|
11.11.08 Top Drivers of Success in AP Shared Services
We had a record turnout at our 7th Annual Accounts Payable Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, and one of the most popular speakers was Penny Weller, Ph.D., CMA,, a 30-year veteran of AP, formerly with Pfizer, and now a senior director with the Hackett Group. Weller spoke about how to bring about continuous improvement in AP. AP360 also talked with her about shared services, one of her special areas of expertise.
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
10.29.08 Metrics Reveal How P-Cards Enhance AP
The average administrative cost of the traditional purchase order (PO) process (sourcing, purchasing, and payment activities) is $89. For purchasing card (p-card) transactions, that cost drops to around $19—a $70 savings per transaction. This is revealed in the 2007 Purchasing Card Benchmark Survey from RPMG Research Corporation.
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
10.14.08 More AP Depts. Use Benchmarking
Just over half (52 percent) of all AP managers benchmark their AP department’s operations, according to preliminary results of our recent AP Benchmarking Survey. This percentage is up from the 46 percent in our last survey conducted two years ago. more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
09.10.08 >>>Last Chance for Free AP Metrics!<<<
How much does it cost AP departments to process an invoice? How many invoices should AP staffers be able to process in a month? What is the average error rate for payments? You will get the answers to these questions--and a lot more—if you take part in our AP Benchmarking Survey. We’ll send you the results so you can see how your AP department stacks up against hundreds of others.
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
09.03.08 First Step in Invoice Automation
Transforming paper invoices into electronic form is the dream of many AP managers. But where do you start? You need to have an overall framework that can guide your thinking and ensure success. The first step in the evaluation process is to conduct an internal assessment. Surveys we have done reveal that AP managers have a long way to go in this process. While they acknowledge the importance of thorough analysis, there is a gap between belief and action.
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
08.28.08 How to Avoid a Mandate to Cut Heads
If you’re given a mandate to cut heads, pitch the idea of cutting hours instead. You’ll end up with the same amount of cost reduction, but it could be easier on everyone.
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
08.25.08 >>>Benchmark Your AP Operations<<<
How much does it cost AP departments to process an invoice? How many invoices should AP staffers be able to process in a month? What is the average error rate for payments? You will get the answers to these questions--and a lot more—if you take part in our survey. more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
08.21.08 Managing AP Productivity
Everyone is under pressure to cut costs. And AP is no exception. One area to target is overtime—especially if your invoice volume rises and falls during the year. “The normal number of invoices jumps from 2,800 to 4,500 a month during our busy season,” said Ellen DeWeerdt, AP manager with a staff of five at The Vermont Country Store, a mail order and e-commerce specialty retailer. more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
08.19.08 Get a W-9 from Tax-Exempts
Although you are not required to do Form 1099 reporting for payments you make to tax-exempt organizations, a best practice is to get a W-9 form from them just the same. Why? For one thing, the Internal Revenue Service regularly pulls the tax-exempt status of organizations that no longer meet the tax-law rules for these types of organizations. Also, many charities have for-profit subsidiaries that operate their commercial businesses. You could also have organizations that say they are tax-exempt but are not legitimate. Charity scams are very common.
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
08.15.08 Test Your AP IQ: AP Performance Metrics
What is the primary reason for developing and using performance metrics in accounts payable?
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
08.14.08 >>> AP Benchmarking Survey Now Open <<<
How much does it cost AP departments to process an invoice? How many invoices should AP staffers be able to process in a month? What is the average error rate for payments? You will get the answers to these questions--and a lot more—if you take part in our AP Benchmarking Survey. We’ll send you the results so you can see how your AP department stacks up against all the others.
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
07.08.08 Take a P2P Slant for World-Class Results
For AP departments to achieve “world-class” status in terms of costs and efficiency, they need to look beyond the walls of AP and into the entire process, from initial purchase through to payment. “We have discovered there is a lot of value, particularly on the AP side, in looking at what is variously called an end-to-end, purchase-to-pay, or P2P, process,” said Kurt Albertson, director of advisory service for The Hackett Group, at our recent RECAP/IOMA AP conference in Ft. Lauderdale. Hackett benchmarks corporate functional operations, including at the process level, such as accounts payable, purchasing, and payroll.
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
03.25.08 Key Elements to Success of Metrics
To manage any kind of operation, you need to measure its performance. Without measurements, you simply can not assess how you are doing today versus yesterday—and how to improve for tomorrow. This may seem very philosophical, but it does work in practice—as one seasoned AP manager discovered.
