Draw the accounts payable process flow and you get five boxes in a line. Work in accounts payable and you spend most of your time somewhere those five boxes do not describe. The useful diagram keeps the spine short and gives each branch a name, an owner and a target, because the branches are where the effort, the delay and the risk all concentrate.
The spine, in five steps
Invoice received and identified. Validated against what you already know. Matched to the purchase order and the goods receipt. Approved by the person with authority for that value and cost centre. Coded, scheduled and paid, with a remittance sent. In a healthy process most invoices take this route without anybody thinking about them individually.
The branches, in four kinds
No order to match against, which needs a fuller approval by whoever owns the spend. Price outside tolerance, which belongs to purchasing. Quantity outside tolerance or a missing receipt, which belongs to whoever takes deliveries. And query or suspected duplicate, which needs a named owner and the supplier contact. Four branches, four owners, four ages.
What the diagram should carry
An owner and a target elapsed time on every branch, and a way to count how many invoices took each one last month. That turns the diagram from a description into a management tool: a branch that is growing or slowing is a specific problem with a specific owner rather than a general sense that payables is struggling.
Questions people ask about accounts payable process flow
Should payment be part of the flow?
As an endpoint, yes. Payment scheduling itself is usually a separate rhythm driven by terms and cash rather than by individual invoices.
Where do credit notes fit?
They deserve their own short path, since they reverse rather than create an obligation and are frequently mishandled by processes designed only for invoices.
How often should the flow be reviewed?
Annually, and whenever the exception mix changes materially. A growing branch is the signal that something upstream has changed.