As I moved into an AP leader role, I found myself enjoying solving the big issues. Your images are not flowing through as expected from the OCR system, or the number of invoices being paid is less than expected, or your vendors are always putting you on credit hold. These are all problems I love to dig into. It’s my favorite kind of AP department when the CFO is just pulling out their hair not understanding what is going on. I mean, I don’t want anyone to pull out their hair, but it just means there are processes to fix!
On the other hand, I worked with amazing people who kept my high hopes in check by reminding me what they were doing day in and day out. These leaders are essential to ensure you have the longevity within the group. These leaders were the ones who love the rhythmic monthly AP flow. They get excited by balancing the AP account, and ensuring that the month end calendar has been made and met to the second.
These two leaders are the ones who continue to thrive in an AP world. It’s uncommon to have both on your team, but when you do, your AP processing will go humming along. With this dynamic duo, you will have two very different kinds of people leading a diverse team of processors and you will be able to pick their brains differently. They bring different energies and goals to the table.
If you can’t have both leaders on your team, you can do a couple of things. First, looking at the AP team as a whole to see if any up and coming individuals would like to take on a project to learn more about process improvement is a great way to lift up individuals within the company. I would also suggest balancing the project items by removing some day to day processing from the individual. This will ensure the individual doesn’t get burnt out or feel they are being taken advantage of. You may have found another leader for your company without going outside the employee walls.
Another way is to bring in a consultant to review how your AP world works. There are many consulting firms who have such seasoned consultants who will come into your group, learn as much as they can, and then give you details on the biggest bang for your buck. If you are going to hire a consultant to look into your AP group, it is important to meet the consultant before agreeing to the project. You wouldn’t want a car salesman looking through your medical records, so you don’t want an accountant to review how AP is working. Find someone with AP experience and give them clear expectations.
In all of this, remember that your maintenance leader is the employee who will want to see what happens in five years down the line after a process improvement, but your fixer leader will want to clean it up as best as possible and move on to the next area of mess. Appreciate the difference and see what value both bring to the table.
What is Accounts Payable? 