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At Basware, we use a proven model called the Integration Pyramid: a structured, five-level framework designed to help you avoid costly customization, keep your ERP clean, and unlock full Invoice Lifecycle Management (ILM).

Integrating AP automation into S/4HANA helps finance teams move faster, stay compliant, and reduce manual work from day one. Done right, it becomes the foundation for next-level automation. At Basware, we call this Invoice Lifecycle Management (ILM).

Whether you’re transitioning from ECC or starting fresh with a clean-core S/4HANA, the way you approach AP integration will determine how quickly you see value.

Our structured Pyramid approach helps avoid the usual customization headaches while reducing cost and complexity in your ERP program. Keep AP close. Keep ERP clean. That’s how you scale.

Built to last: the Integration Pyramid

Think of integration like building a pyramid: solid layers in the right sequence. Skip a step, and the structure won’t hold. But when built correctly, the foundation supports growth, stability, and scalability. The five levels (No shortcuts. Proven results.)

1. Value Creator: Align to business processes
2. Confidence Builder: Monitor integration and errors
3. Critical Path Reality: Plan early and proactively
4. Proven Pattern: Follow standard patterns
5. Foundation: Use certified assets

Each layer of the Integration Pyramid enables ILM to go beyond standard AP automation—unlocking touchless processing, real-time visibility, and built-in compliance across your ERP landscape. Let’s explore:

1. Foundation: Use certified assets

Always start here.

SAP-certified connectors are the backbone of AP processes that scale and deliver ROI. Basware’s ERP Connector and Any ERP adapter frameworks are pre-built, stress-tested, and certified. They reduce risk, speed up deployment, and cut down on complexity.

Reality check: Custom integrations look great on slides but often break with updates—taking your finance processes down with them.

2. Proven Pattern: Follow standard patterns

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Standard patterns exist because they work—whether it’s data flows, exception handling, or security. KION validated this in their multi-ERP rollout: “We’ve tested the integration across different ERP systems, including S/4HANA. It works.”

Takeaway: Proven patterns deliver across the entire invoice lifecycle.

3. Critical Path Reality: Plan early and proactively

Every S/4HANA migration is unique. Integration is always on the critical path.

“Wait and see” doesn’t cut it. ILM delivers from day one if integration is planned early. Heidelberg Materials saw integration as an enabler. As Anand Singh noted: “Our focus was on usability, adoption, user experience, and minimizing custom code. Basware stood out.”

Bottom line: Treat integration planning as a design principle, not an afterthought.

4. Confidence Builder: Robust monitoring

If you can’t see it, you can’t fix it.

Robust monitoring of invoice errors and data mismatches keeps processes stable and teams informed. It safeguards data integrity and boosts automation rates. ILM brings transparency that turns noise into actionable insight.

And with Basware AI trained on 2.3 billion invoices, customers like Nexans reached 92% reliability in just 7 weeks.

The result: Invoice errors become opportunities to automate and optimize.

5. Value Creator: Align to business needs

This is AP’s chance to help finance lead the future.

Each layer of the pyramid builds toward business-wide value. ILM gives finance teams complete control of invoices, strengthens compliance, and accelerates the S/4HANA journey.

Certified assets, proven patterns, proactive planning, and transparent monitoring don’t just prevent problems—they unlock scalable value.

Ready to get started?

Get the Integration Checklist—your step-by-step guide to applying the Pyramid approach, avoiding costly customizations, and unlocking true AP automation in S/4HANA.

S/4HANA migrations are major undertakings—but if AP is left behind, the risk of failure rises fast. This article explores why optimizing accounts payable early is key to a smoother transition and long-term ERP success.

Business leaders call SAP S/4HANA migrations transformational. They're not wrong, but they might be missing something.

These multi-year, multi-million ERP investments are headline news, dominating the technology agenda and taking up huge amounts of time, effort, and resources. The plot twist is that 70% of ERP projects fall short of their business objectives.

One common reason ERP projects fail is that accounts payable (AP) gets left behind. When AP isn’t included in the migration plan and stays stuck in outdated systems, it creates integration issues, delays, and extra costs down the line.

That’s why leading organizations are embracing Invoice Lifecycle Management (ILM)—a smarter, more strategic approach to AP. ILM goes beyond baseline AP automation by embedding intelligence, compliance, and control at every step—from receipt to reconciliation.

Wherever you are on your S/4HANA migration, you need to assess, comply, integrate, and map your AP. These four foundational pillars for AP automation will also support your ERP migration by reducing complexity, cost, and SAP customizations.

1. ASSESS: Where is your AP now?

Assess your current AP capabilities with one eye on the future. Identify the automation gaps and barriers holding invoice operations back, such as a patchwork of manual accounting processes, legacy systems, solution sprawl, and workarounds that add technical debt.

Imerys saw a need to modernize AP before a rollout of Shared Services. Just like them, you need to evaluate how your current AP solution handles different invoice types—and whether it can scale across multiple ERP environments—including, but not limited to, your future S/4HANA system.

Consolidate your invoicing tools now in a unified AP layer. Heidelberg Materials opted for this best-of-breed approach, selecting Basware for its flexibility, user experience, and proven AP automation across manufacturing and supply chains. The takeaway? Don’t wait for S/4HANA to understand where your AP is now.

2. COMPLY: How is compliance evolving?

E-invoicing will soon be the default for tax compliance and business transactions worldwide. While each country has its own regulations, the trend is towards mandatory, real-time, structured e-invoices, often with direct reporting to tax authorities.

