Most finance organizations still treat accounts payable as a cost center: invoices come in, payments go out, and AP keeps the lights on. But that view overlooks the strategic role AP plays in managing cash, controlling risk, and supporting growth.
The Hackett Group’s 2025 U.S. Working Capital Survey found $1.7 trillion in excess working capital hiding in plain sight among the 1,000 largest U.S. public companies. That capital isn’t necessarily parked in treasury. Much of it is tied up in the same procure-to-pay processes that many organizations still treat as back-office bookkeeping.
At its core, this isn’t simply an AP issue. It’s about whether finance and operations share timely, reliable visibility into the dollars moving between them. When they don’t, the same gaps that create fraud exposure, audit risk, and operational inefficiency can also conceal capital that could be funding next year’s priorities.
Join industry expert Mark Brousseau and Katie Eskandarian, CFO at onPhase, as they unpack how this intersection is affecting finance organizations today and what leaders can do about it as they head into 2027 budget planning.
In just 30 minutes they'll cover: