Is AP Stopping You from Feeling Like an Accountant?
The r/Accounting subreddit provides an interesting insight into the lives of accountants. It’s an active community, and users aren’t afraid to share their unvarnished opinions when protected by the privacy of anonymous usernames. Search that subreddit for ‘accounts payable’ or ‘AP’, and the results are pretty eye-opening:
My job is nothing but entering invoices and fielding phone calls. Emails on emails about PO numbers and missing invoices and I just hate it. I hate it so much.
I’ve been in my AP role for 2.5+ years and I hate my role. My work consists of lots of data entry, compiling paperwork, seeking approvals... I find my role boring, not challenging, and mind-numbing.
AP has drained me, and I don't enjoy it at all. It's the same thing every day, I feel like I'm chasing for invoices, the process sucks, and I'm struggling with it. I enjoy accounting as a whole, but I'm just drained with AP day in and day out."
Spend a little time on r/Accounting and you’ll learn that many accountants don't just dislike accounts payable: they actively hate it. Your heart bleeds for the dozens of users toiling away in boring, repetitive roles where they feel undervalued and underutilized.
So, why do accountants hate AP?
Examine the complaints from AP accountants and you'll notice the same phrases come up time and time again: boring and draining, mind-numbing or repetitive. Certain tasks get a mention, too — things like data entry, approvals, and vendor emails. These are the aspects of the job that can make it feel especially frustrating.
Data entry: Traditionally, accounts payable involves a lot of painstaking manual data entry. AP clerks receive invoices from vendors and suppliers and must then enter that invoice data into a spreadsheet, or more commonly, an accounting software program. Processing a single invoice takes around half an hour of manual effort, and each AP clerk must repeat this process multiple times per day — AP teams can be expected to process anything from a dozen or so to many hundreds of invoices each week. Manual data entry is far from the most exciting activity, but AP clerks can't afford to switch off: just a single error could prove costly.
Chasing approvals: Once an invoice has been received coded, and entered into the system, it needs to be sent for approval. Convoluted approval workflows are another thorn in the side of AP clerks. Chasing approvals generally involves contacting a more senior decision-maker — often but not always a member of the finance department — and requesting their signature to approve payment. These individuals are often time-poor and have more pressing things to do than respond to emails. It's common for AP clerks to fire off multiple emails, make phone calls, and even knock on doors to obtain the relevant signatures before payment comes due. And depending on the approval workflow, this process may need to be repeated multiple times for multiple approvers. No wonder AP clerks find it frustrating and time-consuming.
Dealing with late payment: AP clerks often find themselves caught in the middle — stuck between vendors and suppliers demanding payment, and internal stakeholders who are too busy or distracted to approve it. They're the ones tasked with vendor relationship management, and must manage supplier frustrations and expectations in the event of late or missed payment. If it wasn't demoralizing enough funneling money away from the business, they’re also public enemy no.1 for frustrated vendors.
Manual reconciliations: Manual reconciliations are a seemingly endless, repetitive part of the job. Checking and double-checking invoices, purchase orders, and receipts and ensuring they all match up is no-one's idea of fun. It is, however, an essential role of the accounts payable function — and again, any errors or inaccuracies can have significant consequences.
Do AP clerks feel like accountants at all?
Accountants are highly-skilled, highly-trained professionals. They're trained to interpret and analyze financial data, and offer actionable insights and advice. They've studied for years to earn their CAs, CPAs, and masters in accounting. And frankly, spending hours of every day on data entry and other menial tasks is a poor use of their skills.
The sad part is, many AP clerks don't feel like accountants at all. Accounts payable doesn't challenge them, and it leaves them feeling underutilized, underappreciated, and demotivated. What's more, the situation creates a vicious cycle: companies aren't getting full value from their highly-trained, well-paid accountants, while unsatisfied, demotivated, unhappy employees aren't likely to stick around or perform at their best.
So, what can we do about it?
What can we do about it?
Recent trends including 'The Great Resignation' and 'quiet quitting' have defined employee/employer relations lately. To attract and retain the best talent, finance leaders must remember that accountants want the freedom to do what they’ve been trained for, what they enjoy, and what they’re best at.
58% of employees say the 'ability to do what they do best' is the most important factor when looking for a new job.
- Gallup
Accounts payable automation software has the power to make AP less time-consuming, less frustrating, and more satisfying for AP clerks. Let’s consider how it addresses the things accountants least enjoy:
Data entry: Quadient AP eliminates up to 83% of manual data entry by automating invoice header data capture with 99% accuracy. Our GL Smart Coding feature reduces invoice coding to a single-click process. With AP automation, invoice processing becomes up to 9x faster — giving AP clerks hours back in their days.
Before Quadient AP, our AP clerk was spending 30-40% of their time doing data entry and keying in invoices. The whole process was time-consuming and Quadient AP has eliminated a lot of that. We’re saving at least 50% of our time in accounts payable.
- Dean Olevson, Director of Finance, Radisson Blu Minneapolis Downtown
Chasing approvals: Quadient AP empowers AP teams to establish reliable, transparent fully-customizable approval workflows. Invoices are automatically routed to the correct parties for approval, and approvers are automatically notified when their signatures are required. Two-way sync with your accounting software provides complete, real-time visibility into your payments process, so you can easily view the payment status of each invoice. No more chasing approvals, and no more being ignored by signing authorities.
A lot of our managers and directors need to approve invoices for things that have been purchased without being able to see physical paper. By allowing us to do that quickly and easily, Quadient AP really helps us accomplish our mission.
- Tasha Flowers, Director of Finance, ARORA
Dealing with late payments: AP automation effectively eliminates late payment by automating the payments process. With invoices processed up to 9x faster and approval bottlenecks eliminated, more vendors get their payments on time — removing the burden of vendor relationship management. Quadient AP users have seen payment times reduced from weeks or even months to just days.
The data that we got from Quadient AP helped us to pinpoint where the problem was. There has been a drastic improvement in payment-related delays.
– Peter Best, President/Broker at Magnum York Properties
Manual reconciliations: Quadient AP fully automates the 3-way matching process — eliminating time-consuming manual reconciliations. The system automatically matches purchase orders to invoices, and simply won’t accept an invoice that doesn’t match — helping AP clerks easily identify and address errors.
By implementing a system that’s electronic and digitized, we’ve allowed our staff to spend more time in-program than doing administrative tasks.
- Patti Hait, Director of Finance, BGC Okanagan
AP automation solutions like Quadient AP allow AP clerks to feel like accountants again, and rediscover the joy in their roles. By automating the tedious, manual tasks most AP accountants hate, they're free to focus on the things they do best: activities like financial analysis, providing strategic insights, and generating value for the business. Contact us for a demo of Quadient AP where you can learn more.
