Most CFOs still treat accounts payable as a cost center to be minimized, not a strategic lever to be maximized. Courtney Cote has built her career proving otherwise—transforming AP from a back-office function into a driver of cash flow, risk management, and business impact. This session makes the case for why AP deserves a seat in strategic planning conversations, not just month-end close.

We’ll explore what it actually takes to elevate AP’s standing inside a finance organization: building payment strategies that protect working capital, strengthening compliance and reducing risk exposure, and structuring teams and workflows that scale with the business rather than just keep pace with invoice volume. We’ll also talk candidly about the leadership skills that separate AP managers from AP leaders—stakeholder influence, executive communication, and the confidence to challenge how the function has always been run.

You’ll leave with a concrete view of what it takes to reposition AP as a competitive advantage inside your own organization.

Leave this session prepared to:

• Identify the strategic levers AP leaders can pull to influence cash flow and risk beyond day-to-day processing
• Build a case for elevating AP’s voice in cross-functional and executive conversations
• Design payment and compliance strategies that protect the business, not just process transactions
• Develop the leadership skills needed to move from managing AP to leading it strategically