How to set up accounts payable goals (With examples)

Do you want to improve efficiency and reduce costs in your accounts payable (AP) department? While those are respectable objectives, they might be tough to achieve without clearly defined goals.

Taking a strategic approach to setting AP goals can transform your department from a cost center into a value driver by boosting cash flow, strengthening vendor relationships, improving compliance, and contributing to business growth.

So let’s walk through how to choose the right AP goals and how to set yourself up to achieve them. Plus, if you need guidance on where to start, we’ll also give a few examples of AP goals and their potential impact.

Choosing the right accounts payable goals

First, you need to set the right goals. When your AP goals align with overall business objectives, that synergy can positively impact cash flow, reduce unnecessary expenses, and improve key performance indicators (KPIs) like invoice processing time and accuracy rates.

Here are a few common goals for any accounts payable department:

• Reduce cost per invoice: Lowering the cost to process each invoice can free up budget for strategic initiatives. Automation minimizes manual labor, reduces errors, and cuts down on administrative expenses.
• Increase efficiency: When was the last time youupdated your AP processes? Not just a tweak here or there, but a true overhaul of what you do, when you do it, and who’s responsible? Streamlining AP approvals, payments, and reconciliations lets your team focus on higher-value tasks.
• Reduce invoice cycle time: Shortening the time to process invoices from receipt to payment helps optimize working capital and avoid penalties.
• Improve vendor relationships: Timely and accurate payments strengthen vendor relationships. It might even get you better terms and potential discounts because vendors are more likely to offer favorable terms to reliable payers.
• Improving accuracy: How much time do you waste correcting errors, dealing with irritated vendors, or re-processing payments? Reducing data entry and payment processing errors helps avoid costly rework, duplicate payments, and compliance risks.

How to set up accounts payable goals

Once you identify your AP goals, take a structured approach to achieve them. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Assess your current AP performance

Dan Sullivan, an expert on entrepreneurship and founder of Strategic Coach, said, “All progress begins by telling the truth.”

In other words, you need to know where you are now to get where you want to be. Look at your current AP performance metrics to get a baseline for processing costs, frequency of late payments, invoice cycle time, error rates, or late fees. This baseline assessment sets the foundation for measuring progress.

Step 2: Define clear, measurable objectives

Once you understand your current AP performance, establish specific objectives using the SMART goal framework.

SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

For example, instead of deciding you want to “improve efficiency,” set a goal to “reduce invoice cycle time by 20% within six months.” This SMART goal is clear and promotes accountability, making it easier to track progress.

Step 4: Create your action plan

Once you set your goals, create a step-by-step plan to achieve them. Break down the goal into actionable steps, assign responsibilities, and set milestones to monitor progress along the way.

Step 5: Monitor, evaluate, and adjust

Track your progress using the same KPIs you used in Step 1. Use this data to assess whether you’re on track to meet your goals. Make sure you’re reviewing your progress regularly—at least once a month. That way, you can make adjustments as needed.

Examples of accounts payables goals and their impact

To help you better understand how to implement and achieve your AP goals, let's look at detailed examples for each potential AP goal we covered earlier. These examples show each goal in action and the steps to achieve it.

Reducing cost per invoice

Say you’re a mid-sized company processing 1,000 invoices per month. Each invoice costs $15 to process, including labor, paper, and storage. Your goal is to reduce this cost by 30% within a year.

Here are some steps to achieve that goal:

• Implement AP automation software to reduce manual data entry and approval time
• Shift to electronic invoicing and payments to minimize paper and postage expenses
• Consolidate vendor payments to reduce processing fees and banking costs

The result? Lower processing costs free up room in the budget for strategic initiatives, improve overall financial efficiency, and reduce reliance on manual labor.

Increasing efficiency

Say yourorganization has a backlog of invoices, and your AP team is burnt out from working long hours. You want to improve AP efficiency by increasing invoice processing speed from 10 invoices per hour to 20 within six months.

Here’s how you do it:

• Standardize invoice submission by implementing an electronic portal for vendors
• Automate invoice approval workflows to eliminate bottlenecks and manual interventions
• Train staff on best practices for using your AP automation technology

This leads to faster processing times and gives your team back work/life balance. It also improves job satisfaction because people spend less time on routine manual processes and more time on strategic initiatives.

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Reducing invoice cycle time

Your business currently takes an average of 25 days to process an invoice. You want to reduce it to 15 days within the next 90 days.

To achieve this goal, you:

• Automate invoice matching and approvals to speed up processing times
• Establish clear policies and guidelines to minimize discrepancies and rework
• Regularly analyze cycle time metrics and address process bottlenecks

By doing so, you’ll haveshorter invoice cycle times leading to improved cash flow management, fewer late payment penalties, and increased operational agility.

Improving vendor relationships

You’ve been dealing with frequent vendor complaints about late payments, so you set a goal to improve vendor satisfaction scores by 20% over the next year.

