Why AP Automation is on Every CFO’s Radar
Finance teams are under increasing pressure to do more with less. Manual invoice processing, paper approvals, and disconnected systems make it hard to scale operations, close the books quickly, or prevent fraud.
Enter Accounts Payable (AP) Automation: A set of technologies that modernizes how companies receive, approve, and pay invoices. For organizations running on NetSuite, the AP automation landscape is evolving rapidly—and choosing the right approach is more strategic than ever.
This guide is designed for finance, IT, and operations leaders who want to:
- Understand what AP automation is (and isn’t).
- Know when to invest.
- Evaluate solutions architecturally and strategically.
- Quantify the business value and ROI.
- Future-proof their NetSuite investment.
What is Accounts Payable Automation?
At its core, AP automation is the digitization and automation of the invoice-to-payment lifecycle. That includes:
- Vendor onboarding and management.
- Invoice intake and data extraction (paper, email, PDF).
- Intelligent validation (PO matching, duplicate detection).
- Approval routing and exception handling.
- Payment execution (ACH, wires, checks).
- Real-time reporting, audit trails, and compliance controls.
In a manual process, AP teams waste hours entering invoice data, tracking down approvers, uploading payment files, and reconciling transactions across systems.
AP automation aims to eliminate all of that—by embedding control, efficiency, and scalability into the finance function.
When Should a Company Invest in AP Automation?
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but the following are common signs:
- Invoice volume exceeds 100 invoices per month.
- Invoice approvals introduce dozens or hundreds of emails, generating confusion and making approvals difficult to complete.
- Monthly close is consistently delayed by invoice reconciliation.
- Duplicate payments or missed discounts are becoming common.
- Audit or compliance burdens are growing (SOX, HIPAA, GDPR).
- The AP team is spending more time chasing paperwork than analyzing cash flow.
If your team spends more time moving data than managing exceptions, it’s probably time to look at your options for implementing AP automation.
How to Evaluate the ROI of AP Automation
The ROI of AP automation comes from four key areas:
| Value Driver | Financial Impact |
| Time Savings | Reduced hours spent on manual entry, approvals, and reconciliation. |
| Fewer Errors | Lower risk of duplicate payments, fraud, or missed invoices. |
| Faster Close | Improved cash-flow visibility and working capital management. |
| Audit Readiness | Reduced cost of compliance and fewer audit hours. |
A mid-sized business processing 1,000 invoices per month could easily save:
- 30–50% of time spent on manual AP efforts.
- 1–2 days off the monthly close.
- Thousands of dollars in audit prep and recovery from payment mistakes.
Why AP Automation is Still Important
In the face of increasing AI adoption, automation can already feel old-fashioned to some. And yet, according to the latest report on AP Automation Trends from the Institute of Financial Operations and Leadership (IFOL), 66% of AP teams are still manually entering invoices, 21% of organizations are not prioritizing automation, and 27% of AP teams reported having no automation whatsoever. When one tenth of AP professionals are still relying entirely on paper, the need for AP automation (and adopting an ERP like NetSuite) are still not only important considerations for finance teams, they’re hugely beneficial and important investments.
Keep an eye out for part 2 of this blog series, to learn about the two paths of AP Automation. Will you take the easy one, with significantly less ROI, or the path less travelled, to complete AP Automation?
