Accounts Payable – The Department Everyone Loves to Hate

Don’t you just love that title?  And isn’t it the truth?  No one wants to turn in the paperwork on time, but wants us to pay their invoices on time.  No one wants to approve an invoice, but everyone wants us to pay their Travel & Expenses as soon as possible.

So what do we do about that?  How do we get what we want, but still make everyone happy?  When you have the answer to that….let me know.  What I can tell you is that there is no way to make everyone happy.  Either they are mad or the vendor is mad, but either way….somehow the AP department is to blame.

We can make sure that we are fair to everyone by holding everyone accountable for their part of the payment process. 

·         Good Instructions go a long way.  Make sure to give good instructions on how to complete a vendor packet, check request, void/cancellation request/etc and make it visible to everyone when the deadlines are so there is no confusion. 

·         Be flexible once in a while.  Sometimes, there really are last minute emergencies and if it was you, wouldn’t you want someone to be nice and bend the rules a bit for you? 

·         Being kind goes a long way.  When someone asks you for assistance….help them.  When you have questions or need their assistance, the fact that you have helped them in the past will go a long way.  May even put you at the top of their ‘To Do’ list when you do ask.  There is a saying…..’Kindness is free.  Spread that stuff everywhere’.

So…at the end of the day, what we learned in kindergarten holds true today.  Be nice, be flexible, and understand good instructions. 

Until next time…

There has GOT to be a better way....

Have you ever started at a new job and when you are being shown the ropes you watch what the trainer is doing and wondered.......what?????  Why would you do it this way?  There has GOT to be a better way to do this.

So how many of you said, "Yes.  I have" and then actually did something about it?  We are such creatures of habit.  We get so comfortable in how we do things that we just don't think about changing the process to make it better.

For instance.....I always clean my house by starting in the farthest bedroom and work my way to the other bedroom, the spare bathroom, then the living room, dining room, kitchen, and then finally, the master bedroom.  But the problem is, by the time I get to the master bedroom, I'm pooped!!  So that room either just gets skipped or is only half done.  The first bedroom I clean.....no one lives in there so why am I cleaning it first?  That means it gets cleaned thoroughly each time I clean house, but the master bedroom is only half done or even skipped and that's probably the most used room in the house.  So why am I not starting in the master bedroom?  Habit.  That is my only excuse.  It is a habit.

So I say to myself....there has GOT to be a better way.....duh....start in the master bedroom and work my way around the house.

The same thing goes when working in Accounts Payable. 

• Do you have a vendor that cannot get the invoices to you on time in order for you to take your discount?  There has GOT to be a better way to get those invoices sooner (ERS, email, portal, talk to the owner, etc). 
• Are you doing multiple emergency check runs?  There has GOT to be a better way to reduce the amount of rush checks that are being produced (send out and email to the staff notifying them weekly of when the next check run is and the deadline in order to make it). 
• Do you have duplicate payments being made?  There has GOT to be a better way to stop them from occurring in the first place (formalize an invoice number process for invoice without invoice numbers, review check batch prior to printing the checks, verify there in only one vendor code per vendor, etc).

So, no matter if you are cleaning your house or trying to improve things at work, when you have a process you haven't  changed in the last 6-8 months, it may be time to ask yourself......Is there a better way????

Until next time...

Turn The Page For Heaven’s Sake!!

Don’t you just hate when you go to ask a question and you already had the answer in your hands?  That kind of silliness is just what I’m talking about.  All too often, we like to ask questions instead of looking for the answers first.  Instant gratification is what they call it.  I like to refer to it as laziness. 

Many times, when a staff member, no matter where I am working at the time, asks me a question about an invoice (and credit memos, too), inevitably the answer is in the back up documentation attached to the invoice.  I am able to WOW my staff with quick and concise answers all the time because they don’t TURN THE PAGE!!!!  Chances are if you have a question regarding the invoice (or credit memo), then someone else along the invoice’s travels has already asked it. 

Now, I’ll stop here and say that there are a fair number of invoices that come to my department that have nothing and it is like trying to pull teeth to get any kind of information out of the submitting department and many, many questions have to be asked until you get the whole story, but……if there is paperwork attached to the invoice (or credit memo), then chances are the answers to all that you seek is in that back up you just need to….let’s say it together……..TURN THE PAGE.

So, the next time you have a question about something, make sure to look at all the information that you have gathered to verify that the answer is not already at your fingertips.

Until next time…

Vendor Master File - Naming Conventions - What do you use?

Naming Conventions.....not so conventional.

How many of you have a mess of naming conventions in your vendor master file?  Every place I have ever worked has had a problem with this issue and I find that I need to get all of the vendors into the same format before I can officially declare the vendor master file clean and up-to-date.  Everyone seems to have a different take on how to label 'street' or 'lane'.  Then there are problems with 'The', 'Mr', 'Dr', and then don't eve get me started on whether or not to use punctuations.

The key isn't what is or isn't popular, what is important is that your organization develops what will work for them, then stick to it.  That's the hard part....sticking to it, and make it a policy and then hold your vendor master file specialists to this policy.

It's okay to use punctuations if your organization is going to always use punctuations.  Same with spelling out the street or city name.  If your organization wants to spell out Fort Lauderdale instead of using abbreviations like Ft Lauderdale, then that's okay, but then that needs to be the way the entire vendor master file needs to be set up.  If not, the risk of making duplicate payments increases exponentially.  That's something we all want to avoid, right?

So, the moral of the story.....choose what conventions will work for you and your organization, then stick to it and make it policy.

Until next time....