Approving an invoice in the ERP is the simple part of accounts payable. Following the payment after it leaves is harder.
Checks, card programs, ACH files, wires, and standalone payment tools each report status on their own timeline, and each needs its own reconciliation. Priority Commerce, a fintech company, sees this splintering as the core problem AP teams need to solve.
Its answer is to bring payments inside the ERP and run every outgoing payment, whatever the method, through one process that continues through reconciliation.
Priority Commerce focuses on the manual steps and errors that build up when AP teams work across too many systems. Consolidation also changes what finance can see. When every payment moves through one process, there is one place to check whether it went out, whether it cleared, and whether it matched its invoice.
Why AP Payments Split Across So Many Channels
Most companies pay their suppliers in several different ways at once. An invoice is approved in the ERP, but the payment may go out as a check, a card transaction, an ACH transfer, or a wire, depending on what each supplier accepts. Each method is tracked separately, so the ERP rarely shows a complete picture of what has been paid.
Research shows this mix is common and slow to change. The Association for Financial Professionals’ 2026 payments fraud survey found that 87% of organizations still use checks, often because suppliers prefer them or a government agency requires them. Federal Reserve data shows the habit extends well beyond small businesses. According to the Atlanta Fed, about two-thirds of medium and large firms still pay by paper check.
Priority Commerce’s own research found that 81% of AP professionals spend three or more hours a week on manual payment work.
AP teams spend that time checking bank portals, matching confirmations to invoices, and answering supplier calls about whether a payment went out. Finance leaders, meanwhile, work from a cash picture that is only as current as the slowest payment channel.
When a New Payment Tool Becomes Another Workflow
Scattered payment activity also makes financial oversight harder. When payments go out through several channels, a controller who wants to know how much cash left the business this week may have to piece the answer together from several separate records.
A common response is to add a payment tool that promises to bring some of that activity under control. Priority Commerce argues that this can deepen the problem, because a tool connected loosely to the ERP often leaves AP teams running one more workflow alongside the ones they already have.
The added tool also brings its own approval steps, safeguards, and records. Controls end up applied unevenly across systems, and problems such as a changed supplier bank account or a duplicate payment become harder to spot.
What finance teams need instead, Priority Commerce says, is for the system they already use to take on more. That means paying any supplier by the method that the supplier prefers, or has agreed to, reconciling all payments in one place, and enrolling suppliers without AP staff chasing vendors. A single process connected to the ERP gives finance one set of controls to apply and one record to check.
What Changes When Payments Run Through One Process
Priority Commerce’s model starts with a single file. After invoices are approved in the ERP, the approved payments pass to Priority Commerce as one list. Priority Commerce then pays each supplier, whether the payment is one-off or recurring, and matches it back to its invoice.
Suppliers are paid the way they prefer, by card, check, ACH, or wire. Priority Commerce’s supplier enablement team also enrolls suppliers and moves them from paper checks to electronic payments, work that customers would otherwise have to do themselves. Moving suppliers off checks can also earn customers cash back, which Priority Commerce treats as secondary to the efficiency gains.
Companies can access Priority Commerce’s capabilities through their ERP vendor, which can integrate the software directly into its product, offer it as an optional feature, or provide access through a referral arrangement.
The result is one route out for payments and one record of what happened. The visibility gains are greatest when payment status and reconciliation updates flow back into the ERP promptly, so finance sees the full picture in the system it already uses.
What This Means for ERP Insiders
Build the business case on AP workload. Measure the hours AP spends tracking, matching, and chasing payments across channels, and the errors that result. A case grounded in current workload gives finance leaders a clear baseline to judge any payment option against.
Judge payment options by how many workflows remain. For each option, count the separate processes, records, and controls finance would still manage afterward. Options that bring more payment methods into one ERP-connected process will reduce oversight gaps.
Decide early who will enroll suppliers. Moving suppliers off checks takes sustained outreach, and AP teams rarely have time for it. Settling whether the provider or internal staff owns that work keeps the rollout from stalling.
