Accounts payable is a file or account that contains money that a person or company owes to suppliers, but has not paid yet (a form of debt). When you receive an invoice you add it to the file, and then you remove it when you pay. Thus, the A/P is a form of credit that suppliers offer to their purchasers by allowing them to pay for a product or service after it has already been received. The profession is unregulated, though there are international standard setting bodies, an example of which is the International Accounts Payable Professionals (IAPP), an association of more than 5,000 members in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and other countries. As part of its Professional Standards Framework, the IAPP has established a new definition of accounts payable: Accounts payable is a strategic, value-added accounting function that performs the primary non-payroll disbursement functions in an organization. As such, the AP operation plays a critical role in the financial cycle of the organization.