Accounts payable is the finance function responsible for validating recorded obligations to suppliers and preparing approved invoices for payment under the organization’s controls. In procurement, AP depends on reliable purchase-order, receipt, contract, tax, and exception evidence. Procurement orchestration helps assemble and route that evidence while the ERP remains authoritative for financial records and postings.
In plain English
AP checks what the organization owes suppliers and whether each invoice is ready to be paid.
Illustrative example
At Northstar Industrial Systems, the AP team reviews a matched invoice, receipt, and approval record before the ERP payment process continues.
- Related terms
- Invoice matching; Payment readiness; Reconciliation; Three-way match
- Lifecycle stages
- Invoice; Reconcile
- Stakeholders
- Finance; Procurement