I like surprises. However I like them around my birthday or on vacations. Basically any time other than business. To put it another way, I don’t like surprise with it comes to business.

The 8 Pitfalls

When I wrote The 8 Pitfalls, I wanted to write a book that would help people not be so surprised by achieving and adjusting to a paperless accounting life. The point of the book was to help people be aware of where people were having trouble, so they wouldn’t make the same mistakes.

Surprise!

That’s not what I am writing about today. With AP Automation there are good surprise too… well there are six of them.

Surprise 1 – Business Change

I am always pleasantly surprised when a company successfully eliminates paper from their life at the joy of the company when they have realized that their business had changed for the better. Many times companies enter into an automation venture looking to install software and exit with a fresh new accounting department. It’s a great thing.

Surprise 2 – Speed

I believe that a nice pleasant surprise is a measurable surprise. The  challenge with improving approval speed in an organization is most companies don’t know what their current speed is to process an invoice. The surprise is that a company notices that payables are in the accounting system faster than with paper… which speed solves a lot of problems.

Surprise 3 – Time

I almost left this one out, because I write so much about it. (But) The natural outcome of AP Automation is more time and the more time that is freed up the better the automation.

Surprise 4 – Answers

With paper the idea of knowing where all of your invoices are, who is responsible and what is going on is hit and miss at best. People are always surprised with AP Automation at the speed and accuracy of answers to question of “what’s going on with an invoice”.

Surprise 5 – Full

This one could possible fall into the shock category, and it pertains to filing. With paper, things are miss-filed and the filing is delayed so when you go to look for the invoice… it’s not there. With AP Automation, it’s always there – SUPRISE!

Surprise 6 – Accountability

When the paper is gone the blame game is gone. The surprise here is how well you think trouble makers will behave. I don’t know if it is because of the convenience or the tracking or both, but people’s attitudes will change for the better about approving their invoices.

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