Finance Leaders Gaining Substantial Benefits from AP Automation, But Opportunities Remain to Do More

MineralTree’s 9th annual State of AP Report highlights challenges and opportunities for finance teams as they increase their use of automation to drive speed, efficiency, and cost savings

BOSTON, Oct. 31, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — MineralTree, the business-to-business division of Global Payments (NYSE: GPN) offering accounts payable (AP) and payment automation solutions, today released its 9th annual State of AP Report. This year’s findings provide a valuable benchmark for finance teams to compare their back office automation efforts and highlight areas where they can capitalize further to support their businesses. The 2024 report reflects responses from buyers and their vendors to present a complete view of the accounts payable (AP) and payment automation landscape.

“AP automation remains a major source of success for finance leaders as they continue to pursue faster and more efficient back office operations,” said Brian Greehan, head of B2B Solutions for Global Payments. “But there is room for improvement in most organizations. Less than 20% have automated the end-to-end process, and while most are satisfied with their automation efforts, few are completely satisfied.”

MineralTree’s 9th annual State of AP Report looks at the substantial progress finance organizations have made with automation and the challenges preventing them from doing more. It also provides insights and guidance on how they can overcome obstacles to gain more value from their automation efforts.

Key insights from this year’s report include:

Finance organizations need automation to make back office operations more effective.

• Four of five finance professionals believe their organization needs to increase automation efforts to reduce inefficiencies and costs created by manual processes.
• AP remains the number one automation priority in the back office.
• Those who have automated some of their AP processes are seeing real benefits in the form of faster invoice processing and payment cycle time, increased team productivity and reduced costs.

Significant opportunity exists for businesses to expand benefits from AP automation.

• Most businesses have automated some part of the process, but less than 20% have achieved full automation.
• Less than two in five say the AP automation capabilities they are using completely meet their needs.

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in accounts payable remains more talk than walk, but the hype is raising expectations.

• Only 20% of businesses currently use AI or plan to incorporate the technology into their AP process in the next 12 months.
• 31% are not yet sure how they plan to use AI.

As automation grows, payment methods continue to shift and multiply.

• Checks still play a role for most businesses, but buyers and vendors are embracing more digital payment options.
• As the payment mix shifts away from checks, vendors are aligned with buyers. They want more digital payments, including ACH and cards.
• Vendors’ desire to get paid on time and accurately makes them more willing to accept card payments.

As finance teams return to the office, staffing and retention are a concern.

• Back-to-office mandates, combined with a growing shortage of accountants, are creating staffing and retention worries.
• Automation is being used to accommodate remote/hybrid workers and improve work/life balance.

The full report delves into these topics and more, and is available for download here.

About the MineralTree State of Accounts Payable (AP) Report 2024
For the ninth consecutive year, MineralTree surveyed a wide range of finance professionals to analyze their current state of operations, challenges, and outlook for the year ahead. The report includes responses from 1,017 finance professionals involved in the AP function (both MineralTree customers and non-customers), along with 147 employees at vendor organizations, between June 17 and August 5, 2024. The respondents represented a mix of industries, company sizes, and job levels with annual revenues ranging from < $1 million to  > $1 billion. Sixty-five percent were between $10 million and $500 million in annual revenues.

About MineralTree
MineralTree, the business-to-business division of Global Payments (NYSE: GPN), provides modern, secure, easy-to-use accounts payable (AP) and payment automation solutions. By uniting technology and passionate people, we make the process of business payments easy, impactful, and profitable. Our solutions combine ease of use with robust capabilities that drive meaningful insights, transforming the back office into a strategic partner of the corner office. For more information, visit mineraltree.com and follow MineralTree on LinkedIn.

About Global Payments
Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN) is a leading payments technology company delivering innovative software and services to our customers globally. Our technologies, services and team member expertise allow us to provide a broad range of solutions that enable our customers to operate their businesses more efficiently across a variety of channels around the world.

Headquartered in Georgia with approximately 27,000 team members worldwide, Global Payments is a Fortune 500® company and a member of the S&P 500 with worldwide reach spanning North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. For more information, visit company.globalpayments.com and follow Global Payments on X, LinkedIn and Facebook.

CONTACT: Media Inquiries
Susan Vaillancourt
Head of Marketing, MineralTree and
B2B Solutions, Global Payments
+603.881.6423
susan.vaillancourt@globalpay.com