ILM helps organizations stay ahead of evolving mandates by embedding compliance directly into invoice workflows—ensuring readiness for country-specific regulations like ViDA. This will mandate cross-border e-invoicing across the EU in 2030. So, you’re ready without disrupting your ERP timeline and interrupting IT teams immersed in the technical aspects of S/4HANA.

Basware has worked with many companies to stay ahead of changing rules—helping Heineken beat the 2026 compliance deadline in France.

3. INTEGRATE: Is your integration plan robust?

While CIOs prioritize ease of integration, finance leaders cannot afford to stand still on AP automation. IT wants clean core SAP and finance wants agility. ILM delivers both by using pre-built SAP-certified connectors to streamline integration, reduce custom code, and preserve data continuity.

This calls for balancing integration costs versus the limitations of some ERP-based tools. While SAP is a leading ERP provider with built-for-purpose AP applications, specialized AP is proven to help you achieve ROI faster. As Heidelberg's team discovered, relying solely on SAP tools means more custom code, more IT effort, and a slower global rollout. ILM bridges those gaps.

Focusing on integration helps you determine if your AP is S/4HANA-ready...and whether it’s future-ready. For example, how will you migrate invoice data? And could this be automated? Basware uses pre-built SAP integrations and SAP-certified connectors to smooth out integration bumps, preserve data continuity, and cut manual data handling—with Basware AI trained on a dataset of 2.3 billion invoices.

4. MAP YOUR AP: What’s your AP roadmap?

Set clear objectives for AP transformation that align with your overall ERP and IT goals. ILM provides a strategic roadmap that connects AP automation to broader business outcomes including productivity, efficiency, cybersecurity, and data governance. This enables phased rollouts, stakeholder alignment, and measurable ROI across finance, IT, and procurement.

KION mapped out the journey early. “We chose Basware because it let us separate invoice automation from SAP,” said Thomas E. Müller, GPO Finance Supply Chain. “That decision helped us stay clean and scalable.”

The future shape of AP

AP automation should be the vanguard for the future of finance, not a byproduct of a big IT project. It’s the first move towards a smarter, leaner finance function ready to scale and support business needs globally.

As your S/4HANA journey unfolds, ILM gives complete control of invoicing while making your ERP transformation more resilient by cutting risk, cost, complexity, and customizations by up to 10x. The sooner you think about AP automation the better.

Get the checklist and avoid the costly mistake most ERP projects make—neglecting AP. Learn how to reduce risk, cut customizations, and set your migration up for success.

Most AP teams spend their days fielding the same questions on repeat—“Where’s my invoice?”, “Has this been approved yet?”—leaving little time for the bigger, strategic questions that could drive real value. Basware’s embedded AI agents change that.

Accounts payable teams are no strangers to pressure. At any given moment, they’re juggling invoice backlogs, chasing down approvals, and navigating compliance demands, all while trying to keep vendors happy and the business running smoothly.

It’s no wonder most AP teams spend their days responding to the same issues on repeat. But what if we’ve been asking the wrong questions all along?

Instead of wondering how to respond faster, maybe the real opportunity is to ask smarter questions—and finally get answers that drive better outcomes.

Let’s take a look at how Basware’s embedded AI agents help AP teams move away from reactive problem-solving to focusing on the insights that actually move the needle.

Some questions never go away

Every AP professional has heard these before:

• “Where’s my invoice?”
• “Has this been approved yet?”
• “Can you send that again?”

These are the questions that never go away. They flood inboxes, stall approvals and drain time. And, they keep your team in reaction mode, locked into transactional tasks that add little strategic value.

But it’s not a people problem. It’s a process problem. Legacy systems and manual workarounds leave information scattered across emails, spreadsheets, and ERP screens.

Approvers forget their logins. Business users don’t understand workflows. And AP becomes the human search engine for every lost or delayed invoice.

Some questions you never get around to (but should)

What are the questions your AP team wants to answer, but rarely gets the chance to?

• “What’s our invoice volume by region this quarter?”
• “Where are the biggest delays in our invoice lifecycle?”
• “Which suppliers are approaching their early payment discount cutoff?”

These are questions that uncover value, helping the business manage cash flow, optimize processes, and reduce friction. But they go unasked because teams are stuck dealing with the basics.

This missed opportunity has a real cost. When your AP team spends all its energy answering the same old questions, it can’t step back to ask the ones that matter.

How Basware’s AI Agents Close the Gap

Basware’s AI agents are designed to solve exactly this problem. Unlike third-party add-ons, these agents are embedded directly into the Basware platform—so they understand your workflows, data, and context from day one.

The AP Business Agent helps streamline daily tasks and remove friction, especially for infrequent approvers. It offers contextual guidance, like why an invoice was routed a certain way or what needs attention now, so business users don’t need to ask AP for help every time.

The AP Data Agent takes things even further. It acts like a smart assistant inside Basware Insights Pro, allowing users to ask natural language questions and get instant, meaningful answers:

• “Show me all invoices awaiting approval in Germany.”
• “Which suppliers gave us early payment discounts this month?”

No training. No digging through reports. Just real-time insight, in plain language.

Smarter questions, better answers, more value

This shift can be transformative. When AI agents handle the repetitive questions, AP teams are freed up to ask the ones that lead to real impact. That’s how you move from processing transactions to driving strategy.

In fact, 85% of companies who invested in AI for accounts payable have seen significant ROI. Why? Because they finally stopped playing catch-up and started steering the conversation.

