For many corporates in the U.K. and the European Union, the payments function rests on a fragile patchwork of old core systems, manual workarounds, and limited oversight. Yes, invoices get paid and payroll runs, but the underlying process lacks visibility, standardization, or control. That creates avoidable exposure to fraud, cash blind spots, and missed opportunities for using payment data to support new and better decisions.
The shift from manual to digital payments is not just an IT modernization project. It's a strategic change in how businesses govern the movement of money, manage risk, and equip finance teams to operate at a higher level. When data is clean, bank connections are standardized, and controls are embedded in everyday workflows. Payments move from being a simple utility to a value center that underpins working capital, regulatory readiness, and the ability to adapt quickly (and profitably) to changing conditions.
Against this backdrop, Payments Process Network (PPN) brought together moderator Ellen Leith with subject matter experts, Richard Ransom of Bottomline and Samantha “Sam” McEwen of U.K.-based retail giant EG Group, to explore how organizations are tackling manual to digital transition.
The trio focused on why so many payment environments remain manual, what “better” looks like in real life, and how to take pragmatic steps that deliver control without needing a costly and disruptive overhaul in a corporate procure-to-pay (P2P) process.
Why Manual Payments are a Strategic Liability
Leith opened by recognizing that the payments step at the end of the P2P chain is often neglected. She observed that in many organizations, it is still assumed that payments just work in the background, so real attention and investment go elsewhere.
Yet the consequences of that neglect are increasingly visible. Leith pointed to highly publicized incidents where fraud schemes cost companies tens of millions and warned that “it's out there, it's growing, and it's something which organizations obviously need to be a little bit more proactive about.”
Panelists agreed that one reason things get stuck on manual is historical complexity. McEwen described today’s landscape of multiple ERPs, overlapping supplier records and fragmented data that makes it difficult to standardize or automate. In her words, “It all has an effect on what we can actually do, so I'm not surprised that it is disjointed.” Those layers of complexity lead back to dreaded spreadsheets, countless emails, and manual checks that keep things moving, but at the cost of consistency and control.
Ransom emphasized that payments are rarely seen as a profit driver, which means they are often underfunded. However, he also said this view is too narrow. “Accounts payable/P2P is...a massive value center in the organization,” he said of the data that flows through AP and payments to connect purchasing, cash management, and risk. If that last mile remains opaque and prone to manual error, the whole organization misses out on insight and resilience.
Risk is amplified by the limitations of aging bank rails. Ransom reminded the audience that “today, Bacs doesn't check the destination account. It doesn't check the name on the payment you're making. There's no check.”
That gap explains why fraudsters focus on changing bank details or exploiting dormant supplier records. Without strong internal security and data validation, even a “working” process can be dangerously exposed.
Clean, Connected Data, and Embedded Controls
A central theme of the conversation was master data. The quality of supplier and customer records determines how effective any digitization effort can be. If names, addresses, tax IDs, and bank accounts are inconsistent or duplicated, no amount of downstream retooling can fully compensate.
McEwen described how her organization tackled this head on. Analyzing their supplier master file across multiple ERPs, they discovered many “active” vendors that had not been paid for a long time. That analysis led to a new and more secure data policy.
“We realized that we hadn't used some of these suppliers for over 18 months,” she said, adding that “the best thing that we could do was deactivate them on the system, then make a secondary process that after two years, we will remove the bank details of those suppliers as well.” This simple rule dramatically reduced their internal attack surface.
Verification of Payee (VOP) emerged as a practical lever that can be implemented quickly. McEwen said that the same kind of check consumers now see in online banking should be built into corporate supplier onboarding and maintenance.
“We'd like the same thing at the other end, that Verification of Payee, to be able to say, yes, I am absolutely 100% happy that this supplier is EG Group, and those are their bank details.” In her organization, it has become non-negotiable. “I'm a massive fan of Verification of Pay,” she said. “It's changed our environment. Nothing gets past that master data team without Verification of Payee now.”
Ransom used the example of a well-known automotive manufacturer to illustrate the stakes. In that case, millions of dollars were lost because payments were made to the wrong back account, which could have been caught with a basic confirmation check. He noted that “running a simple Confirmation of Payee check would have prevented [the company] from losing [millions of dollars] about 10 years ago,” underlining how relatively modest security investments can prevent outsized losses.
The move to richer bank message formats is also changing the game. McEwen highlighted that “banks are now moving their payment data structure into CAMT 53,” bringing more structured and granular information into play. This ISO 20022-compliant electronic bank statement format creates an opportunity for better cash visibility and reconciliation, but only if internal data is clean, and systems are ready to consume it.
As she said, “Any types of SaaS migration connections that you want will only give you highly controlled results if your data is clean.”
Reinforcing the value of this data, Ransom said many teams still spend days compiling spreadsheets to understand cash positions, even though “the data is… available electronically, almost instantly.” From his perspective, the reward for digitizing connections and standardizing formats is that “you’ve got data for all of this stuff… to make forecasting more accurate, to manage your liquidity better, to optimize your working capital.”
Practical Moves and the Human Dimension
Modernization does not have to start with a massive platform replacement, as was clear from several comments. There are more targeted moves that deliver excellent value and reduce risk while laying groundwork for broader change.
Ransom highlighted the role of analytics and AI in spotting anomalies that humans might miss. In a high-volume environment, it’s often difficult for staff to notice subtle changes in user behavior. AI, on the other hand, can flag when “you've made a lot of payments to this particular supplier this week, and you normally make one,” or when “you’re making multiple payments in this run for the same sort code and account number, even though the vendor names are different.”
These signals don’t replace human acumen. They focus attention where it’s needed most.
The human dimension is even more important than that. McEwen said the next generation of finance professionals are not willing to spend their careers on low-value manual work.
“They don't want to sit there doing manual tasks,” she said. “They've used these sorts of technologies throughout their life. They want to do the quality piece. They want to do the value-added piece.” Organizations that fail to modernize will find it harder to attract and retain the talent they need in accounts payable, accounts receivable, and in business payments generally.
Ultimately, control and visibility ran through every part of this engaging talk. McEwen summed it up simply: “You can only control what you can see. That, for me, is really important.” For business payments professionals, moving from manual to digital is about making that visibility real. It means knowing who you are paying, why you are paying them, which paths the money takes, and what the data is telling you about risk and opportunity.
To U.K. and EU finance leaders, these experts said start with clean data, embed verification and anomaly checks, and connect to banks in structured, standardized ways. From there, payments can move from an afterthought to a controlled, insight-rich function that strengthens cash, protects against fraud, and supports long-term growth.