Reshoring Brings Complexity: Managing Multi-Entity AP in Domestic Manufacturing Expansion

As global trade tensions escalate, reshoring has quickly moved from an idea to a mandate. Manufacturers, faced with rising tariffs and fragile global supply chains, are putting major money behind domestic expansion. In April, Swiss drugmaker Roche announced a $50 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing, a signal that companies aren’t just dipping a toe into reshoring, they're committing fully.  

The business case is clear: bringing production closer to home minimizes geopolitical risk, shortens lead times, and offers greater quality control. But as plants and operations multiply across states, a new kind of challenge emerges. One that hits AP and finance teams first. 

What is Reshoring? 
Reshoring refers to the practice of bringing manufacturing and supply chain operations back to the United States after being previously offshored. It's gaining momentum as companies work to reduce global risk, cut costs, and improve supply chain resilience in response to tariffs, disruption, and uncertainty. 

Expansion Brings Operational Complexity 

Expanding domestically often results in multiple legal entities, separate tax jurisdictions, and a growing roster of vendors. What starts as a strategic move to reduce global dependency can quickly become a tangle of disconnected processes and fragmented invoice management. 

Each new facility brings: 

• Its own ledger, cost centers, and bank accounts 
• Local vendors and utility providers 
• Separate approval chains and spending thresholds 
• Compliance nuances by state or industry 

This complexity becomes painfully clear when you look at real-world examples.

A Familiar Pain: When Expansion Outpaces Process 

A manufacturer builds momentum with a second facility in the Midwest, then adds a third in the South. Each location develops its own way of handling AP: different clerks, different steps, different expectations. 

Soon, invoices are consistently late and duplicate payments slip through. Month-end close takes longer and comes with more questions than answers. Leadership wants consolidated visibility, but the data lives in spreadsheets, PDFs, and inboxes across three different states. 

This is a reality many manufacturers face as they grow. What’s meant to be a strategic move forward becomes an operational headache that slows everything down. 

Multi-Entity AP Isn’t Just a Bigger Inbox 

Traditional AP processes, whether paper-based, spreadsheet-heavy, or siloed in basic software, aren’t built to handle the nuance of multi-entity finance. 

Some of the biggest pitfalls include: 

• Inconsistent processes across entities creating training, oversight, and compliance challenges 
• Approval delays when documents need to cross facility or department lines 
• Disjointed systems that create duplicate vendor records and increase fraud risk 
• Limited visibility into cash flow at the corporate level, making it harder to forecast or optimize spend 

Even tech-forward companies can fall into this trap. A best-in-class ERP might cover financials, but without purpose-built AP automation, you're still relying on manual processes that introduce inconsistencies. 

The Cost of Not Centralizing 

The impact of these inefficiencies is more than a mild inconvenience. According to industry research, top-performing AP teams are significantly faster and more cost-effective than their peers. Their advantage lies in automation and centralized processes that eliminate redundancies, reduce errors, and streamline approvals.  

Without that level of coordination, manufacturers risk: 

• Higher processing costs per invoice 
• Missed early-pay discounts 
• More frequent errors and rework 
• Greater audit and compliance exposure 
• Frustrated teams stuck in endless reconciliations 

Operational efficiency matters, but what’s really at stake is margin protection. With labor, raw materials, and shipping costs fluctuating more than ever, the hidden costs of AP inefficiencies can quietly erode profitability. 

What Centralized AP Looks Like in a Multi-Entity World 

It starts with a single AP automation platform that integrates with your ERP and supports multi-entity configuration from day one, not as an afterthought. 

With the right approach, manufacturers can: 

• Standardize processes across entities while allowing for local nuance 
• Route approvals intelligently, no matter where the invoice originates 
• Consolidate reporting and dashboards, giving finance leaders a unified view of payables and cash flow 
• Ensure compliance and audit readiness without tracking scattered documentation 
• Scale operations without increasing headcount, even as vendor and invoice volume increases 

This is how growing manufacturers move from playing defense to taking control, all without slowing down expansion. 

