Survey reveals continued increase in adoption of automation technology among middle market businesses
Cambridge, MA, May 16, 2019 – Corporate finance departments continue their unrelenting push to automate manual functions, according to the fourth annual State of Accounts Payable Report, based on a survey conducted by leading AP and payment automation solution provider MineralTree.
The survey revealed 43% of finance professionals work for companies that have either already implemented accounts payable automation technology (24%), or plan to within one year (19%). This represents a 30% increase over the number of companies responding similarly in last year’s survey, reflecting the increasingly mainstream adoption of automation technology by finance professionals.
The report, which analyzes and evaluates the current state of accounts payable operations from the perspective of more than 1,400 finance professionals at middle market companies, also reveals several other underlying trends that are driving change in accounts payable operations across industries, including:
- A continued rise of electronic payments. Even though paper checks still dominate, automation was found to enable access to both ACH transfers and B2B credit card payments. The percentage of companies paying using ACH grew by 17% and companies using B2B card payments grew by 26% from a year earlier.
- The increasing frequency of fraud attempts in the middle market. Middle market companies are reporting fraud attempts made against their business at comparable levels to enterprise companies. In total, 60% of finance professionals reported a fraud attempt against their organization in the past year.
- A lack of visibility into accounts payable costs. For the fourth consecutive year, finance professionals have drastically underestimated the cost of manually processing and paying invoices.
“Our fourth annual State of AP Report shows that the macro trend of digitization in the finance function is gaining significant momentum. Forward-thinking companies are automating the manual components of the finance function, and the AP process is quickly becoming the central point of those automation efforts,” said Micah Remley, Chief Operating Officer of MineralTree. “The benefits of automation are clear for any organization in that it drives efficiency, drastically reduces costs, improves fraud controls, and increases visibility into their cash flow to optimize working capital.”
The full State of Accounts Payable Report also includes further analysis providing finance professionals with an opportunity to benchmark their team’s processes and compare perceptions of AP as a whole. For a complimentary copy of the report, please visit MineralTree’s website.
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About MineralTree
MineralTree provides the easiest to use Accounts Payable (AP) and Payment Automation solutions for finance professionals at middle market enterprises. MineralTree streamlines AP, giving customers unparalleled visibility and significant cost savings in an affordable, integrated platform that is guaranteed secure. For more information, visit www.mineraltree.com.