Originally aired January 13, 2026 on Extropy On AIr.
Your ERP is not your AP automation. ERP systems manage transactions, but they don’t read, validate or intelligently route invoices, so teams end up with digitized manual work. In this episode, Kevin Zirkle of Extropy Advisors and Kevin Farrell of Basware explain how intelligent invoice lifecycle management closes that gap, share real client results, and explain why implementation and optimization make the difference.
Listen: Extropy On AIr podcast page | Spotify
Key takeaways
- ERPs handle transactions, not workflow automation. Relying on them alone creates digitized manual labor.
- Staying ERP-centric costs you on three fronts: cost, control and capacity.
- Basware layers intelligence, automation and visibility across the invoice lifecycle while keeping your ERP core clean.
- The right tool only delivers full value when it is configured and optimized for how your business actually runs.
- Start by benchmarking your touchless rate, cycle time and cost to process invoices.
Why isn’t your ERP enough for AP automation?
A lot of finance teams hear “we already have SAP or Oracle, that’s our automation.” Kevin Farrell calls that a fundamental misunderstanding. ERP systems like SAP, Oracle and NetSuite are designed for transaction management, not true workflow automation. They process invoices, but they don’t eliminate data entry, PO matching, exception handling, approval routing or supplier inquiries.
When someone says their ERP handles AP, it usually means the team is still keying invoices in by hand. The ERP accepts the invoice, but it doesn’t read, validate, classify or route it. And the cost of that illusion grows with every invoice, business unit and region.
What does ERP-centric AP really cost?
Farrell breaks it down into three areas:
- Cost: manual entry, late payments and overstaffed AP teams.
- Control: inconsistent approval paths and compliance gaps.
- Capacity: AP becomes a bottleneck instead of a business enabler.
One client with $8 billion in annual revenue found $2.4 million in duplicate payments after turning on Basware’s audit and recovery tools. There is also the opportunity cost. Every hour spent chasing approvals or fixing errors is an hour not spent on forecasting, strategy or analytics. Kevin Zirkle calls it the silent tax of not modernizing.
How does Basware automate the invoice lifecycle?
Basware layers intelligence, automation and visibility across the full invoice lifecycle:
- Capturing invoices from any format or channel
- Using AI to extract and validate data, with SmartPDF and SmartCoding
- Automating PO and non-PO matching
- Routing approvals based on policy
- Monitoring and improving the process with embedded analytics
- Detecting anomalies and recovering value with AP assurance tools
It is configurable rather than customized, and ERP agnostic. Basware sits between supplier inputs and the ERP, taking in invoices from email, portals and EDI, enriching and validating them with AI, and then pushing validated invoices into the ERP for posting. It connects through APIs, secure file transfer or middleware. For SAP customers moving from ECC to S/4HANA, that helps keep a clean core, which matters to CIOs who don’t want to touch core ERP logic. As Kevin Zirkle puts it, the ERP stays the brain, and Basware becomes the hands that do the work.
What results do companies see with Basware?
Farrell shared the story of a North American consumer goods company processing more than 300,000 invoices a year. Its SAP system needed heavy IT involvement for every routing rule or exception change. After deploying Basware with Extropy Advisors:
- Touchless invoice rates reached 87% in under a year
- Approval routing time dropped from 11 days to three
- Four team members moved into more strategic roles
- Supplier onboarding time fell 40% using Basware Analytics
Farrell credits the partnership. Extropy led change management, aligned AP and procurement policies, and made sure the system matched how people actually work, not just ideal ERP workflows. He adds that Basware doesn’t want partners who disappear after go-live, and that Extropy stays in the trenches and owns client outcomes through hypercare and post go-live optimization.
What happens when companies implement AP automation on their own?
A large industrial manufacturer chose Basware and ran most of the implementation itself with limited outside help. The system went live, but approval chains didn’t match how the business operated, exception handling wasn’t fully mapped, the team was touching more invoices than expected, and the ROI in the business case wasn’t showing up.
They brought in Extropy. Rather than ripping anything out, the team listened, assessed and made targeted changes: updating approval logic to match policy and behavior, fine-tuning and automating exception categories, retraining SmartCoding on real AP data, and adding supplier education to reduce mismatches at the source. Within six months, the touchless rate rose from 33% to more than 78%, and they identified more than $600,000 in value recovery opportunities.
Is AP automation only for large enterprises?
No. Farrell says mid-market companies want speed and simplicity while enterprises want scale and control, and Basware supports both. Mid-market CFOs are often outpacing larger enterprises because they are more agile, and with Extropy they often see ROI in six to nine months.
For CFOs worried about adding another system, his answer is that Basware removes complexity rather than adding it. It is a lightweight overlay with modular, fast deployments, and with Extropy involved, the burden on internal teams drops. Basware also meets enterprise security standards including SOC 2, ISO 27001 and GDPR.
What should a CFO do in the next 90 days?
Start by benchmarking. What is your touchless rate? What is your invoice cycle time? How many full-time employees does it take to process 100,000 invoices? With those numbers, an AP automation assessment can turn them into a business case. As Kevin Zirkle says, you can’t improve what you don’t measure.
In their words
What you end up with is a digitized manual labor, not automation.
Kevin Farrell, Basware
You can buy the right tool, but if it’s not aligned with how your business actually runs, you’re only capturing part of the value.
Kevin Farrell, Basware
About the speakers
Kevin Zirkle is Director of Business Development at Extropy Advisors, where he works across Extropy’s partner ecosystem, matching organizations with the right technology and the right people to move transformation from the whiteboard into production.
Kevin Farrell is BD&A Special Projects at Basware, a leader in AP automation and e-invoicing.
FAQ
Is an ERP system enough to automate accounts payable?
Usually not. ERPs like SAP, Oracle and NetSuite are built for transaction management, not workflow automation. They accept invoices, but they don’t read, validate, classify or intelligently route them, so teams are still keying data, matching POs and chasing approvals by hand.
What is intelligent invoice lifecycle management?
It is automation layered across the full life of an invoice: capturing invoices from any format or channel, using AI to extract and validate data, automating PO and non-PO matching, routing approvals by policy, monitoring the process with analytics, and detecting anomalies like duplicate payments. With Basware, this sits alongside the ERP, so the ERP core doesn’t need to be customized.
How should a CFO start an AP automation initiative?
Benchmark where you are today: your touchless rate, invoice cycle time and how many full-time employees it takes to process 100,000 invoices. Those numbers form the foundation of a business case and show where automation will have the most impact.
Keep exploring
- More episodes of Extropy On AIr
- Previous episode with show notes: From AI Hype to Real Impact: How Leaders Create Value
- Next in the Basware series: Execution Beats Experimentation: Agentic AI in AP
- Also in the Basware series: AP Is Not an Afterthought, with Basware CEO Jason Kurtz
- Next episode with show notes: Leading Digital Transformation with Confidence
- Why Extropy
Want to know where your AP process stands? Book a discovery call and we’ll help you benchmark it.
