I always love given people the inside scoop when it comes to Accounts Payable Automation. I am very fortunate that I have as many tricks that I do and I want to share them all with you. I would like to attribute all of my tricks to trial and error, but to be frank, it was mostly error.
Lesser Known Fact #1 (kids – that’s a number sign not a hashtag)
AP Automation is all about firing people. Big companies that adopted Accounts Payable Automation early ruined this one for the rest of us. It is true that automation can reduce head count, but most of the projects and companies that I work with need the people to do more intelligent work so firing them is not an option
Lesser Known Fact #2
You have to have a big tech staff to automate. This really depends on the size of your company, but thanks for the advent of Software As A Service (SaaS), the need for a big IT staff for AP Automation is becoming less and less important.
Lesser Know Fact #3
You have to have your act together before automation. This does help, however, if you have more than 50% paper in Accounts Payable, there is only so much organizing you can do because you have paper problems. I do, however, meet a few companies that ask if they should clean up their vendor file or chart of accounts before AP Automation, and the answer is, don’t go out of your way to do it and don’t stall your automation project for it because it won’t impact AP Automation in a negative way.
Lesser Known Fact #4
AP Automation is only for the big boys. Like the first fact, they seem to get the bigger return on investment because of head count reduction, but I have worked will all sizes of companies. The smallest is a single nursing home with seventy-five invoice per month. Their main goal was to get rid of the filing cabinets. All size companies can benefit, just make sure you goals are set appropriately.
Finally
Now with these lesser known fact brought to light, happy automating!
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
How about a children’s book? The Princess and the Paper – click here to buy
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