The panelists emphasized during the discussion the value of recognizing organizational needs, adjusting for business unit-specific requirements, and communicating across treasury teams. In practice, this translates to a determined effort on increasing cash visibility, doing away with checks, and strengthening fraud protection.

According to Sullivan, although businesses are trying to become "better, smarter, faster, improve processes as far as payment goes," they also need to do rid of paper invoices and checks, which are inefficient, sluggish, prone to fraud, and need human error. Though there is still more work to be done, I believe that significant progress has been achieved in the previous ten to fifteen years, with Covid-19 acting as a catalyst for the need to automate and use remote workforces.

Numerous American organizations rely heavily on checks, yet fraud problems will only become worse. When Watercott questioned the panel about the reasons behind automation, they said that there are four main ones that can be summed up: improved visibility, risk management, operational efficiency, and income prospects.

MacGeagh continued by saying that 10,000 checks are sent out each month by all of her business divisions at Clayton Homes. It can be quite time-consuming to consider equipment, maintenance, and security procedures, which detracts from the conventional company emphasis. Often, the route to success is through check outsourcing, integrated payables, or consolidated payables.It's not necessary to complete everything at once just because you want to go with an integrated or consolidated payment solution.

Regarding fraud, she said that any organization might become a victim of it. Before a few years ago, corporations would accept checks with a name match rate of up to 75%. Now, a 100% match is needed, which causes treasurers to encounter a lot of mismatches. According to Sullivan, this has an effect on operational effectiveness, which financial players also need as a "blanket benefit."

"It's critical to be able to shift risk and postpone managing and storing sensitive vendor data, particularly in order to safeguard against potentially significant fraud losses," he said in his conclusion. It is important to take into account the possible harm to one's reputation that might result from fraud loss. Automation in vendor onboarding is essential in the transition to automated accounts payable because, in Sullivan's opinion, "it is near impossible for most organizations to be as vigilant as they need to be."