How to use Accounts Payable to plug leakage and show business value

Modern AP teams are under pressure to move fast, stay compliant and prove value beyond just processing data. And there’s a huge opportunity hiding in plain sight. Our latest research shows $53bn is leaking from AP teams every year. The teams who can can plug those leaks and show ROI to their wider business earn a place at the finance leadership table.

Read our financial leakage report

In this AP Arms episode, Lewis Waker, Account Manager at Xelix, is joined by Jacqui Long, AP leader at FullSpeed Automotive, to talk about how she’s used automation, change management and statement reconciliation to show instant value and transform AP from a back-office function into a value driver. 

Watch the episode ▶️

Meet Jacqui: 

Jacqui has spent nearly a decade in Accounts Payable, after starting her career in a completely different field. Since joining FullSpeed Automotive nearly three years ago, she has helped drive major operational change, including reducing AP close time from 23 days to 2.5 days and using automation to move the function into a more strategic, systems-led role.

Through statement reconciliation, Jacqui uncovered missed credit notes worth more than $200,000 in just three months, giving her a fast, tangible result that instantly built credibility with senior leadership.

The opportunity to increase statement reconciliation coverage

Statement reconciliation is one of the most overlooked levers in AP, even though it’s often where real money is hiding.

As Jacqui explains “Vendors will often chase unpaid invoices, but they rarely chase credits they owe you.” Those credits can sit quietly on supplier statements while AP teams, busy and under-resourced, don’t have the time to review them consistently. The result is financial leakage: money that should have been recovered simply never gets claimed.

Jacqui’s turning point was making statement reconciliation systematic and scalable. By using automation to build a repeatable process for reconciling statements, her team moved from reactive work to proactive recovery. The outcome was immediate: over $200,000 in missed credits recovered in three months, directly proving the business case for stronger controls and better coverage.

Elevating the AP team through automation

Jacqui’s message on transformation is clear: automation shouldn’t replace people. It should elevate them.

In high-volume environments, tools can flag duplicates, validate vendor data and surface anomalies at scale, but AP still needs human judgement for exception handling and sensitive decisions. Jacqui says, “I position automation as a first line of defence, with the team acting as the final control.”

This mindset shift changes the AP job description. Instead of spending time on manual throughput, modern AP teams become:

- Systems owners
- Process designers
- Control operators
- Analysts and problem-solvers

That is how AP starts to move from “processing” into “protecting” and from “cost centre” into “value driver”.

The importance of ROI to senior leadership

Jacqui is clear on the role of KPIs. They can be useful internally, but what senior leadership really cares about is ROI, risk reduction and EBITDA impact.

This is where financial leakage comes in. If $53bn is leaking from AP every year, the AP teams that can recover funds, prevent duplicate payments and tighten controls are doing more than improving process. They’re improving business performance.

Jacqui’s experience shows how quickly that can change perception. Recovering missed credit notes didn’t just bring money back. It created proof that AP can generate returns and protect the business. That proof helped Jacqui’s team earn deeper trust, influence and what she calls “a seat at the table”.

The takeaway is simple: if you want stakeholders to care about your transformation, connect it to outcomes they already measure. Show the leakage. Show the recovery. Show the ROI.

What’s the future of Accounts Payable?

When asked to look ahead, Jacqui’s view is that the future isn't coming. It’s already here.

AP roles are expanding into “accounting transformation and automation” work, with teams increasingly owning the platforms that run the function end-to-end: ERP, invoice processing, service desk tooling, card and T&E systems and more. The direction of travel is clear:

- Eliminate manual data entry wherever possible
- Increase automation and control coverage
- Push people into deeper analysis and smarter decisions
- Turn AP into a source of insight and value creation

The most important shift is that AP teams can now quantify their impact. And in an era where financial leakage is measurable and preventable, that is a major opportunity.

Read our financial leakage report

A huge thank you to Jacqui for joining Lewis at The AP Arms. Hopefully they get a chance to meet in a real pub soon.

If you’d like to feature alongside some of the industry’s finest at The AP Arms, please get in touch – we’d love to share a tipple with you down the pub!   

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