When I wrote The 8 Pitfalls about 3 years ago. I was hoping to write a book that would give folks insight to life without paper in accounting. One of my goals in writing the book was to help define Accounts Payable Automation.

How did I do?

Three years later I can safely write… I have NOT achieved my goal. Not achieving a goal is nothing a business author wants to publicize, however I think it’s important to know. (This is going to sound stupid) Once I committed to writing a book and getting coaching on how to do it, I really wanted to put my experiences with clients in a form that it would be useful for people. I had no preconceived notions of the book’s success or lack of success, I just wanted people to know what life without paper was going to be like, and what they could do to prepare for that new life.

Here is what happened

Even though I haven’t achieved my goal, I am not going to give up on it, but I have realized that instead of writing a book that helps define, I have written a book on change management. This isn’t a big realization for me because it’s pretty easy to think about going from paper to automated as a big change and people are looking for advice on how to make that change the best.

Timing

Knowing now that I am dealing with change management as people’s primary interested. There is one thing the book doesn’t address very well. Timing. I am sure you are all aware that when changing anything in business you have to beware of the best time to make a change. It’s not just making a change and the timing of that change, you need to take into account the type of change you are making… I know – I have even confused me. Here is my point (you are welcome) the timing goals you set are directly related to the information you have.

One of the difficult things…

One of the most difficult things about Accounts Payable Automation is knowing what and who is changing. The initial response to automation tends to be tagged to IT or technology. Depending on the service provider you choose, and with the growing popularity of software as a service (SaaS) technology or IT may take a step back. Also if you buy into the idea that automation is only as good as the people and time that it frees up, when planning for the right time you have to know which people are being freed up as well as what they are going to do with their new time.

It’s a balancing act

Really knowing what kind of heaving lifting your IT staff will have to do based on the service provider as well as having a plan to move people’s time from one task to another will help greatly in that balancing act. That’s is why I created the INSPIRE process. The process that can be found in my book The Argument to Automate, and it takes the gray out of change and allows you to make a good decision on the timing.

Timing in change is almost everything, know who and what is changing is everything!

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