From “Scattered, Smothered and Covered” to Streamlined: What Waffle House Can Teach Us About AP Automation

If you’ve ever sat at the counter of a Waffle House during the breakfast rush, you’ve witnessed something extraordinary: organized chaos. Tickets fly. Orders are yelled. Plates pile up.

And somehow, amidst the clatter of silverware and sizzling griddles, everyone gets exactly what they ordered – “scattered, smothered, and covered,” or maybe “chunked, diced, and peppered,” or any other combination from the iconic Waffle House lingo. It’s fast. It’s efficient. And it’s coordinated.

Now imagine if your accounts payable (AP)The amount a company owes to suppliers for goods and services received but not yet paid. department could move with that same level of speed, clarity, and precision – minus the shouting. That’s what invoice-to-pay automation makes possible.

Manual AP: A Recipe for Chaos

Let’s be honest – when AP departments rely on manual processes, it’s a bit like a breakfast rush without a system. Invoices pile up like unclaimed orders, approvals get bottlenecked, and payments go out late – or worse, for the wrong amount or to the wrong supplier.

• Invoices are scattered across inboxes, desks, and filing cabinets.  When invoice formats vary and documents arrive by email, mail, or even fax, it’s hard to know where anything is. This fragmentation leads to delays, confusion, and missed payment deadlines. And when staff waste time hunting down paperwork, it pulls them away from more valuable work.
• Details get smothered in paper stacks or lost in email chains.  It’s easy for key information – like payment terms, purchase order (PO)A formal document issued by a buyer authorizing the purchase of goods or services under agreed terms. R numbers, or approval status – to get buried or overlooked. Without visibility into where an invoice stands in the process, AP teams are left guessing or playing detective. This lack of transparency creates unnecessary back-and-forth emails and telephone calls, strained supplier relationships, and late payments.
• Critical data is covered by duplicate data entry, mismatched PO numbers, or approval delays.  Manual input increases the risk of typos and errors that can result in overpayments, compliance issues, or delays to the financial closeThe process of finalizing all accounting entries at the end of a reporting period to produce financial statements. G. Manually matching invoices to POs or receipts becomes a time-consuming chore, especially when systems aren’t integrated. And when approvals are routed physically or via email, a single bottleneck can stall the entire posting and payment process.

No wonder it feels like chaos.

Manual AP processes turn every invoice approval into the accounting equivalent of a slammed Waffle House kitchen – with orders flying in from every direction, key details buried under the scramble, and no clear view of what’s ready to go out. Without a streamlined invoice-to-pay process, it’s only a matter of time before something gets burned, missed, or served up wrong.

Automated AP: A Well-Oiled Griddle

Now picture that same Waffle House team – but instead of shouting out orders, everything flows through a digital display. Each cook knows what to do, in what order, and how to do it right.

That’s the power of invoice-to-pay automation. With invoice-to-pay automation:

• Invoices are captured and routed the moment they arrive – no more scatter.  Whether invoices come in via email, EDI, or a vendor portal, automation captures them instantly and consistently. The system extracts, validates, and manages the data, routing it to the correct workflow. Everything is centralized, searchable, and auditable – no more piles, no more confusion.
• Coding, PO matching, and approvals happen automatically — no smothering in manual tasks.  Built-in rules apply the correct general ledger (GL) coding and match invoices to POs and receipts with minimal human intervention. Automated workflows send invoices to the right approver based on amount, department, or vendor – keeping things moving without anyone needing to nudge the process along. Exception handling is streamlined too, so even outliers don’t clog up your queue.
• Data flows cleanly into your ERP and payment system — so nothing’s covered up or lost.  Once approved, invoices are automatically pushed to your enterprise resource planning (ERP) or accounting softwareA system for recording and managing a company’s financial transactions, often integrated with ERP and AP solutions. for payment, eliminating the need for duplicate data entry. This not only speeds up the process, but it also reduces the chance of costly errors or missed rebates. And because data is synced in real time, finance leaders have immediate visibility into liabilities and cash flow.

The Bottom Line

The crew at Waffle House may thrive on organized chaos – but your AP team doesn’t have to. With the right invoice-to-pay automation platform, you can ditch the manual mess and serve up something far more satisfying: faster cycle times, stronger controls, and time back to focus on what really matters. Hungry for a better AP process? Let Edenred PayEdenred Pay is the market leader in B2B payments automation. show you how automation brings order to your operations – and helps your team move as smoothly as a Waffle House grill on a busy morning.