A Real-World AP Story: How a $7B Company Got Trapped by Their Payment "Automation" Tool

What happens when your payment automation partner creates more manual work than it saves?

This is a real story from an AP leader at a major enterprise with nearly $7 billion in annual spend. Her team was promised automation by their legacy payment provider, Bottomline Technologies (PaymodeX). Instead, they got a second job: manually managing the platform's shortcomings.

Their struggle is a masterclass in the hidden "Process Tax" of legacy software.

The Daily Reality of a Legacy Platform

Despite managing a complex payment mix of 60% ACH, 20% virtual card, and 15-18% paper check, the team was operating with almost zero visibility. Here's what their daily work looked like:

• No Visibility into Supplier Enrollment: To find out which suppliers had completed their onboarding, there was no report to run. The AP leader had to manually track invited suppliers in a spreadsheet and then search for each one individually in the portal just to check their status.
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• Manual ERP Updates: When a supplier switched their payment method (e.g., from ACH to virtual card), the team would receive a simple email notification from PaymodeX. It was then their job to manually update that change in their Oracle Fusion ERP. This wasn't automation; it was a high-risk data entry task that had to be done to ensure the next payment file was correct.
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• No Way to Export a Supplier List: One of the most basic needs—a complete, exportable list of all enrolled suppliers and their current payment methods—was impossible. The platform could not generate a simple supplier directory.

Why Does This Happen? The Root of the Problem.

This isn't just a case of missing features. It's the direct result of a flawed foundation. Legacy systems like Bottomline require the customer—the user—to pass sensitive bank account information with every payment run.

This single requirement forces your team to own the entire chain of work: you must collect the data, you must store the data, and as this real-world case shows, you must manually manage all the processes and updates that surround that data.

How a True Partner Eliminates This Work

A modern, full-service partner like Finexio operates on a different principle: we eliminate the work by taking on the responsibility.

With Finexio, the story is transformed:

• Instead of chasing enrollment statuses, you see a real-time portal showing every supplier's  progress. More importantly, you see a live, actionable list of only the few suppliers who might need your input, because our team is proactively managing the rest. You stop hunting for every update and focus only on the exceptions that matter.
• Instead of manually updating your ERP, our platform manages all supplier payment preferences. The imperative to update your ERP just to make a payment is gone. You approve the invoice; we ensure the payment is delivered according to the supplier's wishes.
• Instead of a data black hole, you get a complete, 24/7 view of your entire supplier network in the portal, whether a supplier has been paid yet or not. You can see how every supplier will be paid, on demand.

The experience of this $7B company isn't an outlier. It's the daily reality for businesses paying the hidden "Process Tax" of legacy payment toolkits.

The choice for modern finance leaders is clear: Stop managing the tool and find a partner who manages the work.

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