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Digital is enabling a shift away from record keeping to intelligence gathering when it comes to financial management. And AP Automation with Procure to Pay is a key stepping stone in enabling this. But until recently, full-scale automation and intelligent procure-to-pay (P2P) has remained elusive. A reluctance to embrace change, poor data quality and culture have converged to see manual processes prevail.
According to McKinsey, 2024 there is a mismatch between ambition and action. While organisations expect data and analytics to play a core role in every business decision by 2030, research highlights that data infrastructures are not aligned with this.
21% admit that their data infrastructure maturity is low, with a further 30% claiming average levels. Even where systems have been implemented to provide one version of the truth, there are gaps in data, and quality is inconsistent.
This is largely because in many cases a range of spreadsheets are typically used to manage different aspects of the process. One might manage sourcing, another approvals, a third invoices, and a further one to instruct payments. The information flow across spreadsheets is manual, cumbersome and error-prone, resulting in a fragmented and ineffective procure to pay journey.
However, a recent survey highlighted that 44% of organisations said increased automation would be one of the biggest procure to pay trends in the year ahead.
And for good reason. Not only does AP Automation with Procure to Pay automate and make the process substantially more accurate and efficient, but it puts insights at the users’ fingertips.
Procure to Pay is already a seamless process enabled by technology, speeding up the process of purchasing from the point of order, to payment entailing the full cycle of procurement. A solution which has been designed to gain a better understanding of the full process; in recent years businesses are focused on how to decrease overall costs, free up cashflow and improve performance to help make better financial decisions
Whether you’re an established Opera 3 user, or still grappling with spreadsheets to manage the majority of your finance processes, Procure to Pay holds game changing potential.
It eliminates complex and convoluted data entry and document filing to present a single interface from which all processes can be managed. And as part of the digitalisation and evolution of finance, it frees up valuable resources to focus on revenue-generating activities. In parallel, the ease of use and visibility it brings helps to foster a mindset shift focused on looking forward rather than retrospectively analysing data.
Streamlining the entire procurement process, from purchase requisition; approval; purchase order creation; goods receipt; invoice capture and matching; posting; payment; and reporting, not only expedites the time and reduces manual intervention, but ensures accuracy and one version of the truth.
Not only reduces costs associated with paperwork and postage, but brings visibility from which to negotiate better prices, and frees up resources to focus on revenue-generating activities.
Spending patterns can be easily analysed to identify economies of scale and opportunities for cost savings to inform future purchasing decisions and ensure better terms
Because every part of the process is tracked, it’s easy to extrapolate the relevant data to support compliance or audit trails
Ease of access to insights and flexibility means that adapting to changing business dynamics or requirements can be achieved quickly
If AP Automation was one of the last bastions of finance to succumb to digital transformation, the addition of Procure to Pay is akin to closing the loop and ensuring a fully digitalised capability.
And through working with a trusted vendor and partner, who can advise on how to overcome obstacles, data quality issues and bottlenecks, finance departments can reap substantial ROI and preparedness for what’s ahead.
Posted On: August 11, 2025
