Listing the steps of an accounts payable process is easy and not very useful. Attaching to each one the way it characteristically fails, and the cheap prevention for that failure, turns a description into a diagnostic. Most teams are losing time at two or three of the seven, and working through them in order locates which ones in an afternoon.
Arrival, capture, validation
Arrival fails when invoices reach individuals instead of one monitored address; consolidation prevents it. Capture fails when confident wrong values pass unreviewed; a confidence threshold prevents it. Validation fails when nothing checks the invoice against what you already know; five cheap rules on supplier, number, arithmetic, date and bank details prevent it.
Matching and approval
Matching fails through absence rather than disagreement, and the prevention is upstream: purchase-order coverage and prompt goods receipts. Approval fails through waiting, and the prevention is named approvers, automatic cover during absence and escalation to a named alternative rather than reminders that repeat into silence.
Coding, payment, remittance
Coding fails when payables reconstructs an intention that was clear at the point of purchase; coding at the order prevents it. Payment fails on bank detail fraud; verification through channels you already hold prevents it. Remittance fails by not being sent, which is the direct cause of most chasing calls, and sending it costs nothing.
Questions people ask about accounts payable process steps
Which failure is most expensive?
Bank detail fraud by value, and approval waiting by cumulative cost. They need completely different remedies.
How do we find our own weak steps?
Time fifty invoices through each step and record where the gaps are. An afternoon of work and it usually surprises people.
Can all seven be automated?
Five can be largely automated. Coding is assisted at best and exception resolution is a conversation, and both should stay that way.