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For decades, procurement and finance offices were viewed as a necessary cost center, a place where paper invoices and manual entries created a perpetual administrative bottleneck.
No more. As institutions face tighter margins and increasing demands for transparency, higher education procurement is undergoing a digital upgrade. By integrating accounts payable automation, procure-to-pay software, and purchasing card solutions, academic institutions are doing more than just paying the bills. They are building a modern financial infrastructure that eliminates shadow spend, mitigates fraud through virtual card payments, and transforms AP into a recurring revenue stream for the university.
Accounts payable automation digitizes and manages the invoice processing and payment lifecycle. Instead of relying on manual data entry and email approvals, automated systems capture invoices, route them for approval, and process payments through integrated financial platforms.
Your accounts payable software connects with ERP systems so that supplier payments align with procurement policies and departmental budgets.
Things move smoothly, and without much of the manual processing that’s happening today. Think about how manual systems work:
These manual processes may seem manageable at first, but they’re inefficient. The American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) estimates that manual invoice processing takes 10 minutes or more and up to $18 per invoice when you consider labor costs. Now multiple that by the thousands of vendors and invoices you pay annually, and you quickly see how expensive a manual process is. Yet, more than a quarter of organizations still process everything manually, and 73% of finance teams are not fully automated.
Forrester estimates that moving from manual processes to AP automation can reduce invoice processing time by up to 70% and cut processing costs by up to 60%. Here’s why.
Process | Manual Accounts Payable | Accounts Payable Automation |
Invoice intake | Invoices arrive through email or paper and must be manually sorted | Digital capture automatically imports invoices from email or supplier portals |
Data entry | Staff manually enter invoice data into financial systems | Optical character recognition extracts invoice data automatically |
Approval routing | Emails and spreadsheets are used to track approvals | Automated workflows route invoices to the correct approver |
Error detection | Errors are often discovered during reconciliation | Automated validation flags duplicate invoices or mismatched amounts |
Reporting | Limited visibility into invoice status | Dashboards provide real-time tracking of invoices and payments |
Automated systems reduce the repetitive administrative work. They also reduce error rates and increases spend visibility in higher education procurement, especially when spend is decentralized at the department level.
When departments operate independently, academic institutions can lose line of sight into total institutional spend. This leads to maverick spending that happens outside of negotiated contracts. In some cases, this off-contract spend can cost institutions millions in lost savings and increased risk.
While accounts payable automation focuses on invoices and payments, procure-to-pay software addresses the full purchasing lifecycle, connecting procurement and finance processes from the moment a purchase request is created until the supplier receives payment.
A typical procure-to-pay workflow includes:
It can be cumbersome and take time. Procure-to-pay software integrates procurement and AP functions into a single workflow. In higher education procurement, this integration provides several advantages:
Procurement card programs simplify your purchasing process, too, restricting purchases to authorized uses and approved purchases. Operating like a credit card, a P-card can be used at the department level for smaller purchases without having to go through the purchase order and approval process.
You can set guardrails to ensure spend is compliant with policies. For example:
So, whether you’re tracking a million-dollar invoice for a construction project or a $50 P-card transaction, you get the same visibility into your spend, while automating much of the accounting process.
Purchasing cards also reduce the number of invoices entering accounts payable systems. This allows your AP team to focus on larger or more complex transactions while routine purchases are handled through card payments.
If you’re looking to modernize higher education procurement, purchasing card programs provide a practical way to simplify small-dollar purchasing while maintaining strong financial oversight.
While purchasing cards are commonly used for departmental purchases, virtual card payments are increasingly used for supplier payments issued through accounts payable.
A virtual card is a digitally generated card number created for a specific transaction. Unlike physical cards, virtual cards exist only for a single payment. When an invoice is approved, the accounts payable system generates a virtual card number with which the supplier processes the transaction through its existing card payment systems.