And this is just the beginning

Basware’s InvoiceAI framework includes a growing roadmap of embedded agents, each designed to solve real-world AP challenges—intelligently, transparently, and without adding complexity.

Future agents will go beyond surfacing insights. They’ll help prioritise actions, automate resolutions, and connect insights across systems to support faster, smarter decision-making at scale.

Because every team’s challenges are different, and the questions worth asking keep evolving, our AI roadmap is built to evolve with you.

The future of AP is faster and smarter

Basware’s AI agents don’t replace humans—they tackle the repetitive tasks that keep teams bogged down, so they can focus on the more strategic activities that can’t be automated.

When the noise of everyday admin quiets down, the real questions can rise to the surface. Questions that fuel smarter decisions, stronger supplier relationships, and a more agile finance function.

So the next time someone asks, “Where’s my invoice?”—maybe the better question is: What’s AP capable of when it’s not stuck answering that?

Next steps

Want to learn how the AP Business Agent and AP Data Agent can transform your current workflows? Contact us to see them in action—or explore the rest of the InvoiceAI framework to learn more.

Are non-PO invoices hindering your AP team’s strategic potential?

If you’ve ever worked in accounts payable, you know that non-PO invoices can feel like a constant game of whack-a-mole. Every day, finance teams are bogged down by invoices arriving without a purchase order, clear ownership, or proper context.

These invoices trigger time-consuming steps: tracking down the right approver, assigning GL codes, and verifying legitimacy. The result? Manual intervention, bottlenecks, slower payments, rising error rates, and growing frustration as volumes increase. Your team gets locked into a chaotic, reactive mode. The constant firefighting prevents them from adding strategic value that will help you meet your wider business objectives. But what if handling non-PO invoices didn’t have to be such a manual, reactive process? What if AI could help make it...easier? InvoiceAI can.

InvoiceAI: Eliminate complexity from non-PO invoice processing

Over the last few years, automation has taken center stage in many finance operations...but the automation of non-PO invoices has often lagged behind. Why? Because they’re unpredictable by nature. That’s where AI can step in. By learning from patterns in your data and understanding context, like who usually approves what, or which GL codes go with which vendors, AI can now assist in automating even those tricky, one-off invoices that used to require a lot of back-and-forth.

At Basware, we understand the challenges your AP team faces on a day-to-day basis. We also know that to resolve them, finance teams need more than visibility. They need tools that boost control, enhance automation and provide effective outcomes.

That's why we've reimagined non-PO invoice processing with a smarter, AI-powered approach. It’s time to bring clarity to the chaos.

Basware Non-PO Invoice Processing: AI that works for you

This isn’t just automation, it’s intelligent orchestration built into Basware’s platform Basware’s solution combines SmartPDF, SmartCoding, SmartWorkflow, and AI agents to streamline every step of the non-PO invoice journey, providing comprehensive invoice lifecycle management:

• SmartPDF: Extracts data from emailed invoices and turns them into structured, usable information—no manual entry required.
• SmartCoding: Applies AI to generate accurate, context-aware coding proposals—even for complex, multi-line invoices.
• SmartWorkflow: Predicts the right approver and routes invoices automatically, reducing delays and confusion.
• AP Business Agent: Supports infrequent users with contextual guidance, reducing back-and-forth with AP.
• AP Data Agent: Answers business user questions in real time, freeing up AP teams from ad hoc inquiries.

With InvoiceAI, non-PO invoices flow like they should. No friction, no delays, no compromise. Finance teams that have adopted AI-based invoice handling report significant improvements—not just in time saved, but in accuracy, employee satisfaction, and even audit readiness. By reducing manual steps, your team will reclaim hours each week to focus on higher-impact work

• Reduce manual invoice handling by 60%
• Speed up cycle times by 40%
• Make fewer errors, enhance compliance, and cultivate happier teams

Stop simply processing invoices, start gaining insight, control, and time

Non-PO invoices might always be a little unpredictable—but they don’t have to be unmanageable. With the right approach (and yes, the right tools), finance teams can move from firefighting to forward-thinking. Whether you're just beginning your automation journey or looking to level up, the future of AP is one where clarity, not chaos, leads the way. Ready to take control? Discover more: InvoiceAI for Non-PO Invoice Automation

Our recent On-Demand Webinar: How to Utilize AI in AP for Fast, Guaranteed ROI, hosted in partnership with the Executive Leaders Network, featured special guest Meng Lee, Senior Analyst at Forrester, and Leigh Celones, Director at Basware.

CFOs are ready to invest in AI - but don’t know where to start

Basware’s recent survey of over 400 global senior finance professionals, including CFOs, reveals a strong appetite for AI, but also a lack of clarity around how to apply it most effectively.

• 75% of finance leaders plan to increase investment in AI, but don’t know where to begin.
• Most expect to see a return within 12 to 18 months—and risk losing project funding if they don’t.
• Their main goals are to reduce costs (76%) and increase process efficiency (64%).

“We're past the hype cycle,” said Leigh Celones. “CFOs aren’t asking whether to use AI—they’re asking how to use it in ways that are truly additive to the business.”

AI is delivering strong returns for accounts payable

Survey data shows that accounts payable is one of the top two areas where CFOs expect the highest return from AI, alongside FP&A. Why AP?

