Accounts payable is the business process for receiving supplier invoices, checking them against purchase orders or delivery records, approving them, and issuing payment. In many organizations it sits inside ERP and document-automation workflows, where invoice data, approvals, and accounting entries are linked together.
It matters in cyber security because AP is a high-value target for fraud and disruption. Attackers often use phishing, business email compromise, or tampered invoices to redirect payments, change bank details, or create duplicate submissions. Defenders protect AP by enforcing strong approval controls, validating supplier changes out of band, limiting permissions, and keeping detailed audit trails so that every invoice, approval, and payment can be traced and reviewed.