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03.11.10 Customer Service
AP departments--particularly in a centralized or shared services environment—need to monitor and measure performance with respect to their customers. AP needs to define the terms of service it can provide to internal departments of the company and its external customers (vendors).
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03.04.10 Coping With a Younger Boss
A new survey shows that many employees are older than their bosses--and they are just fine with the arrangement. more...
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03.02.10 Vendor Welcome Letter
Vendors won’t become “problem children” if you set down the ground rules in the beginning of the relationship. That way, the vendor knows what’s expected and can comply. That’s where the “Welcome Letter” comes in. It should be sent to anyone at the vendor who might have cause to interact with AP and it could include any or all of these elements.
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02.25.10 True Love at Work
Are any of your AP workers gazing off starry-eyed and ignoring their work? It could be love. In the wake of Valentine’s Day, it’s nice to see that romance in the workplace continues to flourish, according to a new survey. But when it comes down to choosing between losing the job or the paramour, most would dump the lover to keep the job.
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02.18.10 Problem-Solving Tip
If you have a problem with some AP process, keep in mind that the people closest to the situation are most likely the ones to tell you what the trouble is—and how to fix it. That typically means your staff. Since they’re involved in the day-to-day details, the solution may be crystal-clear to them. Sometimes, these solutions may involve a very simple change.
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02.11.10 Misleading Goals
In order to measure the performance of both the AP department and individual staff members, goals must be set that are clearly identifiable and measurable. But you need to take into consideration that fact that goals can sometimes be misleading.
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01.21.10 One in Five Workers May Bolt
Your AP department may lose a staffer or two if recent statistics are any indication. Nearly one out of five (19 percent) workers are planning to leave their current employer this year, according to a new survey from job site CareerBuilder.
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01.14.10 Fewer Firms Give MLK Day Off
Nearly three in ten employers (28 percent) will give all or most workers a paid holiday on Monday, January 18 for Martin Luther King Day. This is down slightly from 31 percent in 2008, according to a recent survey of holiday practices by the Bureau of National Affairs.
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01.12.10 Taking Invoice Discounts
Almost half (47 percent) of all companies say they pay at least 90 percent of their invoices within the specified discount terms, according to our research. Only 7 percent of companies say they take the discounts on each and every one of their invoices.
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01.07.10 Transactions vs. Analysis Tasks
For the past several years, the role of AP has been changing from a back-office operation that merely processes transactions to a department that can bring more value to its organization, such as through the analysis of corporate expenditures. Almost a quarter (24 percent) of the average AP department’s time is spent on analysis work, according to IOMA research. more...
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12.31.09 Year-End Workload
If you have not done so already, make sure your staffing needs are met for the year-end close. more...
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12.29.09 Year-End IT Issues
One of the internal departments you will need to communicate with before the year-end close is your information technology (IT) department. Likewise, if you have software providers that are instrumental in the day-to-day processing of invoices, payments, or employee expense reimbursements, you will need to communicate with them, too.
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12.24.09 Holiday Gifts and Bonuses
The holiday season is a great time to thank your AP staff for a job well done over the past year. That means doling out gifts and bonuses to deserving employees. A new survey reveals how generous employers are this year.
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12.22.09 Use Closing Report Templates
The period-end closing process triggers all kinds of reports that must be done regularly. So it’s not surprising that many companies say they use templates for recurring reports.
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12.17.09 Paid Days Off for Holidays
Is your AP department getting the paid holiday leave it deserves? Although the shaky economy may have put the kibosh on company parties for the holidays, the calendar will allow employers to act more like Santa than Scrooge. With Christmas and New Year's Day each occurring on a Friday this year, conditions are favorable for an extended holiday weekend.
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12.15.09 Use Standard Entries to Close
IOMA recently surveyed 180 accounting departments about the best ways they use to shorten the period-end closing. Now while the respondents were mostly the corporate accountants, the techniques they use surely can help a great deal in AP. After all, a close is a close—whether you’re doing the overall books or a sub-area such as AP, payroll, or AR.
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12.10.09 Holiday Naughtiness
AP managers need to be aware of the dangers of inappropriate behavior in the workplace—especially during the holidays--according to a new study of small and medium-sized employers by business insurer Hiscox. Such behavior could trigger legal troubles for the company.
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12.01.09 Year-End Calendar
Here we are in December and, if you haven’t already done so, now’s the time to put together a calendar for the year-end close that shows what needs to be done and when. Include key tasks and milestones, reporting deadlines, reconciliations that need to be done, deposit deadlines, and the like. more...
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11.12.09 Watch for Online Shopping
If productivity takes a dip in your AP department this holiday season, the reason could very well be--online shopping. The average employee plans to spend nearly two full working days (14.4 hours) shopping online from a work computer this holiday season, and one in 10 intends to spend at least 30 hours on the task, according to a recently released survey.
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11.10.09 How Long to Close the AP Books
It takes AP eight days on average to close its books at year-end, reveals an IOMA report, Improving the Financial Close 2010. Naturally, the monthly and quarterly closes should take much less time. And they do—from two to three days on average, says the report.
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11.05.09 Thanksgiving Festivities
Employers in general are showing unprecedented generosity in providing Thanksgiving holiday leave--while at the same time levels of gift giving are at 16-year lows, according to the annual survey of employer plans for the Thanksgiving holiday by the Bureau of National Affairs. more...
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10.30.09 Test Your AP IQ: Missed Accrual
After the year-end books have been closed, you find an unpaid invoice for $1,000 in office supplies that should have been accrued. What correcting journal entry should be made? more...
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10.29.09 Halloween at Work
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10.27.09 Beyond Shared Services
Companies are now moving beyond shared services to manage their back-office operations, and a new Global Business Services model is quickly beginning to emerge, says The Hackett Group. Stand-alone shared service centers for individual functions are evolving into integrated Global Business Services operations which take a multi-function approach. more...
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10.22.09 More Hooky Playing Due to Recession?
When workers call in sick, is it because of the ailing economy? Many employers believe that economy-related stress could be a factor in recent work absences, according to CareerBuilder's annual survey on absenteeism. And nearly one-third of workers admit to calling in sick when they were well at least once so far this year, the job site said. more...
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10.20.09 AP Manager of the Year Named
Last week, at our 8th Annual AP Conference & Expo at Universal Orlando, we presented the 2009 AP Manager of the Year Award to Anita Lee, North America Shared Services Center - Accounts Payable Manager at Owens Illinois, Inc. in Perrysburg, Ohio. more...
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10.15.09 Social Networking Rules Lacking
Imagine an AP employee using Twitter to post some nasty comments about a vendor or a company employee. What if the target of the insults finds out about it and it all gets back to the company? Could be a mess, right?
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10.01.09 Money Woes Worrying Staff?
Are any of your AP people having trouble making ends meet during this rough economy? If so, they are certainly not alone. About six in 10 (61 percent) employees say that they always or usually live paycheck to paycheck, according to a nationwide survey of more than 4,400 workers conducted by CareerBuilder. The number is up from 49 percent last year and 43 percent in 2007, according to the job site.
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09.29.09 Check Runs
How often should you run checks? It depends. You have to consider the interplay of a number of factors, such as the volume of payments, how checks are physically signed and printed, cash management needs, and corporate culture more...
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09.25.09 Test Your AP IQ: Resolving Exceptions
Who should resolve invoice exceptions? more...
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