AR Insights in Five: Les Smeyers and Jess Scheer

In this episode, Jess and Les delve into effective strategies for boosting efficiency within Accounts Receivable. Recorded Live at the IOFM Fall Conference and Expo, they share insights from their experiences, offering listeners a roadmap to tackle common AR challenges, optimize processes, and embrace automation. This episode is a must-listen for AR professionals looking to make impactful changes in their operations.

Jess and Les will discuss strategies for streamlining AR workflows, emphasizing time-saving techniques and organizational tips. You’ll learn about key automation tools and how they’re transforming AR processes to improve accuracy and speed. And you’ll hear firsthand accounts of the common obstacles AR teams face and how to approach solutions with confidence.

Les Smeyers

Experienced results-driven Sr. Finance Director with a demonstrated history of working in the electrical and electronic manufacturing industry. Over 25 years of experience leading and transforming receivables, order management and payables operations with a proven track record of exceeding KPIs with a rigorous focus on continuous improvement and employee engagement. A subject matter expert in developing and executing strategies to support company profitability to drive operational efficiency. A strong project management professional with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Toronto. Accredited Order to Cash Manager, IOFM.

Jess Scheer

Jess is an award-winning business reporter focusing on financial operations. He has spent more than 25 years creating must-have content for professionals in the finance arena. He serves as Executive Editor of the Institute of Finance & Management (IOFM) and the Cash Management Leadership Institute (CMLI).

Transcription

Grace Chlosta: Welcome to the IOFM podcast. This is a podcast for accounts payable and accounts receivable professionals who want to stay in the know with current AP and AR trends and ideas. We'll be interviewing professionals in this space on a wide variety of subjects, including automation, artificial intelligence, career growth, compliance, leadership, and much more.

Today we'll be interviewing Les Smeyers. Les is an experienced, results-driven Senior Finance Director with a demonstrated history of working in the electrical and electronic manufacturing industry. Over 25 years of experience leading and transforming receivables, order management and payables operations with a proven track record of exceeding KPIs with a rigorous focus on continuous improvement and employee engagement. 

00:00:53

He's a subject matter expert in developing and executing strategies to support company profitability to drive operational efficiency. He's a strong project management professional with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Toronto. Accredited Order to Cash Manager, IOFM. Today he'll be interviewed by IOFM's own Editor Jess Scheer. 

Jess Scheer: I'm here with Les Smeyers at our IOFM Fall Conference. We just came out of his session on what AP can learn from AR and vice versa. It was a fantastic session, Les.

Les Smeyers: Well, thank you very much. I appreciate you having some time to talk to me.

Jess Scheer: Absolutely. Thanks for making the time. So what are two or three big takeaways you're hoping that folks will bring back to the office next week from your session?

00:01:36                     

Les Smeyers: That's a great question. I'm hoping people will resonate on the fact that there's a lot of similarities between the receivables operations and the payables operations. Hopefully, as I guess time goes on and you see both AR and AP under one umbrella or one leadership, they'll be able to switch, talk the vernacular on one side and then subsequently talk on the other side. It makes a more cohesive operation. That would be one of the fundamentals.

00:02:12

And I guess just looking at the bigger picture. It doesn't matter if you're a domicile USA or a global company like I work for. It's really more of looking at the big picture and the influences or decisions that are made in AR, and how that might percolate into the AP side of the business, and likewise the other way around. So I guess those would be the two fundamentals that I'm hoping people will kind of start thinking about. 

Jess Scheer: Great points. I think understanding what your client needs, if AP or AR is your customer, right, is huge. I think all too often it's not a relationship that's cultivated, but it should be.

Les Smeyers: It should be.

Jess Scheer: I agree. Do you think there's also opportunities for AR to sit with their own internal AP departments and learn from those as well?

00:03:02                     

Les Smeyers: Yeah, and that's something in one of the points, one of the slides that I had, it was succession – continuity. If you have someone that job shadows someone in the same local – obviously, but we're in a digital world; everybody can jump on the phone in a conference call or video chat or whatever. But understanding some of the processes that are on done on one side of the equation definitely, in my opinion, can help foster continuous improvement on the other side. So, yes, I'm encouraging that now.

00:03:43

It's a little bit of a change management aspect because AP people have always been siloed. That's what I'm trying to break down in my operation: Just don't think about your job; think about what's going on for the colleagues that are running the inflow of cash versus the outflow of cash. 

