Remodeling AP: How Automation Is Building Smarter Property Management

Property managers today face a financial and operational balancing act that grows more complex by the month. Turbulent economic conditions and inflation are placing significant pressure on teams already stretched thin. Against this backdrop, accounts payable (AP) often becomes a bottleneck. Manual, error-prone processes can quickly snowball into late payments, cash flow disruptions and even damaged supplier relationships. Add to this the escalating risk of fraud, and an urgent priority emerges: the need for technology that enables smarter, faster and more secure payables. In an industry where efficiency and trust are paramount, how property managers handle AP can make the difference between growth and stagnation.

AP Is a Major Bottleneck for Property Managers

Automated AP Can Eliminate These Challenges

AI Is Proving Indispensable to the Industry’s Future

Coming Soon: An AP Remodel for Property Management

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AP Is a Major Bottleneck for Property Managers

Property managers face mounting AP challenges, including high invoice volumes, costly manual processes and rising fraud risks. Reliance on outdated systems drives errors, delays and late fees, threatening cash flow and vendor trust.

AP poses a considerable challenge in property management.

Property managers face a host of back-office burdens, but few are as labor-intensive as paying utility bills and suppliers. On average, property management companies handle more than 1,000 invoices per month from 21 vendors or more. For multi-family property owners in particular, the challenges multiply. Invoice volume grows alongside units, making timely, accurate payments increasingly difficult.

1,000+

Number of invoices the average property management firm processes monthly across 21+ vendors

Manual AP workflows increase labor, rack up costs and even jeopardize supplier relationships.

An ongoing reliance on pen-and-paper accounting contributes heavily to the industry’s AP burdens. A recent article notes that property managers remain surprisingly dependent on manual AP processes. As of 2024, for example, 25% of property managers still rely solely on manual vendor management, consuming 42 hours per month and more than $20,000 annually in labor costs.

This leaves property firms vulnerable to more errors and delays. The resulting missed payments can accrue late fees or, worse, endanger supply chains by damaging vendor relationships.

Compounding these challenges, the threat of fraud to the industry looms large.

More insidious than even threats to supply chains are the security risks linked to manual AP in property management. Manual processing offers little defense against hazards like invoice tampering or unauthorized vendors, with paper payments like checks posing further risks. In fact, 70% of property managers report an alarming rise in fraudulent activity over the past year alone, with 40% more concerned about cyberfraud this year than last. Moreover, 79% have been subject to payment fraud in the last year.

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Automated AP Can Eliminate These Challenges

Integrated invoice-to-pay platforms automate AP tasks for property managers, increasing efficiency and reducing fraud. They also enhance working capital through early payment discounts while offering real-time cash flow visibility for smarter financial decisions.

Invoice-to-pay platforms not only increase efficiency but also enhance working capital and enable smarter decision-making.

36%

of property management companies are turning to new technology to boost efficiency in 2025.

Integrated invoice-to-pay platforms directly address the bottlenecks of manual AP. By digitizing invoice capture, approval workflows and payments, these systems eliminate repetitive tasks and reduce human error. As Zego notes, automation frees staff to focus on strategic initiatives like reducing resident turnover rather than spending hours on clerical work.

Edenred Pay provides one example of how automation transforms AP. Its platform aggregates paper and electronic invoices onto a single system for seamless approvals, enabling managers to pay suppliers in their preferred methods with just one file upload. Suppliers benefit from rich remittance data, faster processing and 24/7 portal access to track invoice status, which helps strengthen vendor relationships.

Automation also delivers financial benefits. Virtual card payments and early payment discounts generate new revenue streams, while centralized workflows eliminate late fees and errors. Real-time visibility into spending allows finance leaders to forecast more accurately and optimize working capital. Built-in controls ensure compliance and security. By digitizing payments, managers can also reduce the risk of fraud tied to paper checks or unsecured processes.

Property managers are turning to smarter tech to boost efficiency—and AP functions could use the upgrade.

