The Full Accounts Payable Cycle — And Why Most Teams Still Get It Wrong

TL;DR

• The accounts payable (AP) cycle spans everything from purchase requests to final payment and reconciliation.
• Manual steps — especially around non-PO invoices and approvals — still stall the process.
• SoftCo clients like Superdry and Logitech have cut AP workloads dramatically by going touchless.
• In this post: what the AP cycle actually looks like, what breaks it, and how automation fixes it — fast.

What Is the Full Accounts Payable Cycle?

It’s easy to assume “AP” just means invoice processing. But the full AP cycle includes every step from initiating a purchase to making the payment and reconciling it back into your general ledger.

Here’s what that looks like in the real world:

9 Steps in the Accounts Payable Cycle

1. Purchase request submitted – typically by a department needing goods or services.
2. Purchase order (PO) created – and ideally approved before the supplier gets involved.
3. Goods/services received – tracked via a goods receipt note (GRN).
4. Invoice received – electronically or (still, somehow) on paper.
5. Invoice matching – compared to the PO and GRN.
6. Exception handling – when data doesn’t align.
7. Approval workflow – routed based on value, department, or cost center.
8. Payment execution – scheduled by AP once approved.
9. Reconciliation & reporting – matched in the ERP for audit and accruals.

For global organizations, these steps often vary by region — especially when handling multiple currencies, VAT rules, or local e-invoicing mandates.

What Breaks the Accounts Payable Cycle?

Even if the theory looks solid, execution is where things fall apart — especially when most of these steps still involve humans, spreadsheets, or fragmented systems.

Here’s where the delays creep in:

• Manual invoice matching: Finding the right PO or GRN manually is still painfully common.
• Non-PO invoices: No PO? No automated match — which means slow coding, chasing down approvers, and risk of errors.
• Approval bottlenecks: One approver on leave can freeze dozens of invoices.
• Poor visibility: Finance teams often don’t know what’s approved, pending, or paid — until it’s too late.
• ERP sprawl: Operating across multiple business units or systems = data chaos.

According to internal benchmarks, 60–75% of all AP delays happen after invoice receipt — typically at the approval or exception-handling stages.

Take Superdry. Before automating, their AP process was 95% manual. After switching to SoftCo, they jumped to 80% touchless processing and 100% visibility — across 60+ countries.

What Causes Duplicate Invoices?

– Manual entry from email or PDF
– Resent or revised invoices
– Lack of system-level duplicate detection
Learn more about duplicate invoice prevention

What a Modern, Touchless AP Cycle Looks Like

Smart finance teams aren’t hiring more AP headcount. They’re redesigning the cycle itself — removing repetitive, manual steps and giving the process structure.

✅ AI-Driven Invoice Matching

SoftCoAP’s Smart Matching handles 2-way or 3-way matching instantly — even when line items or tax rules vary. It learns from prior coding behavior, vendor history, and GL usage to suggest accurate matches.

Logitech processes over 100,000 invoices annually. With SoftCo, 83% of those match with 100% confidence, automatically.

✅ Touchless Non-PO Handling

In high-volume sectors like retail or foodservice, non-PO invoices can represent up to 40% of all invoices. SoftCoAP routes them using AI-based coding, reducing delays and manual input.

Chanelle Pharma replaced a manual non-PO approval process with SoftCo automation — gaining complete control and visibility.

✅ Built-In Approval Workflows

Approvals follow business rules (e.g., value thresholds or entity-specific policies), so invoices don’t sit in someone’s inbox. SoftCo supports complex, multi-entity structures — with tailored rules by country or function.

✅ Native ERP Integration

Whether it’s SAP S/4HANA, Oracle Fusion, or Microsoft Dynamics, SoftCo connects bi-directionally to your ERP — even legacy hybrid setups.

Read more on AP Automation in SAP S/4HANA

The Business Impact of Fixing the AP Cycle

Fixing the AP cycle has ripple effects across the business:

• Cash flow clarity – no more surprise invoices or guesswork accruals.
• Audit confidence – every invoice is traceable, matched, and approved.
• Team morale – AP staff spend time solving exceptions, not data entry.
• Cost savings – capture early payment discounts or avoid late fees.
• Scalability – process more invoices without growing the team.

Key Metrics to Watch: – Invoice cycle time – Cost per invoice – % of straight-through processing – % of early payment discounts captured – Days payable outstanding (DPO).

In Finland, the government rolled out SoftCoP2P across 73 departments, targeting 90% touchless processing — and hit it. That’s 1.2 million invoices per year, fully centralized.

Change Management Makes or Breaks It

Even the best automation platform will fail without the right rollout. Here’s what SoftCo clients do differently:

• Assign internal “champions” in finance and IT
• Start with a pilot group, then scale
• Train power users to support others
• Communicate the why behind the change
• Track adoption and address drop-off early

“SoftCo quickly understood the issues we were facing & solved them. Cost and cycle times have decreased significantly.” — NTR plc

Real Clients, Real Results

JJ Foodservice: 100k invoices handled by 3 AP staff.
Logitech: 83% of invoices processed touchlessly.
Chanelle Pharma: 100% control over AP with SAP.
Finnish Government: 90% touchless processing across 70+ departments.
Superdry: From 5% to 80% touchless processing.

Explore more customer success stories

Ready to Fix Your AP Cycle?

If you’re still chasing POs, forwarding invoices by email, or guessing what’s been paid — it’s time to stop.

✅ See how SoftCoAP works in a 20-minute walkthrough
Let’s show you how top-performing teams automate everything from purchase to payment.

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