchising | Accounting | Rillion | Invoice Processing, Contracts (Recurring Invoices) and Documents | AP automation | - Enhanced approval workflow - Reduced human error - Reduced operational costs - Saved time | - Improved invoice validation rate by 98% - Decreased the cost arising from duplicate invoices - Improved audit trail and reporting | AP automation for easier management of bills and other recurring services of various locations | NA |
| Tapi | New Zealand | Property Management | Accounting | Nanonets | Invoice OCR | - AP automation | - Reduced operational costs - Saved time | - Costs are reduced to down 70% - Validation time is reduced to 12 seconds per invoice - The correction rate of information is improved by 94% | - Used to extract data from invoices, verify to see if it matched expectations. | NA |
| The Master Trust Bank of Japan (MTBJ) | Japan | Finance | Accounting | Rossum | Machine learning OCR | - Document management - AP automation | - Reduced workload - Improved productivity - Reduced error rate | - The manual workload is reduced by 75%. - Document validation per document time is reduced to 50 seconds. | - Rossum trained an extraction model to automate account statement processing with its specialized AI engine - Used machine learning OCR to speed work and eliminate manual workload. | NA |
| TransMontaigne | US | Energy Transportation | Accounting | Kofax | Kofax ReadSoft Invoices | AP automation | - Reduced operational costs - Saved time - Enhanced approval workflow - Reduced human error | - Reduced average cost of transaction by almost 80% - Saved $1 million in monthly accurals - Decreased duplicate payments by 90% - Lowered error rate by 43% | Used AP automation for improving invoice visibility, cutting invoice processing times and reducing costs. | NA |
What are the benefits of AP Automation?
Increased Efficiency of Financial Operations
AP automation increases speed and accuracy in invoice processing. This allows companies to execute their financial operations, such as invoice validation or payment release, with minimal human involvement and errors, often associated with manual entries and paper-based processes.
Accelerated Payment Cycles & Cash Flow Agility
Automated systems offer complete transparency into payment timelines, allowing businesses to align cash flow more effectively with due dates. By ensuring prompt remittance, organizations not only meet contractual terms but also take advantage of early payment incentives.
Scalability & Reduced Processing Time
Automating the invoice process reduces each invoice’s processing time and enables processing scalability. This saves businesses valuable resources that can be spent better elsewhere, such as accountants trying to identify fraudulent invoices or duplicate payments, and allows them to expand their operations without worrying about increasing the size of the AP teams.
Precision in Financial Records
Automated platforms virtually eliminate manual entry errors, fostering cleaner financial data. Because transactions are centralized and monitored continuously, discrepancies are minimized, and the end-of-month reconciliation process becomes significantly more seamless.
Enhanced Visibility & Reporting Capabilities
Invoice automation enhances visibility into an organization’s financial operations through visible dashboards, real-time internal controls and notifications, and periodic reports and analytics. This provides businesses with a real-time view of their accounts payable process, enabling them to quickly adjust strategies if needed.
Strategic Cost Reductions
Perhaps the most immediate advantage lies in the financial gains realized through efficiency. Organizations benefit from:
- Reduced manual intervention leading to fewer costly mistakes
- Healthier supplier relationships as a result of timely remittances
- Better financial planning enabled by actionable insights and clear visibility
AP automation tools
For a detailed comparison of these AP automation tools, check out our vendor selection guide.
Further reading:
- Dynamics 365 in Accounts Payable Automation: In-Depth Review
- NetSuite Accounts Payable (AP) Automation
- Blackbaud Accounts Payable (AP) Automation: In-Depth Review
- Sage Accounts Payable (AP) Automation
- Top 10 ReadSoft Alternatives / Competitors
- Top 10 Kofax Alternatives/Competitors
- 14 Rossum AI Competitors/Alternatives
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