Hate is such a strong word, but in the real world not everyone in a company has the same passion and attention for approving invoices. For those people here are ten tips that will help them.

Tips

10. No Paper – Well I had to start with this one being the AP Automation guy, but paper causes a lot of confusion.

9. Let them know you are watching – If you are automated, don’t make it a mystery that the system tracks how long invoices are waiting for a person’s approval. It’s very motivating.

8. Define “approval” – People who feel burden by approvals a lot of the times don’t feel like they need to approve the invoice. When you define approval make sure it specific… “Approval for budget, coding, completed work…”

7. Use dollar breaks – Automatic breaks are great to ensure that only people see and approve the invoices that need their attention. Like a VP approves an invoice if it’s over $5,000 as an example.

6. Don’t be the bad guy/gal – When you automate AP, make the automation software the bad person. Meaning, it will send reminders and it will escalate invoices.

5. Make it easy –  If the process is easy they will be more inclined to approve sooner and more often. An example of ease is having all invoices in a queue with an email reminder.

4. No repeats – Make sure that a single person is not in the approval process more than once doing different approvals.

3. Gangs all here – Certain invoices can be approved by more than one person, and if automated the invoice will be taken out of the group.. kind of like first come first served.

2. Plan your work – When people know their role in the approval process and if they understand their approval is important they will be much more likely to approve.

(And) The number 1 tip – Go Mobile – People think that if they are at a standstill then they need to be on their smart phone – give them the joy of doing work while they are waiting.

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