You do this by:

• Implementing early payments to build goodwill with certain vendors and potentially secure discounts
• Automating invoice processing and approvals with invoice management software to ensure accurate and timely payments
• Scheduling regular check-ins with your top vendors to address their concerns and foster better collaboration

In turn, you’ll gain strengthened vendor relationships resulting in better terms and cost savings through negotiated discounts.

Improving accuracy

Say your AP team has a 5% error rate in invoice processing. You want to reduce errors to below 1% within six months.

Here’s how you achieve it:

• Leverage AI data capture to minimize manual entry errors
• Introduce automated validation checks to flag inconsistencies before processing
• Regularly audit payments to identify common errors and implement corrective measures
• Train your staff to ensure they understand processes

This payoff leads toimproved accuracy that reduces costly rework, improves financial and accounts payable reporting, and minimizes the risk of compliance issues.

How AP automation helps teams reach their AP goals: Ramp’s proven success stories

Accounts payable automation can improve your team’s chances of achieving its AP goals. Automating repetitive tasks, reducing manual errors, and providing real-time insights lets your team focus on analysis and other strategic initiatives rather than getting bogged down by manual processes.

Of course, transitioning to automated systems—especially AI tools—can seem overwhelming. To help you overcome the mental hurdle, here’s a real-world example of how Ramp’s AP automation helped a company streamline its operations and meet its AP objectives.

How Precision Neuroscience streamlined systems and reduced data entry

Precision Neuroscience’s fragmented procurement process required extensive manual data entry, so it was inefficient and error-prone. Implementing Ramp's integrated platform allowed the company to consolidate multiple tools into a single system and automate data capture.

Brian Lautenbach, Precision Neuroscience’s Financial Controller, found Ramp's optical character recognition (OCR) technology particularly beneficial because it automatically extracted information from documents and minimized manual data entry.

With Precision Neuroscience’s transition to Ramp, we helped them:

• Accelerate its procurement process by 50%
• Reduce manual data entry and error rates
• Cut the month-end close time to just 1 to 2 days
• Improve operational efficiency and allow the team to focus on more strategic tasks

Precision Neuroscience’s success shows that while the leap to AI-driven AP automation may seem intimidating, a user-friendly and highly effective solution like Ramp can help your team achieve its AP goals efficiently.

How Ramp Bill Pay is the best way to simplify and optimize AP management

Ramp Bill Pay is an advanced, AI-driven accounts payable solution designed to address the most common pain points in AP. With automated invoice capture, streamlined approval routing, and seamless ERP synchronization, Ramp ensures every detail is accounted for—helping you finalize your books swiftly, not tediously.

Traditional AP tools often struggle with inflexible ERP connections, inconsistent PO coordination, and fragmented workflows. Ramp Bill Pay delivers comprehensive automation that covers the entire AP cycle, offering speed, adaptability, and accuracy. From the initial invoice to the last payment, Ramp is engineered for oversight and control.

Ramp is recognized as one of the easiest AP softwares to use based on G2 reviews (as of June 5, 2025). It is also backed by 2,000+ reviews and a 4.8/5 star average. Businesses from nonprofits to large enterprises trust Ramp to minimize manual work, prevent costly mistakes, and keep financial data accurate. On G2, one user even described Ramp as the best in the market for AP and expense management.

Common bottlenecks in AP operations

Teams frequently encounter obstacles in these areas of accounts payable:

• Delays from approvals getting lost in communication channels
• Time-consuming manual entries into ERP software
• Difficulty reconciling invoices against purchase orders

Ramp Bill Pay addresses these issues with a comprehensive suite of features:

• Recurring bill management, bulk payments, and vendor activity tracking
• Real-time two-way matching between invoices and purchase orders
• Automated invoice scanning and smart GL code recommendations powered by AI
• End-to-end ERP integrations with NetSuite, QuickBooks, Xero, and additional platforms
• Customizable approval flows with dynamic routing and user permission controls
• Seamless support for ACH transfers, credit card, physical checks, and international wire payments
• Centralized controls for accounts payable, purchasing, expense management, and accounting

Organizations seeking the top AP software for their teams have chosen Ramp for its reliability and simplicity. Here are just a few examples:

• Snapdocs migrated from BILL to Ramp, significantly speeding up their bill pay process with accurate OCR technology
• Dragonfly Pond Works expanded vendor payments efficiently using Ramp's automated bill pay scheduling
• Skin Pharm shortened lengthy approval cycles from weeks to only 48 hours with Ramp

Why opt for Ramp Bill Pay?

Ramp Bill Pay raises the standard for AP platforms by combining intelligent automation, robust ERP connectivity, and streamlined workflows. It’s not just another accounts payable tool—it’s the benchmark for what AP software should deliver: speed, assurance, and better business outcomes with every invoice. Ramp’s AP pricing also starts with a free tier, then $15/user/month, or custom pricing for enterprises.

Experience the difference with Ramp Bill Pay and elevate your AP process.