Summary (TL;DR)
- AP retention is often overlooked – but it's one of the most pressing challenges for finance teams today. These lean teams are filled with professionals who want to contribute strategically, yet often spend 80% of their time on manual tasks that ERP-native automation could eliminate.
- High-growth companies don’t just automate to save time – they create environments where AP teams can lead process improvements, influence financial strategy and grow into bigger roles.
- This article explores how embedded AP automation in NetSuite helps reduce burnout, boost retention and unlock operational scale – and what top-performing teams are doing differently.
AP teams are closer to finance strategy than most leaders realize
In a recent webinar with AP leaders, one theme came through clearly: AP teams are often overlooked – despite sitting closest to spend, vendor relationships and cash flow. That proximity gives them unique insight into what drives financial performance – even if leadership doesn’t always realize it.
High performers in AP are often ready to do more – they want to contribute, solve operational problems and grow beyond execution.
But when their day-to-day is dominated by repetitive processing, it’s hard to stay engaged. And when those top performers disengage, companies risk losing the very thinkers who could elevate their operations.
So how do finance leaders streamline AP while also creating a path for growth? What’s the cost of not creating that space? And could a lean AP team become a driver of innovation – not just a support function?
Whether you're managing AP day-to-day or overseeing AP at scale, the path forward starts by rethinking how your team adds value.
This article looks at the real-world challenges AP teams face, and how embedded ERP automation can help simplify workflows, retain top talent and position AP as a strategic partner in finance.
The real cost of scaling AP without automation
AP teams are famously lean – often one of the smallest departments in the business. And while billing or revenue ops might get more attention during growth, AP is often where the strain shows up first.
Without automation, scaling typically means more manual effort, increased risk of errors and rising overload – all of which can trigger operational breakdowns over time.
“There’s a temptation to treat AP with an “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it” mentality. This mindset becomes a clear blocker to innovation and growth down the line.” – Saut Sinaga, VP Controller at Zone
Once these problems surface, it’s rarely a quick fix. Teams find themselves deep in error correction, cross-checking data across tools and pulling long hours just to keep up.
And that’s when the real cost shows up – in turnover, data integrity issues and delayed reporting.
One example comes from a manufacturer of electric mobility devices serving a diverse vendor base. Their AP team was managing high volumes of purchase orders and bills – but disconnected systems and legacy tools forced them to manually touch every bill. That meant over 60 hours a month spent on repetitive tasks, frequent errors during data transfers in and out of their ERP and slow approval cycles.
By embedding AP automation inside NetSuite, they significantly reduced manual workload, improved data accuracy and sped up invoice approvals using features like bulk processing and approval matrices. The result wasn’t just faster processing – it created space for top performers to focus on higher-value work, helping support both operational scale and team retention.
These patterns aren’t unique. In many AP teams, cycles of rework, friction and missed opportunities still persist. And as more companies lean into automation, the gap between manual-first teams and automation-led ones continues to grow – not just in efficiency, but in talent retention and long-term scalability.
From processing to partnership: What top AP talent wants next
Top performers want more than task execution. They’re looking for visibility into data, opportunities to influence strategy and space to grow within the organization. When automation handles repetitive tasks like invoice entry or spreadsheet cross-checks, AP professionals can spend more time on the work that advances both their careers and the business.
“That's what got me into the day-to-day and kept me away from burnout. I was able to be empowered as an employee to take these processes on my own, build them up and scale them out for the company.” – Curt McKinney, Director of Corporate Accounting at Zone
Without these opportunities, high-potential employees can stagnate – and operational challenges tend to escalate across the team:
- Lower AP retention: If all you can give top talent is a bigger stack of invoices, they’ll quickly start looking for other options.
- Burned investments: Training a new AP team member can cost thousands. If they leave after a year, the ROI disappears.
- Knowledge loss: Institutional knowledge drives innovation. High turnover makes it harder to build momentum or improve processes.
The best AP professionals aren’t just trying to move faster – they want to shape smarter operations. But if workflow automation doesn’t remove the manual load, that opportunity never arrives.