Industry trends support this shift. According to a recent report by Buildium, growth and efficiency rank as property managers’ top two priorities for 2025. As companies focus on expanding their portfolios, keeping costs down and improving the customer experience, technology is expected to play a growing role in their operations. This year, 36% of property management companies are adding new technologies to increase efficiency, with 28% leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

When it comes to AP tasks, these efficiency upgrades could go a long way. For example, in 2024, property managers spent an average of 15 hours per month on managing AP for utilities, leading 62% to outsource this task at least partially. Clearly, the time has come for a refresh of AP processes industrywide.

AI Is Proving Indispensable to the Industry’s Future

AI is transforming property management’s AP functions by powering automation and, crucially, detecting fraudulent invoices. However, a significant education gap remains, with many professionals lacking the knowledge to implement these new technologies effectively.

AI is central to taking the labor out of AP tasks for property managers.

AI is rapidly becoming a cornerstone of modern AP systems. AI-powered invoice-to-pay solutions reduce costs by replacing manual data entry with natural language processing, which extracts invoice data with near-perfect accuracy. AI also accelerates workflows by automatically routing invoices to the right approvers and alerting them to upcoming due dates. Over time, machine learning (ML) improves performance, predicting optimal payment methods and schedules. AI’s ability to resolve exceptions autonomously and provide data-driven insights can enhance efficiency while supporting more-informed financial decisions. These predictive capabilities elevate AP from a back-office function to a strategic driver of financial performance.

55%

of commercial real estate firms are excited about or interested in AI.

Fraud mitigation remains one of AI’s greatest strengths. By establishing baseline transaction patterns, AI flags deviations such as irregular supplier details or unusual payment amounts. It can also predict high-risk transactions before processing, alerting AP managers in real time. AI’s fraud-detecting capabilities are especially important because cybercrime is a major issue in the real estate industry. In 2023, for example, losses from business email compromise (BEC) in real estate amounted to $446 million.

AI education in property management has a long way to go.

Many property managers are curious about AI, but few have put it into practice yet. Although 55% of commercial real estate firms are excited about or interested in the technology, only 20% say they have actually implemented it into any part of their building operations. An education gap remains, with tech upgrades often outpacing staff training. As such, property management companies may struggle to keep up with these innovations.

As technology plays a growing part in today’s complex property management landscape, on-demand, role-specific learning is essential to unlock the full power of AI platforms for the industry. In this environment, AI isn’t just an optional upgrade—it’s becoming an essential safeguard and growth enabler for property management firms.

Coming Soon: An AP Remodel for Property Management

Outdated, manual AP processes have slowed property managers down, introducing costly delays, errors and fraud risks that jeopardize vendor relationships and strain operational budgets. The opportunity cost of clinging to antiquated workflows is growing. Every hour spent on paper invoices and manual reconciliations is time not spent enhancing tenant satisfaction or improving property performance.

PYMNTS Intelligence offers the following actionable roadmap for property managers to turn accounts payable into a driver of growth:

Automate core AP tasks: Replace manual invoice intake, data entry and reconciliation with an integrated invoice-to-pay platform to reduce delays, late fees and costly errors.

Strengthen fraud defenses: Leverage platforms with AI-driven fraud detection and advanced security to protect against rising cyber- and payment fraud risks.

Consolidate workflows: Manage invoices, approvals and payments in one centralized system to improve efficiency and vendor trust.

Boost working capital: Take advantage of early payment discounts and reduce late fees to free up capital for reinvestment in operations and tenant services.

Enhance decision-making: Use real-time visibility into cash flow and expenditures to make smarter, faster financial choices.

Invest in training: Provide role-specific, on-demand learning to ensure staff fully adopt and optimize new technologies.

Plan for scalability: Build an AP process designed to support portfolio growth, tenant satisfaction and long-term competitiveness.

The year 2025 is shaping up to be a pivotal one for property management AP transformation. The tools to modernize are here, and the business case has never been stronger. Now is the time for property managers to move beyond manual processes and embrace automation—turning AP from a liability into a competitive edge.

Property managers are under more pressure than ever to operate efficiently, control costs and safeguard against fraud. The right automation technology transforms accounts payable from a time-consuming liability into a powerful advantage. At Edenred Pay, we believe that streamlined invoice-to-pay automation not only strengthens vendor relationships but also unlocks working capital, reduces risk and empowers teams to focus on delivering real value to residents and tenants.”

Alex Hoffmann
General Manager, Edenred Pay, North America