When Oil Prices Fluctuate, Can Your AP Processes Keep Up?
The fuel and convenience industry is no stranger to change. When oil prices shift, so does the way these businesses operate. Aspects of these businesses, like cash flow and vendor relationships, need to be carefully managed. And with razor-thin margins, every dollar (and every hour) counts.
That’s why so many C-stores are asking the same crucial question:
When market conditions change overnight, can my operations keep up?
With a growing toolkit amongst AI innovations and a proven return on investment, the answer may lie with AP automation. By streamlining accounts payable, C-stores can work more efficiently, adaptively, and strategically with access to all the information they need for more informed decisions.
When Oil Prices Swing, So Do Your Margins
Whether oil prices climb or crash, C-stores face immense pressure. When costs go up, companies need to secure early payment discounts, protect vendor relationships, and carefully monitor their payment schedules. When prices fall, holding cash becomes critically important.
But for many fuel and convenience stores, manual AP processes are still the norm, leading to:
- Delayed approvals due to manual routing
- Unclear payment priorities when visibility into due dates is limited
- Missed opportunities for early pay discounts or dynamic vendor negotiations
- Costly errors from manual data entry and ledger coding
In an industry where timing and adaptability are everything, outdated workflows can severely hinder your operations.
How AP Automation Builds Financial Flexibility
Accounts payable automation not only boosts productivity, it also makes your financial processes more flexible and resilient to market shifts.
Here’s how:
Real-Time Invoice Processing
Say goodbye to tedious invoice matching and bottlenecked approvals. AP automation digitizes every invoice, extracts key data using AI, and routes it instantly to the right people.
Dynamic Payment Scheduling
When oil prices surge, early-pay discounts become essential. When prices drop, it’s smarter to hold onto cash. Automation gives you the flexibility to time your payments strategically.
End-to-End Visibility
With all of your financial information at your fingertips, you gain real-time insights into your liabilities, cash flow, vendor balances, and payment due dates, helping you make informed decisions quickly.
Effortless Ledger Coding
Forget about confusing ledger codes and misallocated payments. Automation ensures the right accounts are matched with zero delays.
Why Fuel & Convenience Retailers Are Automating AP
As the energy market becomes more unpredictable, AP automation is moving from “nice-to-have” to mission-critical.
According to a recent report by Ardent Partners, 75% of AP departments now use some form of AI-powered automation, highlighting how essential it is to financial resilience..
And for fuel and convenience businesses, the benefits are even clearer:
- Reduced time-to-pay
- Fewer invoice errors
- Better control over spending
- Easier integration with ERP platforms like PDI, Microsoft Dynamics, and more
How Square 9 Helps Your Business Toward an AI-Powered Future
Square 9 Softworks is an industry-leading provider of an AI-powered intelligent information management platform that removes the frustration of extracting data and enables you to harness the full power of your information. Free your team from repetitive tasks while your work flows freely in areas like accounts payable, order processing, onboarding, and contracts. The Square 9 platform captures your unstructured content, transforms it into clean, searchable data, and securely shares it across your organization to accelerate your decisions and actions.