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
03.18.08 P-Card Blocks and Limits
As part of a program of internal controls for purchasing cards (p-cards), most organizations block transactions to certain Merchant Category Codes (MCCs). According to preliminary results of our latest survey on p-card usage, 63% of organizations polled use MCC blocking. A quarter of respondents block specific vendors. And almost all (95%) block ATMs to prevent access to cash. more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
02.27.08 Centralization Key to AP Automation Benefits
AP departments in North America spend almost $5.00 less to process a single invoice than their counterparts in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region, according to a report from the Aberdeen Group. To close this gap, one thing EMEA AP operations need to do is to centralize AP before automating. More AP departments (58%) in North America are centralized than in the EMEA region (50%), says the report.
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
02.21.08 Productivity in AP Shared Services
Three-quarters (76%) of AP shared services departments we recently surveyed process an invoice within a business week. This is revealed in our new research into AP shared service center (SSC) operations that forms the basis of a new report, AP Shared Services Benchmarks and Analysis.
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
11.16.07 Test Your AP IQ: Main Reason for Using AP Metrics
What is the most important reason for using metrics or performance measures in your AP department?
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
11.06.07 Top 3 KPIs Tracked by AP Shared Services
One of the classic truths in business is that what you don’t measure you can’t manage. What key performance indicators (KPIs) are AP managers using the most to manage their shared services areas?
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
08.29.07 Metrics for World-Class Paper-Free AP
At our recent Paper-Free AP Conference in Chicago, metrics were presented that reveal what “world-class” AP departments are achieving by leveraging electronic invoicing and payments. “World-class AP organizations receive 65% of their invoice transactions electronically,” according to Bruce Kelly, Managing Director-Business Transformation at The Hackett Group.
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
08.10.07 Test Your AP IQ: Recovery Audit Firms
A recovery audit firm specializes in recovering duplicate payments. As a general rule, what percentage of the amounts recovered does the recovery audit firm retain?
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
07.31.07 Internal Benchmarking
Many AP departments want to know how their performance compares to other companies. This type of benchmarking—called external benchmarking--opens our eyes to the world. But the AP world has a varying process mix, diverse priorities, and accounting differences, points out Nat Goodman, APM. So there are pitfalls in comparing one company to another. Internal benchmarking avoids these pitfalls and is also a valuable tool.
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
07.19.07 Call for Presentations: Advanced AP 2008
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
07.10.07 Why AP Moves to Shared Services
Early results from our Centralized AP/Shared Services survey reveal the main reasons AP was moved into a centralized or shared services environment. Almost three quarters (74%) of respondents so far say that “increased control” was the primary reason. Not far behind was the desire to improve AP processes (71%). Also, the need to standardize AP processes was cited by 69% of respondents.
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
07.03.07 New One-Day AP Seminars
In our quest to provide you with top-notch AP information and education, we are happy to present a slate of three new full-day seminars that will explore key AP issues in depth.
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
06.19.07 Favorite AP Metrics, by Industry
This metric it is the one most cited by all companies of all sizes and is the number-one choice of almost all industries, with wholesalers being the single exception. Other metrics at the top of the list are: cost to process an invoice, percentage of discounts captured, invoice input error rates, and p-card usage (percentage of spend).
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
06.15.07 Test Your AP IQ: Types of Benchmarking
Benchmarking with recognized leaders in a particular process, even though they are not in the same industries, is known as what type of benchmarking? more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
06.08.07 Test Your AP IQ: Purging the Master Vendor File
How familiar are you with AP best practices, rules, and regulations? Here’s a question to test your knowledge: Most companies purge their master vendor files on a regular basis. What do you think is the most common frequency companies use for doing the purge?
more...
Comments (1) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
05.25.07 Test Your AP IQ: Common Glitch with AP Benchmarking
How familiar are you with AP best practices, rules, and regulations? Here’s a question to test your knowledge: What is one of the most common problems with benchmarking in AP?
more...
Comments (2) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
05.15.07 Per-Invoice-Line Processing Metrics
Typical benchmarking metrics for invoice processing examine the number of invoices processed per full-time equivalent (FTE) employee and also the per-invoice processing cost. But for some AP departments, it’s not the invoice that’s the relevant unit to measure—it’s the number of distribution lines on that invoice. That is, the number of GL accounts an invoice needs to be charged against.
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
03.02.07 Test Your AP IQ e-Alert: AP Acronym Quiz
How familiar are you with AP best practices, rules, and regulations? Here’s a question to test your knowledge:
Question: What does the acronym DPO stand for?
more...
Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites
|
|
|