• It’s rich with manual, repetitive tasks.
• 85% of CFOs identified AP as a high-value area for AI application.
• AP involves high volumes of invoice documents and multiple touchpoints by team members, making it a natural candidate for automation.
• AP processes are clearly defined and data-rich, meaning AI can make fast, measurable improvements.
• Quick wins in improving accuracy, efficiency, and turnaround time give finance teams an early use case to build momentum.

According to Meng Lee, AP is already in the “green quadrant” of Forrester’s AI maturity heatmap, indicating both the technology and adoption readiness are in place.

Basware empowers AP teams with embedded AI at every level

Basware’s InvoiceAI framework and roadmap bring AI into the product where and when it delivers the most value across the whole invoice lifecycle, providing end-to-end enhancement of your AP process. Leigh shared several real-world examples:

• AI agents, including the AP business agent, assist users with practical, user-friendly recommendations enabling them to solve problems or answer questions without having to contact the AP department. Included in Basware Insights Pro, Basware’s AP Data Agent integrates generative AI, allowing teams to ask natural language questions like “What’s our invoice volume by supplier?” and “Where are we missing early payment discounts?” This makes data exploration faster and more accessible to non-technical users.
• AI also helps enrich data by analyzing historical trends across suppliers and spend categories, helping to uncover hidden patterns, optimize spend and support strategic decision making.

“This is human-assisted AI,” Leigh explained. “AI presents options, but the user stays in control.” It’s important for AI to enhance, not replace finance professionals. InvoiceAI is designed with this in mind, supporting human judgement with insights, reducing complexity, and enabling faster, more confident decisions.

The huge potential of agentic AI

Meng and Leigh agreed that 2025 marks a tipping point for agentic AI. These tools not only suggest actions, but execute them on behalf of users. These agentic tools operate within clearly defined guardrails. They’re designed to automate routine steps, without overriding human oversight.

Basware has already launched two agentic tools, including an AP business agent that:

• Surfaces historical data and context.
• Helps users prioritize incoming invoices.
• Reduces time spent triaging low-risk actions.

But, full autonomy is still not the goal. “Finance decisions will always require oversight,” Leigh emphasized. “AI should support, not replace, strategic thinking.”

Key risks to watch out for

Meng identified four key risks finance leaders must manage:

1. Data privacy and security. Sensitive financial information must be protected at all times.
2. Model bias and inaccuracy. Poor training data can produce flawed or discriminatory outcomes.
3. Lack of explainability. “Black box” decisions, where it’s unclear how or why an AI system arrived at a specific outcome, undermine trust and compliance.
4. Liability. Organizations remain accountable for incorrect actions taken by AI systems.

Recommended safeguards:

• Apply tolerance levels based on invoice value or transaction type.
• Set confidence thresholds for when AI decisions can proceed autonomously.
• Maintain human-in-the-loop controls for exceptions and high-value decisions.

These guardrails help to keep your AP automation strategy secure, transparent, and auditable.

How to measure ROI

Forrester’s ROI framework for AI initiatives includes three key pillars:

• Quantifiable benefits: cost savings, increased throughput, fewer delays
• Investment costs: technology, implementation, and internal resources
• Risk adjustment: factoring in AI limitations, compliance exposure, and macroeconomic volatility

Leigh added that adoption rate is a critical success factor. “Even with the best tools, if users aren’t adopting the AI, the ROI never materializes.”

Practical advice from the experts

1. Start with proven AP use cases: Focus on “sense” (AI reading and interpreting data) and “decide” (AI making recommendations). These are mature, low-risk areas where success is well proven.
2. Think program, not project: Ongoing improvement, governance, and iteration are essential to long-term AI value.
3. Build clear governance: Use thresholds and tolerances to balance automation with control. Demand transparency from vendors.
4. Align to strategic goals: Whether your priority is cost savings or process transparency, AI should support, not distract from, your business objectives.

Watch the webinar on-demand

Watch the full On-Demand Webinar: How to Utilize AI in AP for Fast, Guaranteed ROI, hosted in partnership with the Executive Leaders Network, to hear directly from Forrester and Basware on how CFOs are using AI to drive results in AP. You’ll also gain access to Forrester’s AI Adoption Heatmap, Basware’s ROI tools, and much more.

Transform your accounts payable with embedded,
purpose-built AI

Today’s finance leaders face mounting pressure to automate—to reduce manual work, improve accuracy, and do more with less, quickly.

In the AP automation race, speed often becomes the lead priority. There’s a constant push to close the books faster, process invoices instantly, and match the pace of a rapidly evolving business environment. But speed alone won’t secure your victory…. Sprint without strategy, and you’ll get nowhere fast.

No one is arguing that a fast accounts payable process creates a competitive advantage, boosting agility, improving vendor relationships, and freeing up working capital.

Unfortunately, it’s just no longer enough.

Finance leaders today face a deeper challenge: How do we move fast without making mistakes? How do we automate more without losing control? The answer? Stop chasing speed alone. Automation shouldn’t only make your AP faster. It must make it smarter.

That’s why we built InvoiceAI—an embedded, purpose-built AI designed from the ground up for accounts payable. Not a buzzword. Not a bolt-on. But a deeply integrated intelligence layer that helps finance teams work smarter. Better. Not just faster.

InvoiceAI: Purpose-built AI, proven impact

While many AI tools promise to save time, few are truly built for the complex realities of accounts payable. InvoiceAI is different. It’s purpose-built, seamlessly embedded, and delivering measurable impact.