Jess Scheer: Absolutely. I think one of the hardest things to get people to do is just pick up the phone sometimes and reach out to folks. If they understand what their job is, if they understand that reaching out to AP and building a relationship means that they're potentially more likely to be paid first because they have that relationship.

Les Smeyers: True. See, I'm an old-school guy. I don't rely on emails. I will pick up the phone when it's necessary, and I encourage people to do that. That's the way you build the rapport, the credibility. Credibility is not something that is just given. You have to earn that. You have to earn that trust, that professionalism, and it doesn't matter what level you're at within whatever organization you're in. You've got to earn that and you've got to demonstrate – you know the old-hat saying is "never overcommit and underdeliver."

00:04:58

That's really what I think of is picking up the phone, hearing someone's genuine voice, because with emails [or] voicemails [things] can be misinterpreted. 

Jess Scheer: Absolutely. It's hard to read tone in an email. It's hard to read tone in a dunning letter. It's hard to read tones in those kinds of informal – in those written communications. But if you can say, "Look, it's just me. It's Les. Let's figure out how we're going to get this thing paid," it's a whole different conversation.

00:05:24                     

Les Smeyers: That's exactly right. I was just speaking to a vendor during the conference here and the tone of the email was a little bit more – I don't want to say belligerent, but it was a little harsh. But when I'm speaking with this person on the phone from the vendor, it was, "Listen, I hated to get you involved, but I'm getting beaten up by my leadership team on trying to close something." I said, "Hey, no problem. I'm glad you reached out. We'll get it figured out for you." But the tone of the email was totally different.

Jess Scheer: Absolutely. Switching gears a little bit, inside of AP and AR, one similarity I've noticed is that, the same way that AP and procurement is sometimes at loggerheads – by "sometimes" I mean always. [laughter]

Les Smeyers: Accurate statement.

00:06:10                     

Jess Scheer: AR and sales are sometimes at loggerheads. Is that a bonding opportunity, to be able to talk about, "We've got a breakdown in silos. We've got to work together. We've got to figure out how to…"

Les Smeyers: Yeah, that dynamic – there's hills and valleys to that, and I don't mean it in a negative way, but I do mean it that, from an AP perspective, when you talk about accountability, on the AP side, we're accountable to making sure that we are paying everything that's ready to pay, based on the strategies and the cycles of payment that our procurement and executive team wants us to run to.

On the flip side, on the AR [side], we own the invoice dispute, full stop. However, in a lot of cases, when we do have an invoice dispute, we have to reach out to the extended team, the program office, our global customer units, to help facilitate discussions with the customer, because we're only as good as the information that's in our system. 

00:07:10

The collaborative approach has to be from the top down, and the ownership has to be wide expanding. Fortunately, that's the dynamic that my company has evolved into. It's not measured on a program manager's performance development plan or plan of record, but, intuitively, everybody owns collecting the cash and everybody owns not paying a vendor [laughter] or extending them out, if you know what I mean. 

Jess Scheer: Yes, absolutely. Well, thank you. We're going to segue to talk about the conference now. Two questions: What are some of the big takeaways? What have been your favorite sessions?

00:07:51                     

Les Smeyers: Basically, the AI sessions that I've attended are the ones that are going to resonate with me, and I'll be taking some of the information that I've been able to gather back and hopefully use it to my benefit when I'm back at the company.

Jess Scheer: That's fantastic. We struggle because sometimes AI can be so high level that it's not tactical practical. It's not something that you can utilize right away. But what are some of the AI takeaways that you learned here?

Les Smeyers: Basically, how to sell getting new technology involving AI, and learning how to break it down, instead of the big beast, in bite-sized terms.

Jess Scheer: Awesome. Is this a conference you would recommend to your colleagues?

Les Smeyers: I would definitely recommend this conference and the service providers, the hall, the reception, the colleagues that I've met. This is one of the best ones I've been to.

00:08:58                     

Jess Scheer: Thank you so much.

Les Smeyers: You're welcome. My pleasure.

Grace Chlosta: Thank you so much for listening to the IOFM podcast. Remember to head on over to the Member Forum to discuss today's episode and provide ideas for our next one. And to stay up to date on IOFM's current events, both in-person and virtually, head on over to IOFM.com.