Accounts payable is ready to shed its image as a costly, back-office function.  Accounts payable practitioners expect that the strategic value of their function will increase over the next two years.

But accounts payable has a lot of work to do if it’s going to raise its strategic standing. 

Accounts payable staff still spend lots of time on mundane activities such as data entry, paper shuffling, and document filing.  Even accounts payable managers spend more of their time on transaction processing than on managing staff, reviewing reports or planning.

If accounts payable practitioners want to raise the strategic standing of their department and job function within the enterprise, they need to show senior management that the accounts payable function is something the enterprise should “want to have,” and not just a “got to have.”