How APS Helped an IT Firm Eliminate AP Bottlenecks and Improve Visibility
Industry: Information Technology
Service: Technology Vendor Payables Automation
Client Background
The client is a fast-growing IT services company in the USA working with a wide range of technology partners, including cloud service providers, SaaS subscription platforms, hardware suppliers, cybersecurity vendors, and freelance IT specialists. With the company scaling to support more clients and projects, vendor invoices increased rapidly.
The finance team was now handling 300–500 technology invoices every month, many linked to usage-based billing, renewals, project hardware and subscription upgrades. Manual checks, contract verification, and multi-level approvals slowed down the process and often resulted in delayed payments, frustrated vendors, and unnecessary operational stress.
Challenges
- High volume of tech invoices – Recurring subscription renewals, cloud usage bills, licensing charges and hardware purchases created constant processing pressure.
- Frequent errors and mismatches – Manual verification resulted in incorrect rate checks, missed credits, and mismatches with contract terms or past pricing agreements.
- Slow approvals – Invoices required sign-off from project managers, IT heads and finance managers, creating approval delays of 10–15 days.
- Poor visibility into technology spending – Leadership struggled to understand spending patterns across teams, tools and client projects in real time.
- Document management issues – Supporting contracts, usage reports and vendor agreements were scattered, complicating compliance and audits.
How Did APS Help?
APS team deployed a complete Technology Vendor Payables Automation solution tailored for IT workflows. This ensured every invoice, approval and payment request moved through a clean, trackable flow without manual effort or delays, laying the foundation for the automated steps detailed below.
- Smart Invoice Validation – Invoices were automatically matched against contract terms and vendor rate cards to catch:
• overbilling
• expired discounts
• incorrect licensing quantities
• duplicate charges - Streamlined Digital Approvals – Invoices moved through automated routing to the correct department, such as IT, project management or finance, which helped minimize delays and cut down manual follow-ups.
- Centralized Vendor Submission Portal – All technology vendors submitted invoices through a secure digital portal, ensuring no email attachments were missed or lost.
- Real-Time Spend Dashboard – Finance leaders gained instant visibility into spend by vendor, tool, team and project, helping prevent budget overruns and optimizing tech stack decisions.
- Digital Storage for Audits – Every invoice, contract, usage report and approval trail was stored in one organized digital archive, making audits quick and stress-free.
Results Achieved
- Invoice approval time shortened from 10–15 days to just 2–4 days.
- 85% reduction in billing discrepancies due to automated validations.
- 75% drop in manual finance workload.
- 100% on-time vendor payments, improving trust and service continuity.
- Full visibility into technology expenses across all departments.
As a result, the firm gained:
- Faster and more accurate tech vendor payment processing.
- Clear financial insights for smarter IT budgeting.
- Strong coordination between IT, project teams and finance.
- A scalable AP engine ready for future expansion and new tools.
In summary
APS helped the IT services company transform its technology payables from slow and manual to automated, accurate and highly transparent. With faster approvals, reliable vendor payments and real-time spend visibility, the company can now focus on innovation and client delivery while its AP operations run smoothly in the background.
AP Services for IT Industry