Well, it’s unofficially summer, and what comes with summer are vacations. My (then) 7-year-old son said that he liked going on long car rides. In my opinion it was a strange thing for a 7-year-old to say so I asked him why he liked long car rides. He said it gave him plenty of time to play on his iPad and watch his shows. I told him that when I was his age we didn’t have anything like that. He said, “well you had TV in the car?” I said no and at my house I only had one TV and it got three channels. He said, “I am sure glad that I live today”.

Times Are Changing

It’s true with all of the entertainment options, long car rides are better with four kids. Each kid has a mobile device and there is room for up to three TVs with a gaming system in our van. Besides all of the wonderful technology that makes our personal life more comfortable, or at least that’s what I think it does, how about our business life?

Have You Ever?

Have you ever asked yourself if your accounts payable process can withstand a vacation?  Here are four things to think about.

Thing 1 – Speed

One of the signs that your process is not ready for your company to take a vacation is your speed to process, which is commonly referred to cycle time slows down. Most companies don’t know their cycle time. The average is 21 days, however during vacation season it could stretch to 30 or more. The outcome is late fees. Even if you don’t know your cycle time you will notice that you are paying more late fees.

Thing 2 – Fire Drills

There are a lot of companies that I work with that don’t have late fees, which is great, but not having late fees may not tell the entire story. The reason they don’t have late fees is because they have someone running around the office like their hair is on fire looking for someone to pay an invoice that is getting ready to become past due. If this number increases over vacation season, your process is not ready.

Thing 3 – Additional Expense

If your expense to process goes up, your process is not ready for a vacation. Generally expenses around overnight packages go up dramatically during the summer because accounting professionals are trying to find the correct approval or signature.

Thing 4 – You Aren’t On Vacation

The last thing that proves that your process is not ready for a vacation is that you can’t take one. Even if you are at the beach, and your family is playing in the sun and sand, if you are in your room handling AP issues your process is broken and it needs to be fixed.

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

About The Author:

Christopher Elmore has written 8 books, countless articles, lectures at UNC – Charlotte and travels around the country speaking on on the topics of startup success, sales, presentation skills, change, entrepreneurship, accounts payable and payment automation. Having deep startup and entrepreneurial experience, Christopher was one of the six people that started AvidXchange in 2000 and continues to work in the business today. If you hire Christopher to speak or teach at your company or event… you won’t be sorry! Request a media kit or contact us for more information.