Have you done something and it was such a good deal or situation that you felt like you were somehow doing something wrong. I was at Staples once to get a few companies of a training manual done (this was before I was paperless) and the person in front of me couldn’t believe how low the price of copies was, so she had the associate check the number twice. The reaction of the customer was, “ok, but if it’s wrong it’s on you”. Which made the associate second guess her numbers, but she went ahead with it.

Cheating in Change

It’s hard to cheat change. If you use a few techniques you will feel like you are cheating. In my book The 8 Pitfalls I give people a step by step process to change. The perspective I write about in the book and coach people to use is based on the idea that a best practice in not best for everyone. The best practice depends in large part on the where the company is and where the company wants to go. There are no magic steps. Meaning if you do these four things you will have a successful outcome. If were true I won’t have 700 people following this blog (that was an overt attempt to show off).

Steps to the Sheet

To customize the idea of change to your organization I recommend that you take two steps.

1. Know your Accounts Payable health.
2. Analyze your current state

In The 8 Pitfalls I ask a series of questions that will give you a letter grade (and you thought you were done with that). That letter grade will be your health. Then I ask you another series of questions which will give you your current state. That will be a number from 1-8. 1 means very low tech and 8 represent an AP department that is very high tech.

Bottom Line

The point is a best practice can be customized, meaning if you are a C in AP health and a 2 the current state your best practices are different than someone who is a D in AP health and a 6 in current state.

Guess What?

I bet you think that I am now going to tell you to buy the book so you can answer the questions for yourself. After all I do have four kids and it is close to Christmas, but no… here is the worksheet… enjoy and happy automating!

worksheet1

Want to know more? Buy My Books!

To buy the book – The Argument to Automate – How Innovation Can INSPIRE Not Fire – click here to buy

(Also) To get your copy of The 8 Pitfalls of Accounts Payable Automation – click here to buy