As companies expand, finance teams are often asked to process more transactions without a proportional increase in staff or resources. For accounts payable (AP) departments, this challenge presents a critical question: how can volume grow without compromising timeliness, accuracy, or oversight?
The solution lies in automation. When thoughtfully implemented, AP automation does not replace personnel—it enhances their capacity. It allows teams to focus less on routine processing and more on exception management, vendor relationships, and financial insight.
This article explores how several organizations have used Ascend’s automation tools, integrated with Workday, to scale AP operations efficiently while preserving headcount and improving performance.
Manual AP systems, often based on spreadsheets, email, or legacy tools, are ill-suited for scale. As invoice volume increases, these systems require more labor, introduce more risk, and limit visibility.
Key issues that arise include:
Delays in invoice approvals and payments
Increased errors from manual data entry
Poor visibility into processing status
Heavy reliance on individual employees for process knowledge
Reduced time for analysis, reporting, and strategic support
Hiring additional staff may offer temporary relief, but without systemic improvements, it does not address the root inefficiencies that strain AP departments over time.
Ascend’s AP automation platform is built to support—not replace—finance professionals. By automating repetitive tasks such as invoice intake, data extraction, and coding, the system allows teams to redirect their efforts to higher-value activities.
These activities include:
Investigating and resolving exceptions
Monitoring vendor performance
Supporting audits and internal reporting
Collaborating with procurement and budget owners
Rather than eliminating jobs, automation strengthens the role of AP by eliminating low-value work and enabling staff to contribute more strategically.
One illustrative example is OU Health, which reduced its AP validation workload by 83 percent, from multiple full-time positions to just 20 hours of effort per week. No jobs were eliminated; responsibilities shifted toward oversight and reconciliation.
Increased touchless processing to 90 percent, up from 40–50 percent
Reduced validation labor to 20 hours per week
Retained staff and reassigned effort to analytical work
Achieved a 74 percent touchless processing rate within months
Used automation to support business expansion without additional AP hires
Processes 400,000+ invoices annually
Improved OCR header recognition from ~50 percent to 85 percent
Centralized AP across 2,000+ locations with 40 percent faster processing
Attained 65 percent touchless processing and 98 percent OCR accuracy
Reduced manual invoice handling from four touches to nearly zero
AP staff shifted from data entry to exception handling and analysis
Completed implementation in just over two months
Realized 30 percent time savings shortly after go-live
Selected Ascend for its integration strength and user-oriented design
Accounts payable teams should not be expected to scale through manual effort alone. When equipped with the right technology, AP professionals can support higher volumes, improve accuracy, and contribute meaningfully to broader financial goals.
The companies featured in this article did not reduce staff. They invested in systems that allowed their existing teams to achieve more. That is the essence of modern AP automation: empowering professionals to do their best work at scale.
To explore how Ascend can support your AP transformation, we invite you to connect with our team for a tailored demonstration.