Strengthening Accounts Payable Efficiency in a Chemical Manufacturing Company: A Process-Based Study

Accounts payable (AP) is often treated as routine bookkeeping, yet it sits at the point where procurement, stores, finance and suppliers meet, and it directly shapes cash outflows, supplier trust and the reliability of financial records. This paper reports a process-based study of the AP function at Atul Ltd., a diversified Indian chemical manufacturer, carried out during a three-month on-the-job training (OJT) from May to August 2026. Using process observation, discussions with finance staff and the records made available to an intern, the study maps the AP cycle from purchase requirement to vendor reconciliation, identifies recurring sources of delay and error, and examines two illustrative cases, one on three-way matching and one on duplicate-invoice detection. The main bottlenecks were incomplete or incorrect invoice documents, mismatches between invoices and supporting records, slow approvals, manual data entry and unresolved reconciliation differences. The paper proposes a compact set of AP performance indicators and seven practical recommendations: a standard verification checklist, defined approval timelines, stronger three-way matching, regular vendor reconciliation, a tracking dashboard, selective automation and KPI monitoring. Confidential company data were not used, and no before-and-after measurement was possible within the internship period. The findings therefore describe how the process works and where it can be improved; they do not quantify the size of the gains. Keywords: accounts payable; process efficiency; three-way matching; internal control; vendor reconciliation; working capital; chemical industry; India