5 Key 2019 Accounts Payable Resolutions

As we head into the final weeks of 2018, goals for the New Year may loom large on the horizon. To turn any apprehension into anticipation, it may help to outline some 2019 priorities for your AP Department.

1. Resolve to standardize - establish and document best practices for all workflows and ensure your team performs them each and every time. As processes are repeated, your team will become more efficient and precise.

2. Resolve to benchmark - once you’ve standardized, the best way to know what needs improvement is to take measurements. With these metrics, you’ll be able to analyze the current state of affairs on your team. You should know stats like average cost to process an invoice, average time to approve an invoice, error percentage, and invoices processed per employee.

3. Resolve to demonstrate the value of your team to the rest of the business - empower your employees to provide valuable insight and analytics on improving profitability and communicate these findings to leadership.

4. Resolve to build even stronger supplier relationships - determine which relationships need improvement and work on communication, transparency, and timeliness with these partners. If you already work great with certain suppliers, determine what makes it so and apply these fundamentals more broadly to other vendors. Find a way to thank key suppliers to demonstrate that you value their attention.

5. If you haven’t already automated your department, resolve to vet 2-3 end-to-end AP and Payment Automation solutions to see if they’re right for your business. An automation platform can help you achieve the milestones outlined above and cement your team’s place in the strategic direction of the company. 

Read our blog post, "How to Choose the Right Accounts Payable Solution," for help getting started on this goal to automate your department.