What’s holding your A/P team back from becoming best-in-class? 3 areas to evaluate now

Because your A/P team is a critical part of your business, it needs to be adequately staffed with qualified and capable employees who enjoy working for you.

But in a tight labor market, where employees expect remote work options, work/life balance and professional growth opportunities, it’s necessary to put extra effort into holding on to these valuable members of your A/P team, said Jemiel McKissick, regional sales director of cloud P2P automation provider Yooz.

During a ResourcefulFinancePro on-demand webinar “3 Simple Things Top Performing A/P Teams Do That Your Team is Missing,” he cited a PwC survey of executives where 77% of respondents said hiring and talent retention is their most critical driver of business growth.

According to McKissick, these are the three things leading A/P teams are doing:

• Unleashing creativity and innovation
• Exploring automation beyond digital transformation, and
• Creating an “anytime, anywhere, real-time” A/P process.

Creativity and innovation from an A/P team?

“Creativity has been shown to reduce stress, increase happiness and improve our mental state, all (of) which boost productivity or performance (and) also work satisfaction. It makes your organization very attractive for top talent,” McKissick said, suggesting that the key to engaging your A/P team’s creativity is eliminating the redundant manual tasks in your P2P process.

Then, “A/P staff can focus more on strategic roles, like data analysis for financial decision making, and vendor management – to strengthen those relationships,” he said.

Next-level digital transformation

PwC research found that nearly two-thirds (63%) of companies are changing their processes by enhancing digital capabilities, such as cloud computing, SaaS and cybersecurity, to address labor shortages.

“You may have an accounting system, or an ERP system, that may have certain workflows, or some level of automation. But you also need to look at what does it take to get those documents in (to the system)? Are you still having to scan it? Do you have to store (documents) in boxes or use an outside service for storage and shredding?” said McKissick.

Fintech solutions on the market can automate the P2P cycle from end-to-end, he said.

“It’s about looking at what works for you and where you may want to go – and also being able to keep up with the initiatives and practices of your accounting department – while bringing it into the more modern era,” McKissick said.

Access whenever it’s needed

Because hybrid work will be vital to keeping top performers, being able to process invoices and make payments outside of the office is an important capability.

“When you utilize a smart A/P automation solution that is both agile and mobile, it allows you the ability to make better, data-driven and strategic decisions for the organization, based on real-time and accurate reporting on the company’s cash flow,” McKissick added.

For more insights on making your A/P team more efficient and productive, click here to access the webinar.