Controllers Council recently held a CPE training webinar titled, How AP Automation Enhances Career Satisfaction and Workplace Efficiency, sponsored by AvidXchange.
AvidXchange is a leader in automating invoice, payment and Accounts Payable processes for mid-market organizations. AvidXchange processes more than $215 billion transactions annually, with 1,600 employees, 8,800 customers and 225 system integrations.
Our expert panelists included Christine Gu, Eric Greene, and Jami Proctor.
Jami Proctor is a Solutions Consultant for AvidXchange, a 9-year veteran of AvidXchange, and a graduate of UNC-Charlotte, and based in Charlotte, NC.
Christine Gu is SVP Finance and Chief Accounting Officer for San Francisco-based Clarify Health Solutions, and an active CPA with more than 20 years of F&A experience. Prior roles included VP Finance, CAO, Corporate Controller, and public accounting career at KPMG. Christine’s experience includes both private and public, from startups to Public – Ready, and managed multiple IPOs and SPACs. She earned a B.A. Accounting from San Francisco State University. Christine was the Controllers Council 2022 National Controller of the Year.
Eric Green is Controller and Head of Accounting for Aptive Environmental. Eric is a CPA, a Certified Management Accountant (CMA), a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), and a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE). More acronyms, he is a PwC alum, Utah Association of CPA (UACPA) Board of Directors, and a member of the AICPA. Eric earned two Master’s Degrees in Accounting (MAcc) and in Business Administration (MBA) from Westminster University, along with Undergraduate Degrees in F&A from the University of Utah.
Following are key takeaways to this discussion. If you are interested in learning more, view the full webinar archive video here.
1.Tell us a little about your company and your Finance & Accounting department?
Christine: Clarify Health is a healthcare analytic and technology company that leveraged data to drive better healthcare outcomes. Our finance and accounting department plays a very strategic role in supporting the company’s growth by ensuring financial efficiency, compliance, and operational excellence. We primarily focus on leveraging technology to optimize financial workflow, enabling our team to provide a more real-time insights and strategic guidance rather than being bogged down by the day-to-day menu processes.
Eric: I’m the Controller and Head of Accounting here at Aptive Environmental, a pest control company. We provide premium pest control services to customers across the United States of America. We hate those pesty bugs in your homes and in your properties. We pride ourselves in providing a premium data-driven solution for people who would like to get rid of their pests and try to provide the highest customer satisfaction of any company on the market.
2. Please share where your organizations are at with AP automation implementation?
Eric: Our company in the last couple of years since I got here adopted an ERP system. With that ERP system, we did our formal first stab at automating a lot of our AP processes. Those who might be familiar with that, it comes with a lot of changes and new processes that we have to set up. We created new thresholds for reviews and approvals, new departmental organizations to be able to make sure that the invoices are going to the right places and the right people for review and approval, as well as new reviews on making sure we have the right documentation when it comes to compliance documentation around W9s and other things that you need to be able to function well with an AP program. I’m a big advocate of those who may be dealing with manual systems. AP is one of the most painful areas of a business.
Christine: At Clarify Health, I would say, fairly automated our AP process by implementing a third-party AP processing vendor. It’s a cloud solution that integrates seamlessly with our ERP, our banking system and other procurement system that we have. And then I would say this transition has been very instrumental in streamlining our invoice processing, GR coding. It’s complex and touch various GR accounts, as well as business operational approval process and payments because we are basically connecting our AP app with our banking. There’s no more check menu check writing, which reduce significantly from a time standpoint for our staff. And then with reducing all those manual interventions, why we’re ensuring compliance and accuracy. And it reduced a lot of human error.
3. Explain how you planned and managed AP automation process – did it start within finance/accounting (F&A)? IT? A consultant?
Christine: Our AP automation journey started with finance accounting. We’re the driver. As we identify inefficiencies in our manual process that impacting both accuracy and efficiency, that’s the area where we wanted to start fixing. Our journey started with a lot of collaboration. We collaborated with IT to ensure there’s seamless integration with our existing systems. And at the same time, we engage with our software providers to evaluate the best solution for our needs.
Eric: it is a cross functional collaboration. All parts of the organization kind of need to see the value of why you need to switch from maybe a legacy AP automation process to a newer one in the and the value that it brings, and each company is going to have a different value proposition with that. Some companies that may be for streamlining certain approvals for others. It might be a cost benefit.
For others, it could be a compliance issue. And frankly, all of them do benefit from all those different elements. For us at Active, the company was growing. And with growth comes greater complexity. With greater complexity comes greater requirements for more accurate financial reporting. And so that the decision makers can see and understand how the business is doing. AP is a critical function to help the business understand, how things are coming through from an expense standpoint, what expenses are being incurred, how are these expenses being reviewed and approved, who takes ownership of certain areas.
4. What are your thoughts about AP and other F&A automation improving career satisfaction, productivity, staff retention, and other benefits?
Eric: I believe the AP function is going is leaning towards more automation. That’s actually a good thing for our field. And the reason why I feel like that’s a good thing for accounting professionals and others is that individuals are going to have a higher-level responsibility and obviously get into higher level responsibilities of ensuring that systems are appropriately managing certain expenses, understanding how the processes flow and how controls operate, and all these things. The beneficial to AP and other accountants and other finance professionals is to understand the value that can come through automation and the value that it can bring to uplifting people’s careers and getting out of the rote routine, putting in the same invoice. Every week for the rest of your career is to understand how these systems work together and understanding a bigger picture of how AP impacts the business. As you get into AP automation and AP systems and improving your AP journey through automation and other elements, you’re going to find greater career satisfaction for your employees and productivity will increase.
Christine: The benefit that we saw from the AP automation is obvious. It eliminates repetitive and manual task and allowing financial professionals to focus more on higher value and strategic work, which definitely leads to increased job satisfaction and reduces burnout because the employee is no longer needing to spend time or hours in processing invoices or tracing down the approvals or making annual payments. It’s also helped with our workplace flexibility. This automation really enabled us to support our policy by having this stream seamless, secure and efficient financial operating system that works around the world.
5. As F&A leaders, what other tips and recommendations do you have for improving staff job satisfaction and efficiency? (Flexible working environment, etc.)
- Connect with your direct manager, which leads to having happiness in your job.
- Technology can help you either be successful or fail. A company being able to give you the tools to succeed in your role is important. Flexibility is a good thing and technology provides that flexibility.
- Offer training on new technology.
- Recognition and inclusion.
- Creating a more supportive or growth-oriented culture within the team.
6. Automation requires training – what types of training do you provide F&A staff?
To view this question and learn more about AP automation, watch the full webinar here.
ABOUT THE SPONSOR:
AvidXchange is a trusted, leading provider of accounts payable (“AP”) automation software and payment solutions for middle market businesses and their suppliers. AvidXchange’s Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) based, end-to-end software and payment platform digitizes and automates the AP workflows for over 8,000 buyer customers, and it has made payments to more than 1,200,000 supplier customers over the past five years. Additionally, AvidXchange, Inc. is a licensed money transmitter for US B2B payments, licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services, as well as all other states. For more information, visit: www.AvidXChange.com.