Without automation, you spend 80% of your day doing those ordinary daily tasks. But with automation, you're able to then go and do the tasks that grow you professionally, giving you more time to strategize around days payable outstanding or being able to help the CFO. – Curt McKinney, Director of Corporate Accounting at Zone
That shift – from data entry to decision-making – is what enables AP teams to become embedded partners in finance, not just processors.
“By relieving some of those daily tasks with automation, you can foster a culture of cross-collaboration that’s more likely to help top performers feel valued and engaged. They can understand the financial health and the direction of the company just by looking at the data themselves.” – Saut Sinaga, VP Controller at Zone
How ERP-embedded AP automation actually frees up your team
Automation embedded in NetSuite is one of the clearest ways AP leaders can simplify workflows and unlock higher-value activities across the team. Based on what we’ve seen, true NetSuite-native AP automation typically drives impact in three core areas:
- Efficient 3-way matching: When done manually, matching purchase orders, invoices and receipts is one of the most time-consuming AP tasks. If teams are toggling between spreadsheets, PDFs and OCR tools that still require double-checking – it’s a signal that automation is overdue. Native ERP automation handles these steps quietly in the background, flagging exceptions and routing them for approval without draining hours from skilled AP staff.
- Connected systems: Jumping between portals or disconnected tools adds time to every transaction and increases the chance for errors. When AP automation is embedded in NetSuite, data flows from vendor records through invoice approval and into reporting – without the need for re-entry, constant cross-checks or disconnected approval threads.
- A single source of truth: Performance and trust suffer when finance relies on data that isn’t consistently owned or verified. ERP-native AP automation keeps everyone aligned on clean, real-time data – helping teams avoid the slowdowns that come from reconciling across systems, manually validating reports or scrambling during audits.
What if 3-4 minutes could be cut from every transaction? It may seem minor in isolation, but across hundreds of transactions, that often adds up to 15+ hours a week. Over the course of a year, that’s four months of time unlocked for high-value work.
These are the types of inefficiencies that frustrate the best people first – and they’re exactly where automation can provide immediate relief. Without it, AP teams often spend up to 80% of their time on routine tasks like matching documents, tracking approvals or cleaning up data exports.
With automation embedded in NetSuite, teams have more time to work on the things that grow their skills and their impact – like analyzing days payable outstanding (DPO) trends or helping leadership improve vendor terms. That shift creates the space AP teams need to scale with consistency, grow into strategic roles and drive better financial decisions across the business.
Curt McKinney, Director of Corporate Accounting at Zone, encourages his team to identify and eliminate the work that slows them down – using what he calls the 3 S’s framework:
“What I tell my teams traditionally is to find the top two or three areas they spend most of their days on and attack. I call it the three S's: let's simplify, streamline and standardize it.” – Curt McKinney, Director of Corporate Accounting at Zone
The 3 S’s of AP transformation
Attracting and retaining top talent isn't about chasing new trends. It starts with removing the friction that prevents teams from growing.
Simplify
In many AP teams, even basic tasks like capturing source documents still happen manually – toggling between emails, spreadsheets and PDFs before anything even makes it into NetSuite. That kind of friction slows everything down and makes it harder for teams to stay focused on meaningful work.
Simplification clears the path. It helps teams know where to look, what to do and how to move forward without second-guessing. For Saut Sinaga, VP Controller at Zone, it starts with automation that removes ambiguity and creates space for more impactful contributions.
“Instead of focusing on just doing the work, how can I be 1% better every day? How can my team be 1% better every day? Innovation and empowerment are about removing some of the manual work from my team so they can focus on a value-added strategic task.” – Saut Sinaga, VP Controller at Zone
When simplification is overlooked, talented team members often feel stuck – and that’s when they start looking for better opportunities elsewhere.
Streamline
Your AP team probably already knows where the bottlenecks are – and they likely have ideas to fix them. But when bandwidth is tight, those ideas rarely surface.
In many teams, high performers stand out because they can absorb complex manual tasks. But the real value comes when they’re able to proactively shape better processes – not just survive the broken ones.
Streamlining AP isn’t just about removing friction – it’s about defragmenting workflows, improving how tasks move across people and systems, and giving teams the tools to build flows that actually work for them.
That means equipping AP with ERP-native automation that reduces rework, speeds up coordination and empowers teams to customize and scale approval processes across business units. When teams can move together, not just faster, they can finally shift from firefighting to leading.
