I write as many “meaty” articles that I can (sorry for the food reference, I have been exercising a lot). However, it is very nice every once in a while to write about sides benefits of Accounts Payable Automation. Delegation just happens to be one of those sides’ benefits.

Delegation

Delegation just happens to be one of those happy accidents. Accounts Payable professionals, or as I like to refer to them as “the heroes” have to do a lot of managing paper. Generally this doing a lot shows itself with additional responsibilities like filing, security and policing. AP Automation makes an impact on those three things, but be warned, the point of this article is to let you know that the change, although ultimately good, takes a lot of getting used to because accounting professionals are doers not delegator.

3 Things

Thing one is filing. I once asked a client why he hated filing cabinets so much. He said that it wasn’t the cabinets as much as the filing. Technically with AP Automation the delegation of the filing is done by way of implementing software, meaning the electronic invoices don’t have to be filed. That’s not the point behind thing one, the point is accounting professionals no long need to maintain a centralized filing system so they can now delegate the collection of invoices for reports, projects and audits. With AP Automation people can run their own reports.

Thing two works well off the back of thing one because if people can do for themselves the traditional thought is the company’s accounting practices will be less secure. In the last sentence the word “traditional” is important because with AP Automation the idea of security changes. With paper there was a lot of need for accounting to create multiple checks and balances to make sure there was no funny business. However, when the paper is gone and automation can track everything, meaning who does what, when, where and why the process becomes much more secure.

Things three, similar to thing two if the security of the process is delegated that means that the policing can be delegated too. With AP Automation policing generally takes the form of reporting on different people, situations and/or invoices. The system can (if constructed correctly) tell the right person what invoices are being held as well as which invoices are becoming or has already become past due or even a discount is expiring. It is a true statement to say that AP Automation can police itself so you don’t have to.

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