• Built with AP, for AP: Designed in partnership with finance teams, not simply added to an existing tool. This is AI that understands your day-to-day.
• Seamlessly embedded AI: From invoice capture to compliance checks, AI is woven into the Basware platform.
• Recognized expertise: Validated by top analysts and rooted in over a decade of applied AI innovation.

Give business users the answers they need

Forget simply streamlining your workflows, with InvoiceAI, you elevate them and empower your teams in the process. It’s time to bring clarity, context, and confidence to every user across your AP ecosystem:

• Business users get tailored guidance on next steps, coding suggestions, and approval clarity through the AP Business Agent.
• AP teams gain efficiency, reduce exception handling, and automate common inquiries via the AP Data Agent.
• Leaders access predictive insights for faster, more strategic decision-making.

Smarter today. Even smarter tomorrow

InvoiceAI is not a one-time innovation—it’s a living roadmap. We’re actively expanding AI capabilities and agents to further support:

• Compliance monitoring and fraud detection.
• Supplier communications and engagement.
• Scenario modeling for working capital optimization.

We’re committed to advancing AI that delivers real value, today, and as your business needs grow.

Ready to win the race?

Basware is redefining invoice automation with InvoiceAI. It's not just about saving time. It’s about unlocking the strategic power of AP through intelligent automation and insight. InvoiceAI delivers real, measurable transformation.

Let’s put AI to work—where it matters most. Discover how InvoiceAI will transform your AP process.

 If you're still relying on manual accounts payable processes, it’s holding your finance team back. But you already know that.

You’ve seen the inefficiencies up close—chasing approvals, missing invoices, late payments, frustrated suppliers. It’s slow, error-prone, and costly.

Now it’s time to turn your frustration into a compelling business case for change.

Creating a solid business case is vital to proving your automation project will deliver measurable benefits. A well-calculated business case must give clear insight into all the potential gains of automation.

But a winning case for AP automation goes beyond just cost savings. It shows how automation drives growth, mitigates risk, and transforms your finance team into a strategic asset.

For accounts payable teams, this means demonstrating time savings for your team members to focus on higher value tasks, increased working capital generated from early payment discounts or protected cash flow by eliminating erroneous, duplicate and fraudulent payments—and that’s just the beginning.

The Basware Business Case Calculator is your first step to assessing the feasibility of your investment. It will help you identify the key metrics you need to articulate a business case that demonstrates the true, long-term value of AP automation.

Here are 6 tips on applying these findings to create a solid business case and position it internally to secure funding for your investment.

1. Don’t lead with efficiency—lead with opportunity cost

Too many business cases start and stop at “we’ll save $xx per invoice.” And yes— of course those savings matter. Cost efficiency is a critical part of the story. But not the whole story.

The bigger question is: what is not automating costing you? Well, quite a lot.

• Missed opportunities to further increase working capital
• Strained supplier relationships
• Higher risk of fraud and compliance issues
• Limited ability to scale as the business grows
• Poor data for forecasting and working capital decisions

Use the calculator’s savings estimate as your foundation—but don’t stop there. Build on it to show the wider impact of automation: resilience, control, and the ability to support growth. Show the strategic cost of keeping things the way they are.

2. Frame the business case around scalability and resilience

Modern CFOs aren’t just optimizing costs—they’re building agile, future-ready finance functions. Manual AP processes, by contrast, are fragile. They strain under pressure during periods of growth, acquisitions, supply chain disruption, or regulatory change. Automated AP is built for resilience. It scales without adding headcount, maintains control, and gives you the audit trail you need—without the overhead.

In a world of unpredictable market dynamics, ask: Can our current AP process absorb growth without proportional cost or risk? The calculator helps you answer that quantitatively—but the strategic narrative is what earns buy-in.

3. Highlight the risks you’ll avoid with AP automation

When you’re presenting to senior leadership, cost savings will get attention—but risk reduction is what gets investment. Manual AP processes expose your organization to a host of avoidable threats:

• Duplicate or fraudulent payments
• Lost or delayed invoices
• Regulatory non-compliance
• Failed audits and reputational damage

These are the risks that keep CFOs, controllers, and audit committees up at night. That’s why your business case should quantify not only what you’ll gain—but what you’ll avoid.

The calculator provides a financial entry point; your case should include operational risk and compliance dimensions too.

4. Make it about more than finance—everybody wins

The strongest AP automation business cases highlight cross-functional benefits:

• Business users get better services from their finance counterparts and spend less time on mundane activities, such as reviewing and approving invoices
• Procurement gains stronger supplier relationships and better contract compliance
• IT gets a cloud-based, scalable solution that reduces infrastructure reliance
• Risk & compliance get more resilient and compliant processes with a strong audit-trail
• ESG teams benefit from digital processes that reduce paper use and improve reporting

Engage these teams early. Understand their pain points and show how automation supports their goals. Turn a finance project into a company-wide improvement to gain broader support and make your case more powerful.

5. Show the timeline to value (and make it short)

Stakeholders often stall on automation because they assume it’s a long, painful project. Counter this by showing how fast automation can pay off. A fast timeline helps convince stakeholders that the investment isn’t just necessary—it’s urgent. Use the calculator to model:

• Break-even point (e.g., “we’ll recoup the investment in 7 months”)
• Year-one savings
• Headcount savings vs. redeployment opportunities: Demonstrate how automation frees up staff for higher-value tasks, rather than just reducing headcount.

