An unpaid-bills report can show you three different bottlenecks in the same queue. Pick one that took a long time to enter, one waiting for a receipt, and one already approved. They may all be late, but a different person can move each of them. Find the delay before choosing what to automate.
Pull the records that explain the wait
Use the aging report to find the bill, then open the original document and the approval or hold history. Some systems report those separately. Oracle Fusion, for example, lists unpaid invoices in its Payables Invoice Aging Report and shows matching holds and releases in a separate Matching Hold Detail Report. Look for the equivalent records in your own system. Oracle Fusion Payables predefined reports.
For each bill, record when it arrived, when it became ready to approve, and when it posted. If it is still waiting, write down what needs to happen and who can do it. Include bills that never made it into the ledger, since an aging report cannot show invoices still sitting in an inbox.
Pick the workflow that addresses the cause
| What you find | First change to test |
|---|---|
| AP spends time retyping bills | Prepare drafts with the source invoice visible beside the fields |
| AP waits for the warehouse | Send receiving the PO line and the exact quantity to confirm |
| Managers see the invoice but lack the contract or coding | Attach those records to the approval request |
| Bills wait after approval | Check posting failures and payment scheduling separately |
| The same invoice appears in more than one channel | Give AP a way to find the earlier draft or posted bill before creating another |
Choose a group of bills with the same cause. Use the same type of invoice and period when comparing results. Track time spent working on each bill and time it spent waiting. If a pilot saves minutes entering a bill that still waits days for approval, you know which queue to tackle next.
Confirm the change before adding volume
If approval is the bottleneck, check whether the approved bill reaches the next payment run more often. If the issue is entry, check whether AP spends less time on the same kinds of invoices. Judge each change on the delay it was meant to remove. Use the AP pilot guide to plan the broader test.