Just Measuring Accounts Payable KPIs Won’t Lead to Efficiency Gains
Measuring KPIs is just the starting point. What really matters is how you use the data.
Most AP leaders can rattle off their team’s latest key performance metrics (KPIs). Invoice processing time. Error rates. Early payment discount capture.
But here’s the uncomfortable question: Are those numbers actually helping to improve performance? Or are they just fluctuating month to month, while the AP team scratches their heads over why?
For most teams, the honest answer is the second. And that means there’s no real visibility into what’s underlying the metrics.
Getting Stuck on the Dashboard
Part of the problem is that many AP teams can’t look beyond their dashboard. They may have software that pulls the numbers and summarizes how many invoices were processed, or how often the business managed to pay on time. They can even use that data to benchmark against industry standards and compile reports indicating how well (or poorly) the team seems to be performing. But there’s no understanding of root causes or how to improve.
For example, imagine your company’s STP rate suddenly drops by 7% in Q3. To the best of everyone’s knowledge, things are running the same as always. But the evidence from your dashboard clearly indicates something has gone off track. How do you use that information?
Does the software you’re using allow you to drill down to discover which suppliers are causing the bottleneck? Or which exceptions do your team have to manually correct most often? How about the tasks your team is spending the majority of their time on, and whether their frequency has changed?
At the recent SSON AI-Powered AP webinar, as a former Global Process Owner and Procure-to-Pay practitioner, I explained how the issue often unfolds for companies:
“At the start, the key is to identify your company’s goals and the metrics that truly matter. Maybe it’s compliance, maximizing efficiency through AP automation, or reducing repetitive work. Once those priorities are clear, you can determine which metrics to track. The challenge most companies face is this: they create metrics that look impressive on a slide but fail to understand what those numbers actually represent.”
The issue then becomes that, although the companies have these data points and they can benchmark performance, there’s still no real way to tie that back to process efficiency.
“It’s just a number you can show off. One month it goes up, the next it goes down… but you still don’t know how to move forward or address the underlying issues.”
Meanwhile, if your team does decide to dig deeper into the issues underlying those dashboard numbers, it often means a lot of time and money spent on analysis. All while the business is still suffering the ongoing efficiency impacts from a poorly optimized AP process.
Making the Shift to Real Visibility
So how should AP teams be working with their data?
The key is getting the right system in place to really understand where the issues are coming from:
“At JTI, implementing Invoicetrack was a game-changer. Finally, we knew exactly why payments were delayed, and what our PO compliance was like. We could also see where our teams were spending their time, literally down to the minute.”
“The company uncovered several surprises in the data: bottlenecks weren’t just complex PO matchings, they also included time spent on internal communication, note-taking, and system documentation. Once these patterns were clear, the team could analyze and create an action plan to boost efficiency. The real priority isn’t just having KPIs; it’s having a system that helps you identify issues and act on insights quickly.”
Jasna Janjic, Solutions Architect at Springtime Technologies
In other words, with real-time visibility in place, teams can get to grips with what’s impacting AP processes. From there, it becomes possible to continuously refine workflows and tackle bottlenecks as they appear, always with an eye to how things can be improved even further. Priorities change every month, and you need to be able to identify them instantly.
The Road to Proactive AP
One advancement making these kinds of efficiency gains possible is agentic AI. With AI agents, AP teams gain tools that act intelligently and autonomously to refine, improve, and problem-solve process pain points. As invoice processing tools and platforms integrate with this technology, the possibilities for proactive, real-time process management expand even further. Fellow presenter, Helmut Rattenberger, Global Operational Efficiency Lead for Life Sciences, EY, outlines it like this:
“What we see now is that these solutions create agents that sit on top of the solution and address point problems. And so they’re becoming broader, covering more of the end-to-end procure-to-pay process.”
He cautions, however, that just having the visibility and tech isn’t enough. Companies still need to create support structures that ensure process excellence:
“You have to create a [Center of Excellence] that is dedicated to optimizing your process,” he adds, “It’s a bit like owning a Ferrari. You can spend all of this money on the car, but it will still drive relatively slowly if you don’t pave the road for it, right? So, you need to ensure the systems are in place to support success — both in terms of tech and continuously optimizing your process.”
Turning Metrics and Tech Into Momentum
Here’s what it comes down to for most teams: KPIs can be valuable indicators of when something is working, and when processes have gone off the rails. But taken on their own, they won’t tell you the root causes of problems or how to make lasting improvements. For that, you need tech that supports visibility and applies intelligence to foster continuous improvement.
At Springtime Technologies, the AP technology is developed by industry leaders, AI specialists and in partnership with customers who have experienced these challenges. This foundation and the application of agents now provide a platform designed to help AP teams, and particularly GPOs, cut through surface-level metrics to identify and resolve inefficiencies and optimize process performance- faster, smarter and at a reduced cost. The business impact is tangible.
Interested in learning more about how Springtime enables real process efficiency by tying your KPIs to genuine insights? Let’s talk.