The holiday season presents a time of joy and celebration, but it also brings unique challenges for businesses, particularly in managing operations with reduced staff. Accounts payable (AP) teams especially may experience disruptions due to crucial personnel being on vacation. These limited resources significantly impact AP processes. By implementing practical strategies, you can maximize efficiency despite the challenges, not only during the holidays but throughout the year.
The Impact of Limited Resources on AP Processes
As the year draws to a close, AP teams often find themselves at a crossroads, dealing with year-end responsibilities and a shortage of resources. Companies face challenges in maintaining smooth AP operations, whether due to holiday vacations, a hiring freeze, or other factors. Combining an increased workload with reduced staffing can lead to errors, delays, and inefficiencies, affecting the organization’s financial health. Understanding the pain points and challenges associated with limited resources in AP is crucial.
With fewer employees, AP departments may experience slow processing times, higher instances of human error, and a waste of the resources you have available. These challenges become even more difficult if you’re utilizing manual or only partially automated AP processes. Implementing automation will help your business navigate times you may be short-staffed, improve efficiencies, and allow your AP team to focus on more critical matters all year.
AP Automation Strategies to Get More Done
To address the challenges of reduced staffing, companies can implement strategic approaches to optimize AP processes, ensuring operational continuity and efficiency. The following are key strategies to help you do more with fewer people.
Automate Routine Processes
Investigate automation solutions to alleviate any current manual workflows. Automation will save your AP team time and improve accuracy and consistency across all processes. Automation solutions like AutoVouch™ and Automated Workflow from DataServ can alleviate manual workload.
AutoVouch™ leverages the benefits of the latest optical character recognition (OCR) technology to become an excellent invoice-processing machine. Invoices matched through this capability require zero human touch to be paid, and any exceptions are pushed to a designated work queue for your experts to correct any issues and make on-time payments. It’s easily tailored to your process and unique mix of vendors, and tolerances can be set so any automated transactions fall within your acceptable range. Plus, AutoVouch™ utilizes the most straightforward interface possible without requiring expensive custom integrations.
DataServ’s Automated Workflow offers solutions to help your team effortlessly process invoices, such as the Invoice Processing Machine, which captures all documents from any source in any format and automatically routes them based on your rules. An email is sent daily to the team with a link to review invoices where they can quickly approve, reject, re-route, or code each invoice, and the automation rules keep the process flowing. Approved invoices are created and paid in your financial system, while AP documents are retained or destroyed based on rules, regulations, and your company’s needs.
Prioritize and Streamline Tasks
Task prioritization becomes imperative when resources are limited. Identify critical tasks and streamline workflows to eliminate unnecessary steps that take up much-needed time. Automation is pivotal in task optimization, enhancing efficiency by reducing the need for manual intervention.
Cross-Training
Cross-training within your AP team is a proactive approach to ensure multiple team members are proficient in handling various tasks, acting as backup for one another in the event of time away. Having several team members with experience in several tasks minimizes dependence on specific individuals, helping prevent bottlenecks during peak times.
Consider creating a structured cross-training program that includes regular skill-sharing sessions and encourages collaboration. This will help your company’s overall AP workflow and foster more confidence within the team as each individual knows their tasks can be adequately handled while they’re away.
Leverage Remote Work Technology
Remote work and flexible work arrangements can benefit any employee, including AP team members. Due to the nature of the information shared in AP, you must adopt secure and efficient remote work solutions so team members can effectively contribute and maintain productivity even when making it into the office is challenging.
Keep Your Business Moving Forward All Year Long with DataServ
Adopting automation solutions can significantly enhance workflow efficiencies during the holidays and throughout the year. By implementing these strategies, your AP team can navigate the challenges of limited resources, ensuring that business operations continue seamlessly, promoting productivity, and maintaining financial stability.
To explore the available DataServ solutions and learn how they can help your business, contact our team or schedule a demo today.
