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How ELCA modernized AP for mission-critical agility

When disaster strikes, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) must move funds fast. OSV's AP solution ensures critical payments reach communities worldwide without delays.

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“With OSV having this seamless connection into Workday and a very strong knowledge of the application, it’s been very pain-free going through this.”

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From reactive to proactive AP payment operations

When you're managing payments to vendors and partners across the globe, outdated banking data can derail critical transactions. For ELCA — one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States with 2.8 million members — AP payment automation needed to solve a fundamental problem: catching errors before payments failed, not after.

After five years of partnership with OneSource Virtual (OSV), ELCA expanded their AP payment capabilities through Invoice Pay. Instead of discovering bad banking data after initiating payments, ELCA's finance team now validates supplier information proactively.

"It's making us proactive," Stephanie Ulba, controller at ELCA, explains. "If we have bad banking data, we're going back to get that before we make a payment and have it rejected."

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Maintaining complete control while gaining efficiency

Despite outsourcing AP payment processing, ELCA's finance team retains full visibility and control. Supplier invoices flow through the same Workday approval workflows. The team still reviews and approves settlement runs before any payments are issued. After approval, OSV manages payment execution and vendor communications.

"We still have complete financial control before any payment goes out the door," Stephanie says.

When vendors contact ELCA with payment questions, the finance team quickly accesses information in Workday. OSV acts as an extension of ELCA's operations — managing inquiries while the finance team maintains oversight.

"We're just lowering our costs in how we're making payments."

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Built to serve, built to scale

ELCA's AP payment solution now includes virtual card payments, a method never offered in-house. This expansion gives vendors faster access to funds while generating rebates for ELCA based on card spend.

"Now vendors can get virtual cards, so it's a quicker opportunity and easier processing on their side," Stephanie says. "We're giving more opportunities for vendors to receive different types of payments."

Before going live, OSV analyzed ELCA's vendor file to project rebates. Once launched, OSV conducted campaigns to enroll suppliers — particularly hotels and convention centers ELCA works with for events.

"In the next quarter we'll see a rebate come through for that."

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Ready to modernize your AP operations?

See how OSV’s Invoice Pay helps mission-driven organizations move funds faster while maintaining control, generating rebates, and building the agility to respond when it matters.

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