Use the calculator to quantify these metrics and then incorporate these results into your business case. Emphasize speed to impact—showing stakeholders not just the long-term ROI, but the quick wins they can expect right away. This builds momentum and makes your case far more compelling.

For example, Basware customer Ritchie Bros. achieved 65% automatic invoice matching on day one. This isn’t a future promise—it’s immediate value.

6. Share a story, not just a spreadsheet

Data is essential, but decisions are made by people. Numbers won’t win hearts—or budgets. To wrap your numbers in a story that resonates ask yourself:

• What’s broken today?
• What would better look like?
• What’s the cost of delay?
• Who benefits beyond AP?
• How will this affect my internal customers/business partners?
• What proof points will show this works?

The calculator gives you the data. Your job is to connect the dots—showing not just the what, but the why now. When you combine numbers with a story that reflects real business pain and future potential, you turn your proposal into a clear call to action.

From savings to strategy

If your AP automation business case is built purely on cost per invoice, you’re underselling the opportunity. Basware’s Business Case Calculator helps you quantify value—but the real differentiator is how you frame that value to the business.

Automation is no longer a nice-to-have efficiency play. It’s a strategic lever for resilience, control, and scalability. And if you can show that, you’re not just asking for budget—you’re leading transformation.

Ready to make your case count? Try Basware’s Business Case Calculator and take the first step toward a smarter finance function.

Behind the Scenes of our own Invoice Lifecycle Management Journey   

Welcome to the third chapter of our series exploring Basware’s journey to 100% touchless, compliant, and protected invoicing.  

Since launching the series in April 2024 with ‘From the Office of the CFO: The Path to Touchless Invoice Processing’,  I’ve explored why transparency, reflection and shared experience matter, and  why now is the time to rethink Invoice Automation. In this next instalment, I’ll take you behind the scenes to show how we’re making it all happen – and what it means for you. 

By tackling the same challenges our customers face, we’re not just talking about value, we’re leading the way in realizing value for businesses through Invoice Lifecycle Management.  

Leading by Example 

We lead by example, mastering our own Invoice Lifecycle Management to set the gold standard. By proving its power in-house, we want to inspire our customers to join the journey towards a world where invoices are fully automated, compliant, and protected. 

At Basware, we don’t just advocate for invoice automation, compliance and protection, we live it. We’re committed to solving the same pain points in our own Invoice Lifecycle Management Operations our customers face. Our goal is simple: to create a world where invoices flow seamlessly, with maximum efficiency, full control and zero surprises, every time.  

But more than that, we aim to unlock meaningful value for the enterprise – delivering quantifiable ROI, strengthening supplier relationships, empowering finance teams, laying the groundwork for AI-driven transformation, managing compliance and risk and preventing fraud. For today’s CFO, Invoice Lifecycle Management is not just a process improvement, it’s a strategic lever for long-term enterprise value creation. 

Our Progress So Far

Since Q2 2024, we’ve made significant strides and while we’re encouraged by this progress, we also recognize that there is still room for improvement  

• Association Rate: As of March 2025, nearly 90% of invoices were successfully associated with POs and Spend Plans – providing a strong foundation for automation.   
• Touchless Match Rate: We reached a good rate of 77% in March 2025, marking a solid performance that we know can be improved further.
• Touchless Rate: On track to mid-40s% in April 2025. 
• Compliant Invoices: We successfully went live with the German e-invoicing mandate, marking another milestone in our ongoing journey toward achieving 100% invoice compliance across all regions. 
• Protected Invoices: In addition to meeting country-specific compliance mandates, we're focused on enhancing invoice security. As part of this, we’ve implemented our own solution, AP Protect, designed to prevent overpayments and detect potential error and fraud - not only for current and future payments, but also by running an analysis on past transactions to identify and recover any duplicate payments. 

Full Automation, Compliance and Protection is Not an Overnight Achievement 

Full invoice automation, compliance and protection takes time. We’re refining our approach and overcoming challenges along the way. Here’s how we’re doing it, starting with the why: 

• Define the target and value we aim to create: Every transformation begins with a clear North Star. For us, long-term vision is about reaching 100% touchless, 100% compliant and 100% protected invoice processing. And it’s about unlocking enterprise-wide value. We’ve defined the impact we want to achieve for the business and for the CFO: quantified, targeted ROI, operationalizing end to end invoice compliance, protecting every invoice transaction, and improved finance employee engagement. This clarity shapes every decision that follows.  
• Resource alignment: In every transformation, ensuring the right expertise and focus is essential to success. We’ve been strategically aligning our resources to drive this transformation forward, ensuring we have the right teams and skills in place to scale our automation efforts effectively. Make no mistake – this takes time. 
• Change management: Achieving full automation isn’t just about getting the right technology in place – it’s about making sure our internal processes, workflows, and supplier relationships are set up to fully support it. Continually and actively working to improve these foundational elements will ensure systems and people are ready to scale efforts. 

These are ongoing steps, and just as our customers are on their own paths to automation, we’re walking alongside them, leading by example.    

