Why a 30-Year AP Veteran Switched to Stampli—And What You Should Take Away From It
Originally featured in Construction Dive, Milissa Douglas of Cork Howard Construction shares her experience moving from Concur to Stampli. Here’s what it means for your team.
When you’re midway through evaluating AP automation platforms, most marketing content becomes useless. What you need are firsthand, technical, and real-world assessments of where platforms succeed—and where they fall short. In this post, we’ll explore how a 30-year accounting veteran made a pivot that may resonate with your current challenges.
What might make you skeptical of Stampli?
- Stampli isn’t the “default” brand—you may wonder if it’s battle-tested enough.
- AI in accounting sounds like fluff without proof it improves accuracy or usability.
- Integration nightmares with other platforms have made you cautious about switching.
- Customization could feel limited if you’ve been burned by rigid systems.
- Implementation risk is real—does it actually “just work”?
Here’s how Douglas’s experience addresses those concerns.
1. “Stampli was not my first choice… Concur would not integrate with our accounting software. So I had to pull the plug.”
Takeaway: Compatibility is not a given in this space. When Douglas discovered Concur couldn’t integrate with her accounting system—after setup was already underway—it was a costly setback. Stampli stepped in with a system that worked with her environment, not against it. If integration risk is your primary concern, know that Stampli prioritizes getting your ERP connection working correctly from the start.
2. “Billy fills about 90% of the information automatically for you. Really, all you have to do is verify that he did his job correctly.”
Takeaway: AI in Stampli isn’t a gimmick—it materially reduces manual input. With Douglas’s team, AI took over the most time-consuming tasks: data entry and field mapping. This isn’t about eliminating your team’s oversight—it’s about eliminating the labor of rote tasks so they can focus on validation and exception handling.
3. “We went from keying all the information in, to looking up and all the information being there already.”
Takeaway: The transformation here is functional, not philosophical. Stampli replaces manual entry with field-level automation. That’s enabled by trained models and rules that learn your data over time. You’re not just scanning and storing—you’re populating and validating, at scale.
4. “By automating accounts payable, we’ve cut our paper usage down 85% to 90%… It does speed up the process, too, for us to pay our vendors.”
Takeaway: The efficiency gain is not abstract. Reducing paperwork didn’t just help with ESG metrics—it directly accelerated invoice processing times. That means fewer vendor disputes, tighter cash management, and a better audit trail—all from shifting the workflow into a structured digital process.
5. “Implementation was extremely easy… We downloaded our vendors, our cost codes, deals and jobs into an Excel spreadsheet.”
Takeaway: Implementation can be a real barrier. But Stampli’s model is designed to work with what you already have. No overhauls. No consultants. The onboarding is as straightforward as mapping out your existing structures in a spreadsheet. Douglas’s ease of deployment speaks volumes about Stampli’s investment in usable, flexible onboarding processes.
Conclusion: Choose a Platform That Solves for the Operational Details
Douglas’s story should reassure anyone concerned that switching systems will upend operations. Stampli’s focus is on reducing friction, not introducing it. Whether it’s AI that actually learns, integration that respects your ERP setup, or implementation that doesn’t require a small army—Stampli delivers by getting the details right.
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