Process & Principles

Q. In your company, is developing and maintaining an AP departmental budget the responsibility of… Read More

Before you venture outside your organization to search for best practices, look in your own backyard. You may find that one of your departments is saving 50% on a particular process because they… Read More

The Set Up: What Metrics Can Do - Need to make changes in your organization? (Who doesn't?) How do you argue effectively for change? How do you get attention for accounts payable at all (outside of… Read More

Introduction to AP Analytics - The accounts payable process holds the key to several types of data that can help your company with decision making for strategic sourcing. The data also indicates… Read More

- Ask any financial operations professional to name their number-one goal and it is likely to be “improving efficiencies to reduce costs.” The AP process is a prime target for improvement… Read More

A periodic process review of AP allows finance to identify and correct inefficiencies that are chipping away at the bottom line. Many AP processes and procedures have evolved over time, and are not… Read More

By Wayne Smith If you aren't already measuring the effectiveness of your accounts payable operation, one good place to start is by looking at a critical AP metric: days payable outstanding, or… Read More

Organizations may differ regarding what is most important in achieving AP's strategic objectives, but the methods they use to determine their metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) are… Read More

Days payable outstanding (DPO) is an efficiency ratio that measures the average number of days a company takes to pay its suppliers. It is important because it is a key component in a company's… Read More