Bringing Inner Peace to Your AP Department
It’s a tough world. Inner peace is hard to find, especially in the workplace. Razor thin profit margins, quickly changing technology and offshore competition all add to the stress of trying to keep your business afloat.
In this climate, how in the world do you find your focus? How do you keep your employees from tearing out their own hair? You can hire a yoga instructor, but all the om’s and mantras won’t solve the underlying stressors. And let’s face it, some of us just don’t look good in yoga pants.
I can’t speak for other departments, but if you want inner peace for your accounts payable department you need only look at what’s in front of you now. No, not the alignment of the stars, the cyberspace coming through right on your computer. There, you’ll find the AP automation that can change your life. Cutting edge AP automation, like that available with iPayables InvoiceWorks®.
Don’t believe me? Relax your body and imagine this. I want you to picture an office in which everyone knows exactly where to find invoices that are due for payment. Where invoices, purchase orders and other documents never get lost and always match up seamlessly. Where the stress of trying to beat the monthly time clock for paying invoices is a distant memory.
Time constraints and chasing around after paper – not to mention wasted money – are the main stressors in a paper-based AP environment. Paper invoicing just isn’t a viable way to operate in this brave new world. First of all, it passes through too many hands, and there’s no guarantee it will end up where it belongs. Second, the information on it has to be manually typed into a computer each time. Then there’s the inevitable lack of matching up P.O.s and other documentation, and the resulting delays in approval from the right personnel.
With AP automation, your vendors send over an electronic invoice. It follows a template you provide, so all the data you need appears right in front of you. Every person you wish to have access can look at it at any time, so there’s no worry it will get lost on someone’s desk. Even your vendors can look up the payment status in real time, so they know what’s going on. Payment, filing, matching – all of these are done with the click of a mouse. What used to take days can take mere minutes!
How does this contribute to inner peace? Aside from curing the stress of missing payment deadlines and the embarrassment of requesting replacement invoices, it solves the blame game that every department inevitably gets sucked into. Your vendors will love you again, and your working relationship with other departments in your company will improve. Heck, you might even be asked to play on the same softball team at the company picnic.