The beginning of every New Year comes with a sense of reflection into the prior year’s comings and goings along with an opportunity to begin anew and plan for bigger and better things to come over the next 12 months. The ePayables world is not exempt from these introspective and predictive exercises, nor should they be. Why not? ePayables is a critical part of every organization and AP leaders must review the past and plan for the future just like every other department in an enterprise. Harvard philosophy professor George Santayana once said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This may sound a bit harsh in the context of ePayables but the important take away here is that we all need to set goals, then review and evaluate how we did against them. This is the only way ePayables will be able to achieve continuous improvement, take advantage of new technologies, and continue to add even more value to their organization.
Lewis Carroll, yes, he of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ fame, is known for many memorable lines and quotes. The one, in my opinion, that is most applicable to business, and life for that matter, is “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” AP departments, if they are not already doing so, need to develop their own business plan on an annual basis and the beginning of the year is as good a time as any to do so. The plans should include both departmental and enterprise-wide goals, objectives, and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).
For those of you who may not have created a formal plan before, a good place to get started is with a ‘SWOT’ analysis. This a very common, strategic planning technique used to help a person or organization identify “Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats” related to business or project planning. Taking a step back each year and looking at each of these areas is a great exercise to understand what your department is doing well, areas for improvement, opportunities to add value to the organizations, as well as threats that might impact your department in the coming year. While SWOT analyses are most often done at the management level, it is also very easy to obtain input on all these areas from everyone in the AP department. Studies have shown that employees are more engaged in their work when they are asked to provide their input and ideas.
While SWOT Analyses tend to be more qualitative in nature, it is also important to include quantitative measurements, such as KPIs, in your annual planning and review processes. The KPIs being measured for AP teams should include operational metrics, financial metrics, and supplier metrics. KPIs provide a great way to track progress and improvement in specific areas over any given time period that you want to measure. KPI measurement is good not only for internal departmental use, but it also provides a great way for AP departments to share successes and accomplishments with others in the organization.
AP department reviews can be done at any time during the year, but there is no time like the present to get started if you don’t already have something in place and planned for 2019. Company-wide energy and excitement is typically highest at the beginning of a New Year, so why not capitalize on the timing and get started creating a 2019 plan for your AP department?
Here’s to a successful and productive year ahead for everyone in ePayables. As always, please feel to reach out to me to share your success stories or ask questions on any of the topics we cover.
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