With paper-based AP in decline, improved finance efficiency begins with capturing key metrics

You want to improve accounting operations, particularly in accounts payable, but you're not quite sure where to start or how to measure your success.

A key way to improve your finance operations is to start by identifying and capturing simple metrics that drive efficiency, said Henry Ijams, managing director, PayStream Advisors, during a recent MSDynamicsWorld.com webcast. That efficiency boils down to asking the right questions about an organization's operations in terms of some popular things like timeliness and customer service.

"So in a nutshell, how efficient is your operation? [There are] metrics to measure that," he said. "How effective is your operation? How long does it take to pay the invoices - to pay the suppliers? And how well do we service the buyers in our organization and increasingly important, our suppliers? Accounts payable needs to be part of that."

Paper-based AP in decline

Ijams said when it comes to AP automation trends, AP is definitely getting out of the paper business.

"The metrics tell us that in 2014, more than fifty percent of Fortune 1000 companies are going to be paperless in accounts payable," he said. "There is a continued drive for paperless processing and that's pushing more managed services for scan and capture of the invoices."

Ijams said companies are moving to touchless processing to optimize invoice management, in part, to offer better customer service because the metrics indicate that the suppliers want to submit invoices electronically and they want to get the electronic files directly.

Benchmarking purchase-to-pay

In addition to the typical invoicing, payment and reporting processes, Ijams said there are other important ...