The accounts payable (AP) function as we know it is disappearing. Advanced AI and automation are reshaping what AP teams do, how CFOs view their responsibilities, and where the profession is headed.
Sharon Nouh, CEO & Founder, ProSpend, said: “In our latest report, Stop the AP Leak, Duplicate Payments, Slow Approvals and What Top CFOs Do Next, we looked beyond the obvious frustrations of manual AP: slow approvals, data errors, inconsistent processes and exposure to fraud and explored what the future looks like. We spoke to several finance leaders in industries to uncover just how costly manual AP can be; their insights were accurate and a little alarming.”
“We also explored how leading organisations are closing the gaps. The message from CFOs in industries was clear: automation is no longer optional for organisations that want to remain competitive. It is now the foundation of a resilient and future-ready finance function.”
No more risky behaviour and bad data management
According to Nouh, traditional accounts payable is slow, error-prone, resource-intensive, and open to fraud. Modern automation eliminates these risks, but recognising the problem is only the first step.
“Manual processes carry too much risk, while automated workflows deliver the accuracy, speed and control finance teams need to stay ahead,” she said.
Emma Fisher, Managing Director of Sydney-based Evolve Consultancy Group, explained that beyond operational headaches, bad invoice data undermines the integrity of the entire financial picture.
“If invoice data isn’t accurate, the financials built on top of it can’t be trusted. That undermines management’s ability to make confident decisions,” she said.
“Too often, invoices are either pushed straight through without any real scrutiny, or they’re only checked at the point of payment in the bank. What gets missed are the fundamentals – is the value aligned to the budget or the original proposal? Without that check, over-payments and unnecessary costs creep in very easily.
“In my experience, most businesses face recurring data accuracy challenges, which erodes confidence in their reporting and creates hesitation at the executive level. Since invoices are the foundation of financial statements, even small errors compound quickly into bigger problems.”
Bad data leads to real losses, like duplicate or overstated payments, incorrect GST treatment, or posting errors that spark supplier disputes or audit fixes.
Tamanna Relia, Founder of Brisbane-based financial advisory firm Cents & Solutions, said poor invoice data creates systemic costs. “It is a costly and systemic issue. For companies issuing invoices, mistakes can mean delayed or lost revenue. Lack of internal controls can cause companies to pay the same invoice twice. Manual reconciliations could cause a team to spend more time, higher processing costs, errors in GST reconciliations, and damaged supplier relationships.”
In short, bad invoice data undermines financial reporting and adds risk at every turn. In an age of advanced AP tools, this problem shouldn’t exist.
Trends and predictions for accounts payable in 2026
If traditional AP is fading and CFOs are steering the change, understanding where it’s headed is important.
The shift from manual processing to AI-driven automation is already underway, reshaping how finance teams operate day to day.
ProSpend’s report identified six emerging trends shaping the new era of accounts payable. The trends signal a fundamental shift in how AP operates, what it delivers and the value it brings to finance.
- Advanced OCR and AI algorithms now extract invoice data and match POs automatically, with minimal human input. AP teams will step in only when needed, dramatically speeding up processing cycles.
- Finance leaders are embracing embedded payment capabilities in AP platforms. Instead of separate banking portals, payments are initiated and executed right inside the AP workflow, eliminating errors and delays while ensuring on-time vendor payments.
- Modern AP systems will provide real-time dashboards and instant analytics from payable data. CFOs will get up-to-the-minute visibility into outflows, approval bottlenecks and budget impacts, enabling proactive decisions.
- Leading platforms now lock down supplier bank details with multi-step verification and audit trails. Any change to vendor payment info triggers alerts and approvals, ensuring payouts only go to verified accounts.
- Powered by machine learning, next-gen AP tools analyse patterns to flag risks before they materialise. Systems proactively warn of duplicate billing, suspicious charges or compliance issues, making AP an early warning system rather than just a processor.
- CFOs are adopting unified platforms that combine expense management, AP automation, purchasing and payments in one system. The consolidation shatters silos and provides instant visibility and control over business spend.
Empowering the future of finance
Tamanna Relia advocates for expanding automation beyond accounts payable to other areas of finance, including reconciliations and accounts receivable invoicing, suggesting that the benefits of automation should be applied more broadly in financial operations.
“Nowadays, CFOs are expected to be more than financial controllers,” she said. “Automation of financial procedures is not a distraction from the CFO’s role but rather an enabler of it. When automation is in place, finance teams can spend more time analysing and less time processing which gains credibility as a CFO as they are forward strategists not just traditional accountants.”
“For most SMEs it will be the cost of investing in a payables system and being able to justify the ROI to the board that this initial cost will provide substantial benefits to the organisation that are measurable in cost savings, risk reduction and increased efficiency,” he said.
Kerryn Divall points to scalability as a key consideration for CFOs looking at how their accounts payable or other finance systems might evolve in the future, particularly for organisations facing structural changes.
“If the structure of an organisation changes, the accounts payable function may not be scalable,” she explains. “In these cases more invoices or activity would mean more resources for data entry. If there was a data capture option with direct entry into the finance system, data entry becomes a review process and a value add instead of a chore.”
One major gain from smoother AP is clarity in forecasts, said Michelle Kvello, Managing Director and CFO of Sydney-based consulting firm Lantern Partners. “The big change would be clarity in our forecasts. Missed invoices which then have to be paid quickly, or late invoice submissions which mean unexpected changes to cashflow forecasts, are difficult to manage, particularly in this environment.”
Streamlining AP is a win for everyone. Suppliers appreciate prompt, predictable payments and can better manage their own cash flow when they can rely on timely remittances.
The transformation of accounts payable is already in motion
The gap between those embracing change and those resisting it will only widen. CFOs who make automation a strategic priority and prepare their teams for a data-driven, exception-led future will stay ahead.
Read the full report, Stop the AP Leak, to learn how leading CFOs are implementing automation and the results they are seeing.
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