P2P exceptions and escalations were consuming capacity across procurement and AP. Suppliers were frustrated, business stakeholders bypassed the process, and control owners could not agree on what “good” looked like. We stabilised the control design, simplified exception handling, and introduced safe automation so teams reclaimed time for strategic work.
Anonymised case study. Focus: treating exceptions as signals, stabilising controls, then automating safely.
Each case is framed as an operating change: pressure, process, evidence, and outcome. That keeps the example tied to what a prospect needs to fix.
High exception volume with unclear ownership and inconsistent resolution paths
Treat exceptions as signals: build a small taxonomy and baseline the top drivers
Exceptions taxonomy + weekly KPI pack with root-cause themes
Reduced operational noise by turning exceptions into a measurable root-cause programme with clear ownership.
No-PO and mismatch issues created friction, delayed payments, and escalations
Reset control design (approvals, tolerances, receiving) and define exception SLAs with owners
Fewer escalations through clearer exception ownership and faster follow-up
Operating assets used to align sponsors, delivery owners, and implementation teams around the same decisions.
We classify exceptions into a small set of families so leaders can fund root-cause fixes instead of firefighting.
A practical taxonomy: No PO, mismatch, master data, approvals, duplicates, and policy breaches.
Most P2P pain sits at boundaries: procurement suite, ERP, AP tools, supplier channels, bank verification, and master data stewardship.
Stabilise first, then automate. Automation on broken controls multiplies exceptions.
We set targets after measuring exception drivers and invoice cohorts. Improvements come from upstream fixes (intake, receiving, supplier enablement, and master data), not just automation.
| Metric | Typical baseline | Target after stabilisation |
|---|---|---|
Invoice exception rate | Often 15–30% (depending on channel and cohort) | ≤10–15% with a root-cause programme and clear ownership |
Invoice cycle time | Often 7–12 days for high-exception cohorts | ≤3–5 days for stabilised cohorts (with clear SLAs) |
Touchless / straight-through processing | Low; concentrated in a small set of supplier cohorts | Expanded through enablement + clean controls + safe automation |
3–4 weeks (baseline) + 6–10 weeks (delivery)
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