How We Fixed a Broken Accounts Payable
Process and Cut a Full FTE
A large hospitality group was managing payments across dozens of entities using a process that was slow, error-prone, and required more people than it should have. Here's what we did about it.
Background
Running accounts payable across a large hospitality group is genuinely complicated. When you've got multiple venues, each with their own suppliers, payment schedules, and approval workflows, the admin load builds up fast. And it tends to creep up on you. What starts as a manageable weekly task slowly eats more and more of your team's time until it's consuming people who should be doing something more useful.
That's where this client was when we came on board. A well-established group with multiple venues, they'd grown to a point where the payment process had become a beast of its own. The finance team was spending the bulk of their week just getting payments out the door, with little time left for checking whether those payments were actually right.
The Problem
The immediate issue was the sheer volume of individual payment files being generated every week. Each entity needed its own file, which meant the team was uploading 50 or more separate files to the bank every single week. That's not a process, that's a punishment.
But beyond the workload, the fragmentation was creating real financial risk:
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Errors in individual files could go undetected until a payment bounced or a supplier called up unhappy
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Timeliness depended entirely on whoever was managing the uploads that week, with no buffer if they were sick or stretched
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Late payments were happening regularly, straining supplier relationships and adding avoidable costs
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There was no single view across all entities, so spotting patterns or catching problems early was nearly impossible
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The headcount needed to keep the whole thing running was way out of proportion to what the task should actually require
""The goal wasn't to speed up a broken process. It was to replace it with something that didn't need as many hands, made fewer mistakes, and didn't fall over the moment someone was away.""
The Solution
Rather than just trying to make the existing process a bit faster, we went upstream and worked with the bank directly. Most businesses accept whatever their banking platform offers by default. We don't. We sat down with the financial institution, understood what their systems could actually do, and pushed for a configuration that suited how this client's business actually runs.
Consolidating the payment file structure
The big win was getting the bank to accommodate a consolidated file format. Instead of 50-plus individual uploads, all payers and payees across every entity could be loaded in a single weekly file. Same outcome, a fraction of the effort, and far fewer opportunities for something to go wrong along the way.
Testing and structured rollout
We didn't just switch it on and hope for the best. We ran a proper testing phase first, checking that the new file format was being processed accurately, that payee details were mapping correctly, and that the bank's systems were handling everything as expected. Once we were satisfied it was solid, we rolled it out in stages so there was no disruption to the existing payment schedule.
Business Impact
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Freed up one full-time equivalent (FTE) in the finance team
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Noticeably fewer errors across payment runs, with less time spent on corrections
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Late payments dropped significantly, which meant better supplier relationships
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Stronger financial controls and a clearer picture of what's going out across the group
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A process that scales as the business grows rather than getting harder to manage
What This Means in Practice
Saving one FTE sounds like a number on a spreadsheet, but it's worth unpacking what that actually looks like. In this case it wasn't about letting someone go. It was about getting that capacity back. Those hours stopped going into repetitive file uploads and started going into things that actually needed a person's attention.
The accuracy gains had a ripple effect too. Fewer errors meant fewer supplier disputes, less time spent on reconciliations after the fact, and a lot less back-and-forth with the bank to sort out mistakes. The late payment fees alone added up to a real saving.
But honestly, the thing the team valued most was just being able to trust the process. When payments go out correctly every single week without anyone having to white-knuckle it through 50 file uploads, that's a different kind of business to work in.
Key Takeaways
This one is a good reminder that fixing a financial process doesn't always mean buying new software or overhauling your whole tech stack. Sometimes it just means having the right conversation with the right person and knowing what to ask for. In this case, that person was at the bank.
Most businesses in this situation aren't doing anything wrong. They've just grown, and the processes haven't grown with them. Nobody's had the time or the outside perspective to stop and ask if there's a smarter way to do it. That's usually where we come in.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is accounts payable automation and how does it help multi-entity businesses?
At its core, accounts payable automation is about replacing repetitive manual tasks with a process that just runs. For a business with multiple entities, that usually means consolidating fragmented payment workflows into something unified, so the same outcome happens with far less human effort and far fewer chances for something to go wrong. You stop spending time on the process and start spending time on the business.
How can a bookkeeper help reduce headcount in a finance team?
By finding the work that shouldn't need a person. A lot of finance teams are carrying unnecessary headcount not because the team is large, but because the processes are inefficient. When you redesign how things get done, the same output often requires significantly less time. The headcount reduction is a result of that work, not the starting point.
What causes late payments in a multi-entity accounts payable process?
Usually it comes down to fragmentation. When each entity is running its own payment process separately, the whole thing depends on every part working smoothly at the same time. If one person is stretched, sick, or dealing with a data issue, payments slip. There is no buffer and no unified view to catch problems before they become supplier complaints.
Can you negotiate directly with a bank on behalf of a business client?
Yes, and we do. Most businesses accept whatever their bank's platform offers by default, but banks have more flexibility than they tend to advertise. We engage directly with financial institutions on behalf of clients to understand what is actually possible and advocate for configurations that suit how the business operates, not just what is easiest for the bank.