Standardize
Every AP team is only as strong as its most reliable process – especially on its busiest days. If you're still closing the books in 15 to 20 days, you’re essentially starting up again in a week.
Some of the best-performing teams we’ve worked with are now closing in five to seven days – after rolling out standardized ERP automation across their entities.
That unlocks two full weeks of time every month for higher-touch work – whether that’s improving cash flow, analyzing working capital or diving into cash conversion cycle metrics and M&A strategy.
“That’s the advantage of technology that I've experienced on those daily, ordinary tasks like entering invoices and checking and reviewing the vendor information. What I use personally is our ZoneCapture tool to do that for invoice processing.” – Curt McKinney, Director of Corporate Accounting at Zone
Standardization doesn’t just improve efficiency. It gives your team space to lead with consistency – and puts AP in a position to drive insight at scale.
AP retention starts with removing the manual work
With ERP-native automation, AP teams are stepping into bigger roles – influencing cash flow, vendor relationships and financial visibility across the business.
The most ambitious professionals are drawn to environments where they can grow. And they’re not sticking around for disconnected processes and workflows that keep them in a holding pattern.
Removing manual blockers unlocks more than efficiency. It creates the conditions for stronger retention and better thinking – the kind that helps teams grow into problem-solvers and partners.
In the teams we’ve seen lead the way, ERP-native AP automation is doing more than helping them scale. It’s giving them the tools to design smarter workflows, shape vendor strategies and support strategic decisions with data they trust. That’s when AP becomes part of the finance strategy – not just a function that supports it.
Looking ahead, the teams shaping the future of AP will be the ones defining the process – not reacting to it. If you're exploring AP automation strategies that position your team as an innovator, start with the tools and workflows top performers are already thinking about.
Curious what that could mean for your team in real terms? Use our ROI calculator to estimate how much you could save with AP automation inside NetSuite.
FAQs
How do high-growth companies scale AP without burnout?
High-growth companies scale AP by removing manual work at the source – not by adding headcount. The most effective teams embed automation (like AP automation by Zone & Co) inside their ERP to eliminate time-intensive tasks like 3-way matching, invoice approvals and reconciliation. That shift frees up hours every week, reducing burnout and giving teams room to focus on higher-impact work as the business grows.
What does AP automation enable beyond time savings?
Beyond time savings, AP automation unlocks strategic bandwidth. When automation handles invoice entry, approvals and exception routing, AP professionals can focus on more valuable work – like tracking DPO trends, contributing to cash flow strategy or identifying vendor opportunities. It’s not just about efficiency – it’s about elevating the role of AP in finance.
How does AP automation help retain accounting talent?
AP automation inside ERP like NetSuite helps retain top performers by giving them space to grow. When repetitive, low-value tasks are automated, skilled professionals can take on more analytical, strategic responsibilities – the kind of work that drives career growth and engagement. It also signals that the company is investing in modern tools, not relying on outdated processes to scale.
What career growth paths exist for AP professionals
AP professionals are increasingly stepping into roles that influence cash flow, vendor strategy and operational insight. As automation reduces the manual workload, top performers have more time to develop reporting skills, contribute to working capital initiatives and partner with leadership. The path forward isn’t just faster processing – it’s becoming a strategic voice in finance.
How to develop AP teams beyond data entry
The fastest way for AP teams to move beyond data entry is by consolidating systems and automating routine workflows. When data flows cleanly into NetSuite – without multiple logins, disconnected tools or spreadsheet clean-up – AP professionals gain the time and clarity to focus on forecasting, vendor analysis and process improvement.
Why AP team burnout happens and how to prevent it
Burnout in AP happens when lean teams are expected to scale without changing how they work. As invoice volumes rise, teams spend more time on repetitive tasks – like manual data entry, chasing approvals and reconciling across disconnected systems. Over time, this creates constant pressure without clear payoff, leading to disengagement and turnover. Preventing burnout starts by reducing the workload that drains time and offers little value. With ERP-embedded automation, AP teams can shift away from processing and focus on work that’s analytical, collaborative and career-building – the kind that helps retain top talent and sustain performance during growth.