Strengthening Supplier Relationships Through Predictability and Trust 

Reliable supplier relationships are a core pillar of successful manufacturing, and they offer far more than just operational convenience. Multi-entity AP automation creates transparency, predictability, and stronger partnerships beyond just faster payments. According to Manufacturing Dive, predictable payment schedules and faster cycle times give vendors clarity around cash flow, reduce their administrative burden, and enable better planning.  

When suppliers know your systems will process their invoices on time across all locations, they’re more likely to offer favorable terms or early-payment discounts. That means stronger margins and smoother collaboration between your team and your suppliers. 

Unlocking Working Capital with Automation and Smart Cash Forecasting 

Beyond efficiency, centralized AP systems help finance teams optimize working capital. Deloitte notes that reshoring isn’t only about cost control. It’s also about tying up less cash in transit, warehousing, and inventory. Their research predicts that over 20% of Asia-origin freight is expected to shift to the Americas this year, creating savings in transit time and costs  

By consolidating payables data across entities, finance leaders can forecast what’s owed, including early-payment discounts or payment deferrals, and manage cash strategically. 

Harnessing Standardization for Compliance and Audit Readiness 

With multiple domestic entities come varied state regulations, tax rules, and audit requirements. Centralized AP with entity-specific workflows enables finance teams to apply standardized compliance guardrails, ensuring each invoice hits the right threshold regardless of location.  

Invoices are routed, coded, and archived consistently. When auditors request state-by-state breakdowns, the data is immediately available. The result? No more scramble at year-end to reconcile disparate data sources. 

Driving Data-Backed Decisions with Unified Reporting 

A centralized platform gives CFOs, Controllers, and AP teams real-time dashboards across all entities, exposing trends such as invoice volume spikes, vendor concentrations, or department-level spending. Instead of chasing down questions, teams can pivot to strategic insights like negotiating new vendor contracts or reallocating credits. Smarter AP means smarter manufacturing. 

Scaling Up Without Scaling Headcount 

New U.S. clean-tech facilities alone drove over $238 billion in construction spending through mid-2024, contributing to rapid manufacturing expansion. Without centralized automation, every newly launched plant adds paperwork, vendor onboarding, and approval routes. With it, manufacturers can onboard new entities and automate invoice workflows in parallel, enabling teams to scale volume without leaning on more hires. No more hiring waves or training bottlenecks. 

A Real-World Parallel: From Complexity to Clarity 

One mid-sized electronics manufacturer we spoke with had recently expanded from two U.S. sites to five, each operating under a different entity. Their AP team was drowning in emailed invoices, dealing with duplicate vendors, and managing inconsistent GL coding practices. 

What turned the tide wasn’t hiring more people. It was centralizing AP automation across entities, giving every location a standard process, shared visibility, and role-based access tied to their ERP. 

Now, they manage 5x the invoice volume with the same staff. Month-end close happens in days, not weeks. And leadership has real-time insight into liabilities across all business units. 

That’s the power of a system purpose-built for multi-entity AP. It adapts as you grow and helps your operations move faster, not fall behind. 

The Future of U.S. Manufacturing is Multi-Entity 

Reshoring continues to accelerate as companies prioritize supply chain resilience, local investment, and operational control. While facility construction and labor planning receive attention, AP and finance processes are often overlooked until they fail. 

Smart manufacturers are getting ahead of that. They’re building their finance operations with the same intentionality they apply to production because invoices are just as mission-critical as inventory. When AP can’t keep up, expansion slows down. 

The solution lies in purpose-built technology. With onPhase, manufacturers get a unified AP platform designed for multi-entity operations. It includes built-in controls, real-time visibility, and seamless integration with your ERP. It’s how modern finance teams bring order to expansion. 

The reshoring wave is just one piece of a larger transformation happening in manufacturing. Discover how leading manufacturers are completely reimagining their finance operations for the Industry 4.0 era in our post Smart Factories, Smarter Finances: Why Manufacturers Must Evolve in Industry 4.0.