• FREE RESOURCES
        • Accounts Payable
          Finally! The trick to securing greater T&E compliance
          Benefits
          Rooting out folks who don’t belong on your health plan: A 6-point dependent audit checklist
          IT
          3 costly misconceptions about biz email compromise
          Credit and Collections
          Collecting via email: 4 must-make moves in your subject line
          Accounts Payable
          5 Tough-to-spot signs that an invoice is fake
  • PREMIUM CONTENT
        • Staff management
          120 Proven Communications Tips for Today’s CFO
        • Payroll
          Handling Nonexempt Employee Pay: Stay Compliant and Avoid DOL Audits
          Accounts Payable
          T&E Best Practices: Complete Guide to Ensure Compliance
          Payroll
          Payroll Best Practices: 4 Ways to Save Time and Money
        • Staff management
          Email Best Practices: A 6-Question Quiz
          Staff management
          Innovative Communications Strategies: An Email Case Study
          Staff management
          A 5-part Framework for Successful Workplace Communications
        • SEE MORE
          PREMIUM RESOURCES
  • CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES
  • LOG IN
  • SIGN UP FOR FREE

Resourceful Finance Pro

  • FREE RESOURCES
        • Accounts Payable
          Finally! The trick to securing greater T&E compliance
          Benefits
          Rooting out folks who don’t belong on your health plan: A 6-point dependent audit checklist
          IT
          3 costly misconceptions about biz email compromise
          Credit and Collections
          Collecting via email: 4 must-make moves in your subject line
          Accounts Payable
          5 Tough-to-spot signs that an invoice is fake
  • PREMIUM CONTENT
        • Staff management
          120 Proven Communications Tips for Today’s CFO
        • Payroll
          Handling Nonexempt Employee Pay: Stay Compliant and Avoid DOL Audits
          Accounts Payable
          T&E Best Practices: Complete Guide to Ensure Compliance
          Payroll
          Payroll Best Practices: 4 Ways to Save Time and Money
        • Staff management
          Email Best Practices: A 6-Question Quiz
          Staff management
          Innovative Communications Strategies: An Email Case Study
          Staff management
          A 5-part Framework for Successful Workplace Communications
        • SEE MORE
          PREMIUM RESOURCES
  • CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES
  • Accounts Payable
  • Credit and Collections
  • Payroll
  • Accounting
  • Benefits
  • Finance Technology
  • Sales & Use Tax
  • More
    • Employment Law
    • Strategy
    • Policy and Culture
    • Fraud
    • Budgeting and Forecasting
    • Banking
    • Staff Management
    • Cost Control
  • Accounts Payable
3 minute read

How A/P can keep operations running smoothly during coronavirus pandemic

CFO keep operations running during corona virus pandemic
Alyssa Pedrick
by Alyssa Pedrick
March 24, 2020
  • SHARE ON

An international pandemic has turned the world upside down, and your accounts payable department is largely feeling the impact.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) has been declared not only a pandemic but a U.S. national emergency. It’s forced people – and businesses – to re-evaluate how they operate on a daily basis.

Your company’s had to act quickly but rationally – rethinking policies, adjusting work processes and grappling with uncertainty. And to keep your company running, A/P’s role has become more important than ever. There are still invoices to process, bills to pay, expenses to reimburse and queries to answer.

But how is your A/P department supposed to carry out its “normal” operations when things are anything but normal? Check out four critical areas A/P should focus on to keep operations running as smoothly as possible:

1. Staff conditions

To continually meet the needs of both internal and external customers, you first need to ensure your A/P staff is well equipped to do so. If your company’s like most, it’s advised employees who can work from home to do just that.

Many A/P departments use telecommuting as a perk for their staff, so you may already have clear remote work requirements outlined. If your team’s less familiar with working from home, make sure your A/P lead communicates how it works and what’s expected.

For example, do staffers have all the necessary access, connectivity (Internet) and equipment (scanner, printer) they need? Must they stick to normal business hours? Should they use specific digital tools/platforms to communicate with your team? What technologies are they permitted to use? Which brings us to …

How Not to Wreck Your Reconciliations

2. Fraud concerns

Working at home spurs more fraud threats. As mentioned recently, remote work is one of the top cybersecurity threats in 2020, since homes and public places aren’t as secure as corporate networks.

Scammers know that lots of people are working from home right now and are already devising scams to obtain private data and money. In fact, they’re using the coronavirus specifically as an email hook to get people to click (e.g., links promising updates and stats). So, remind your A/P staff to stay especially alert on the tech front.

3. Vendor management

Looking at business more broadly, it’s clear that the coronavirus pandemic is having a huge impact on companies’ productivity, revenue and supply chain. Most are trying to maintain operations while protecting employees and customers.

That’s why it’s critical to make sure A/P knows how your vendors are faring, if their normal ops are changing and how Purchase-to-Pay (P2P) might be affected or interrupted. Also, make sure you’ve discussed your current strategy for paying vendors, since you may want A/P to focus more on payment timing to be strategic with cash flow.

4. Employee communications

Along with staffers and vendors, there are other employees in Finance and Purchasing who A/P may have to make a little extra effort to stay in the loop with right now. You could suggest scheduling routine conference calls to get status updates and discuss potential problems.

And P2P aside, you’ll also want to keep communication open on the T&E front. You know the pandemic is having major effects on business travel – and A/P should be involved in working through it.

Alyssa Pedrick
Alyssa Pedrick
Alyssa, a member of the Resourceful Finance Pro staff, has written extensively on business and finance for several years. She has produced content for accounts payable professionals and finance executives and has developed whitepapers and infographics for the finance and accounting industry.

Get the

Resourceful Finance Pro Logo

Newsletter

With Resourceful Finance Pro arriving in your inbox, you will never miss critical stories on accounting, benefits, payroll & employment law strategies.

  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • Hidden
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Resourceful Finance Pro Logo
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • WRITE FOR US
  • ADVERTISE WITH US
  • Accounting
  • Benefits
  • Payroll
  • Policy and Culture
  • Employment Law
  • Fraud
  • Finance Technology
  • Sales & Use Tax
  • Accounts Payable
  • Credit and Collections
  • Strategy
  • Budgeting and Forecasting
  • Banking
  • Staff Management
  • Cost Control

Resourceful Finance Pro, part of the SuccessFuel Network, provides the latest Finance and employment law news for Finance professionals in the trenches of small-to-medium-sized businesses. Rather than simply regurgitating the day's headlines, Resourceful Finance Pro delivers actionable insights, helping Finance execs understand what Finance trends mean to their business.

Privacy Policy | Terms of Service
Copyright © 2023 SuccessFuel

WELCOME BACK!

Enter your username and password below to log in

Forget Your Username or Password?

Reset Password

Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.

Log In

During your free trial, you can cancel at any time with a single click on your “Account” page.  It’s that easy.

preloader