The Action Plan 

At Basware, we don’t stand still. Where we are today is not where we’ll be tomorrow. Our internal target is clear: improve touchless automation to 80% by year end. With our North Star vision clearly defined, here’s how we’ll make it happen: 

1. Communicate the Why and Reinforce the Vision: We continuously anchor our transformation around a clear North Star: achieving 100% automated, 100% compliant, and 100% protected invoice processes. This vision guides every step we take and reinforces the value we aim to create – not just for our finance function, but for the enterprise as a whole.  
2. Leverage Insights to Guide Action: Improvement starts with clarity. That’s why we use the same powerful analytical tools our customers rely on – including BasBoost and Insights, driven by our V360 methodology – to pinpoint gaps, track performance trends, and prioritize the actions that will deliver the biggest impact. Recently, our AP Team worked together with Customer Success to get up to full speed with the NEW Basware Insights PRO – quickly identifying which reports would highlight the gaps and guide targeted action. 
3. Invest in Continuous Optimization: We’re committed to driving long-term success, not just one-off implementations. That’s why we invest in a structured, ongoing cadence between our AP team and the Customer Success team, supported by all Basware functions – from solution experts and consulting, to product specialists – as needed. This collaborative approach ensures continuous improvement, fast issue resolution, and steady progress towards the goal of full automation, compliance and protection. For instance, the team holds regular weekly/monthly meetings, involving relevant stakeholders depending on the actions required or decisions to be made, ensuring priorities are aligned and that progress is on track.  
4. Optimize the Solution we Already Have: We’re closing the gap between what the Basware solution is capable of and how we are using our own solution by changing the way we work, reconfiguring workflows and strengthening cross-functional collaboration. We’ve enhanced operations, for example, by leveraging the solution to allow us to automatically transfer our invoices from our AP automation solution to our ERP.  
5. Drive Process Change and Engage Suppliers: We’re not just improving processes – we're making bold changes to unlock automation at scale. That means tightening internal processes, aligning stakeholders, and working closely with suppliers to ensure we receive high-quality data and preferred invoice formats, every time. For example, the AP Team has adopted a stricter approach in collaborating with suppliers (in receiving good quality and complete data) and procurement specialists (in being compliant with P2P processes). The benefit? By ensuring accurate information from the start, the AP team can avoid manual work and enable smooth automation.  

Why This Matters to Our Customers  

It’s important to stress, this is our approach, and it’s what we’d encourage all our customers to consider. However, the final decision rests with you. We understand that the bigger changes may feel challenging at first – they can also be stressful and take time – but by working together, we can unlock the opportunities that lead to greater efficiencies and long-term savings on our journey to 100% automated, 100% compliant and 100% protected invoice processing. 

This isn’t only an internal transformation story: it’s a proof point. Every step we take improves our understanding of the challenges our customers face. It helps us develop our solution and our approach on how we create value for our customers, and deliver results grounded in reality.  

Invoice Automation, Compliance and Protection aren’t a flip of a switch; they are about alignment, commitment, execution and iteration. 

Ready to rethink your Invoice Lifecycle Management journey towards a world where your invoice process is 100% automated, 100% compliant and 100% protected?

If you’re facing challenges around low automation rates or are finding e-invoice mandates and compliance topics, or fraud prevention matters a tall order, you’re not alone. We’re here to help.  Connect with us to explore how Basware can support your journey to 100% Touchless, 100% Compliant and 100% Protected Invoice processes. 

Let’s uncover the hidden potential in your invoice lifecycle, together. 

The accounts payable (AP) function has evolved from a back-office necessity to a strategic driver of financial efficiency and control. This transformation, according to us, has been underscored by the inaugural Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Accounts Payable Applications, where Basware has been named a Leader.

To Basware, this recognition is more than just an analyst recognition—it reaffirms our commitment to AI-driven finance and end-to-end Invoice Lifecycle Management, built on 40 years of innovation.

Why this matters for finance leaders

The AP automation market is set to grow at a 12.8% CAGR through 2030, driven by increasing demands for efficiency, compliance, and fraud prevention. Businesses face mounting pressure to adopt AI-powered automation, navigate evolving e-invoicing mandates, and integrate seamlessly with cloud-based ERP systems—all while optimizing costs.

Basware empowers organizations to turn these challenges into opportunities with a solution that provides full visibility, compliance, and control over the entire invoice lifecycle.

Basware’s dedication to innovation

To Basware, this recognition showcases our dedication in three key areas:

• AI-Driven Invoice Lifecycle Management – Unlike any other solution, Basware delivers a true end-to-end invoice lifecycle approach, from invoice ingestion and validation to statement reconciliation and recovery services. AI-powered automation eliminates manual tasks, improves accuracy, and enhances risk mitigation.
• Unmatched Visibility and Compliance – Basware operates the largest, open e-invoicing network, enabling customers to process invoices in any format, from anywhere—with built-in compliance and fraud protection across global regulations.
• Customer-Driven Innovation – Our platform continuously evolves based on customer feedback, ensuring that finance teams benefit from intuitive automation, seamless ERP integration, and full transparency across all invoice workflows.

The future of finance automation

This recognition is a milestone —but it’s just the beginning. The future of finance lies in a fully automated, AI-driven ecosystem, where organizations gain:

• Complete control over spend with full invoice visibility
• Seamless ERP and system integration for end-to-end financial management
• Built-in compliance to navigate evolving regulations

A shared achievement with our customers

More than 6,500 customers—including DHL, Heineken, and Sony—trust Basware to streamline invoice processing, reduce costs, and enhance compliance. Together, we’ve processed over 2 billion invoices, totaling more than $10 trillion in invoice spend.

 "We are pleased to see Basware recognized as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant. To us, this validates our decision to partner with Basware in delivering on our Evergreen strategy to become the Best Connected Brewer.” 

Robert-Jan Van Looy, Senior Process Expert Purchase to Pay, Heineken

What’s next?

