MineralTree, an Accounts Payable and Payment Automation solution provider, recently commissioned a study that found that accounting professionals are far more advanced in their bill paying habits at home than they are at work. It also found that many organizations are facing security and cash flow challenges, and that they’re underestimating their competitors’ use of technology.
The survey, commissioned by MineralTree, queried 161 accounting and AP pros last month to uncover their attitudes and preferences of technology usage, focusing largely on invoice processing and payment. You can find the complete findings online here.
Here are some of the specific findings:
- 81% of respondents said they use checks frequently or exclusively at work. In contrast, they rarely (48%) or never (7%) use paper checks in their personal lives, opting for faster, more automated payment methods.
- A large portion of respondents who pay invoices electronically (via ACH or EFT) store the bank account numbers of their billers in places that likely lack proper security. 17% percent said they store this sensitive information in a word processing document or a spreadsheet and 11% weren’t sure where it was stored.
- Nearly a quarter (24%) said they’ve experienced cash flow problems because of unclear settlement windows with the payment methods they use.
- Nearly half (45%) believe it would take their competitors three years or more to implement paperless AP and payment technology, in stark contrast to the 15% who said it would take their organization that long. In addition, only 15% of respondents thought their competitors had already made the transition, compared to 20% who stated that their organization already had.
- 75% said they did not know the cost of processing and paying invoices.
The complete survey can be read on the MineralTree site by CLICKING HERE