CSI stands for “Crime Scene Investigation”… hold on, don’t stop reading… I promise I will make a point about Accounts Payable Automation.

Crime Scene Investigation

As you may be aware CSI is a popular TV show where investigators piece together a crime (in an hour) from very little evidence. As an Accounts Payable Automator, I have been impressed by similar skills that accounting professions have when it comes to finding invoices… or not just finding invoices but finding out what is going on with those invoices.

Has this ever happen to you?

• Get a call from a vendor with an invoice question
• Search the ERP or Accounting System for the Invoice
•  No status in the ERP or Accounting System
• Agree to contact the vendor back with status
• Email the business unit (location) for status
• Wait (maybe call or email again)
• Get a response
• Interoperate the response for the vendor
• Report back to the vendor

The point (you are welcome)

If you have paper in your Accounts Payable process you probably are spending a lot of time doing the type of work that I have listed above. It is a difficult task to have to figure out what is going on with you invoices only to find out that it was the vendor’s problem or it was negligence at the department or business unit level.

Imagine a World

Imagine if you had a place you can look for the answers to all of your process questions. It would be as simple as logging in and getting the answer. That is what Accounts Payable Automation does for an accounting department that is constantly trying to answer the questions…”What is going on with this invoice?”

What if…

What if the characters on CSI had a similar access to information… well I guess they wouldn’t have a show.

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