The Four Tips To Help Manage Your Accounts Payable Department More Successfully
Accounts payable is one of those "necessary evil" departments. No one wants to be the bad guy. You will deal with people who are a little behind on their bills. You will deal with people who make an effort in "good faith" and those who do not. There are times when you will want to tear your hair out due to the stress. There is no need to tear your hair out. I have a few simple tips to help you handle your accounts payable department more effectively.
1)
Simplify, simplify, simplify. You should reduce the number of checks you accept every month. Two or three each month is more than plenty. You need to make sure the invoices are ready to back up the check run. The right departments should approve the checks before proceeding. You should also earmark which checks are a priority and which are not. You cannot handle everything on your own. Trust your staff to do their job. Trust them to come to you if there are any problems. Micromanagement is not the answer.
2)
Technology will help you out so much. Trust the tools you have to do the job. You can negotiate with your vendors. You just need to learn how.
3)
You need to stay alert with dummy accounts. A dummy account is something set up by dishonest employees. They arrange for a dummy service and pocket the money. Every account needs to be verified properly. Accounts that are questionable need to be investigated and shut down.
4)
Your CFO can sign the checks, but someone else should be running them. You can reduce in-house fraud by using two people to carry out this task.