You can control spend even more tightly with virtual cards, ensuring they are only used for a specific transaction, providing greater oversight. Here’s how virtual card payments stack up against other methods.
Payment Method | Common Challenges | Virtual Card Payment Advantages |
Paper checks | Printing, mailing delays, risk of interception | Digital delivery eliminates mail delays |
ACH transfers | Requires sharing banking information | Bank account details are never shared |
Manual reconciliation | Payment tracking may require manual review | Transactions generate automatic digital records |
Because virtual card payments are processed electronically, they reduce administrative tasks associated with check printing and mailing. They also offer greater fraud prevention by providing:
Commercial card programs introduce another advantage for higher education institutions: the ability to generate rebate revenue.
When a supplier accepts a card payment, the transaction includes a processing fee known as an interchange fee. Card networks like Visa or Mastercard collect these fees as part of their payment infrastructure. The card issuer receives a portion of the interchange fee, and institutions participating in a commercial card program may receive a share of that revenue as a rebate. For universities with large purchasing and supplier payment volumes, these rebates can represent a meaningful financial return.
The key advantage is that you generate this revenue from transactions you already make. Instead of issuing checks or bank transfers, you can shift eligible payments to card-based transactions and generate net new unrestricted revenue.
Combined with accounts payable automation and procure-to-pay software, commercial card programs help transform accounts payable from a purely administrative function into a strategic financial capability.
Instead of viewing accounts payable as a back-office expense, finance leaders today are treating it as a strategic asset. By maximizing electronic payment adoption, universities can generate enough annual revenue to:
The key to a high-yield program is supplier enablement. One partner available through an E&I cooperative agreement is Corpay, which provides AP automation solutions and procurement card programs. Corpay already has agreements with more than a million vendors to accept purchasing card payments and will look at your vendor list and proactively reach out to get vendors to accept purchasing cards rather than checks. By systematically migrating these vendors to virtual card payments, your institution captures a higher percentage of spend, resulting in a larger annual return.
Transitioning to accounts payable software and procure-to-pay software requires technical integration and institutional buy-in. Some universities struggle with decentralized departments that are hesitant to abandon familiar manual workflows. To ensure success, institutions should prioritize supplier enablement and internal training.
By utilizing an E&I cooperative agreement, schools can access partners that handle the heavy lifting of vendor enrollment. This ensures that your procurement card program is populated with participating vendors from day one. This simplifies integration and helps transform the perception of AP from policing transactions to streamlining departmental purchasing.
E&I Cooperative Services is the only member-owned, nonprofit sourcing cooperative focused exclusively on education. More than 6,000 institutions rely on E&I’s competitively solicited, cooperative contracts to access top-tier suppliers at lower costs. Leveraging the aggregated buying power of thousands of institutions produces greater volume discounts and more favorable terms than most institutions can find on their own. You can also benefit from patronage refunds based on your participation in E&I contracts.
With Corpay’s procurement card program, P-cards, and virtual card payments through its E&I contract, you also get exclusive rebates based on your purchases, producing net new unrestricted revenue.
How does AP automation work in higher education?
Accounts payable automation digitizes invoice capture, routes approvals automatically, and processes supplier payments through integrated financial systems used by universities.
How does procure-to-pay software work?
Procure-to-pay automation connects purchasing and AP processes, managing transactions from purchase request through supplier payment and financial reconciliation.
How do universities manage P-card compliance?
Universities typically enforce compliance through transaction limits, merchant category restrictions, reconciliation workflows, and audit reporting within the procurement card program.
How do virtual cards payments reduce fraud?
Virtual cards generate unique card numbers for each transaction, limiting exposure of banking information and reducing risks associated with check fraud or payment redirection scams.
E&I Cooperative Services offers more than 215 competitively solicited cooperative contracts. You can view the full list of available contracts or find more details for Corpay. Every contract includes the E&I Economic Benefit ModelTM to support cost reductions, cost avoidance, and applicable incentives and revenue opportunities.