AP automation is no longer optional—it’s essential. Download the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Accounts Payable Applications report to see why Basware was recognized as a Leader.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s Research & Advisory organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Accounts Payable Applications, By Mike Helsel, Miles Onafowora, Nick Duffy, 19 March 2025

When Gartner® released its Magic Quadrant™ for Accounts Payable Applications report, something remarkable happened that nobody is talking about. The industry ERP titans – Oracle, SAP – were nowhere to be found. Gone. Vanished. Completely absent.

Wait, what? The companies that have dominated enterprise software and procurement technology for decades didn't even make the cut for one of the most critical financial processes?

This isn't just an analyst oversight. It's a seismic shift that signals a new reality: the AP automation game has fundamentally changed, and the legacy ERP giants are being left behind.

I've watched the ERP landscape evolve from the days of clunky on-premise deployments to today's equally as time consuming and expensive cloud-first "upgrades." But what's happening now is different.

The accounts payable market has matured into something that demands specialized expertise in 3 critical areas where generalist ERP solutions simply can't compete:

1. One-size-fits-all no longer works
2. True AI isn't built overnight
3. It’s sink or swim with compliance

Let me take you behind the scenes of this transformation.

One-size-fits-all no longer works

Picture this: Your AP team is drowning in invoices. Your suppliers are threatening to cut you off for late payments. And your CFO is demanding better cash flow forecasting – yesterday.

What's your ERP vendor's solution? Typically, a costly upgrade, years of implementation, and customizations that break with every update.

This scenario plays out daily across enterprises worldwide, costing businesses an astounding $45 million annually in supply chain disruptions alone. No wonder finance departments are turning to specialized AP solutions that can be deployed in weeks, not months, and integrate seamlessly with existing systems.

Unlike those monolithic ERP systems (which I've implemented and struggled with myself), modern invoice automation solutions offer open architectures that slot into your tech stack like the perfect Tetris piece. This best-of-breed approach enhances rather than replaces your existing investments.

The specialists bring a depth of expertise in Invoice Lifecycle Management that generalists simply can't match. When your entire business is focused on making invoices flow seamlessly from receipt to payment, you innovate faster, respond to market needs quicker, and stay ahead of the compliance curve. Meanwhile, ERP vendors are busy updating their CRM modules while their AP innovation stagnates.

True AI isn't built overnight

Let's be honest – most "AI" in legacy ERP systems is really just glorified pattern matching. That might have impressed in 2010, but today's finance teams need technology that genuinely thinks.

I've watched AP specialists spend years fine-tuning algorithms that can tell the difference between a legitimate invoice change and a potential fraud attempt. Their systems automatically detect anomalies, flag duplicates, and protect against increasingly sophisticated fraud – all while improving compliance.

Take all the data we have at Basware: 40 years, 2.4 billion invoices, $10.1 trillion in invoice spend processed. It’s a lot of data. And as these AI systems continuously learn from historical data, they get smarter and more accurate.

The results speak for themselves. Our customers are seeing touchless rates increase and invoice processing times drop from 11 days to less than 24 hours.

Legacy ERP vendors are still playing catch-up, with technical debt weighing down their ability to innovate and AI investments spread thin across multiple business functions.

This is why analysts increasingly recognize that true AP innovation comes from specialists who live and breathe invoice processing – not from generalist ERP platforms built for a different era.

It’s sink or swim with compliance

If you're a CFO trying to navigate today's regulatory environment without specialized AP tools, I have two words for you: good luck.

With electronic invoicing and tax reporting rolling out across Europe, Latin America, and Asia, finance departments face a compliance minefield. In fact, 28% of CFOs now cite regulatory challenges as their biggest barrier to finance transformation.

Here's the reality: Legacy ERP systems were designed decades ago for a simpler regulatory world. They weren't built to adapt quickly when Germany, France, Poland, and Spain all implement different e-invoicing requirements within months of each other. The leading AP automation solutions, on the other hand, were born for this challenge. They provide real-time audit trails and can adapt to evolving mandates. When a new country announces its e-invoicing requirements, specialists can react within weeks, not quarters.

I've seen firsthand how AP teams using legacy systems scramble to comply with new regulations, while those using specialized tools simply receive an update and continue business as usual. The contrast couldn't be more stark.

Why this matters for your business

The absence of legacy ERP giants from analyst recognition isn't just an interesting footnote – it's a wake-up call for enterprises still relying on these systems for accounts payable.

Today's business environment demands specialized, AI-powered automation that delivers 100% touchless, 100% protected, and 100% compliant processing throughout the entire invoice lifecycle. The stakes are simply too high to settle for the "good enough" AP functionality that comes bundled with your ERP.

As someone who's lived in both worlds – both implementing large ERP systems and leading a specialized AP provider – I can tell you unequivocally: the market has spoken, and the analysts have confirmed what progressive finance leaders already know.

The future of accounts payable belongs to the specialists.

The question isn't whether you need specialized AP automation – it's how much longer you can afford to wait while your competitors gain the advantage.

The ERP giants may have gone missing from Gartner's analysis, but the real concern is whether your business is missing out on the transformative power of true AP automation. Now's the time to make sure you don't disappear from the competitive landscape too. Make the smart choice in AP Automation.

Basware is a Leader in the latest 2025 Magic Quadrant™ for Accounts Payable Applications from Gartner. It’s the ‘Triple Crown’ following what we achieved with IDC and Forrester last year. And I’m proud of our customers, partners and Baswareans for making it happen!