AP Automation Puts a Feather in AP Managers Cap

True Story. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

I had been calling on Mary who is the AP Manager of a mid-sized manufacturing company for years, 5 years to be exact The reason for calling Mary was of course to introduce our approach to accounts payable process improvements and more specifically, automation as a way to streamline processes, increase efficiencies and reduce overall costs.

Mary had been at this company for many years and she just wasn't interested.

During each call I would ask a few basic questions about how supplier invoices got processed, I'd try to understand where the bottlenecks and issues were to see if we could help improve things.

There would always be some reluctance to answer my questions, or a reason why they didn't need any help in accounts payable. The usual responses would be we're old fashioned, our people are faster or its nice to have or too expensive.

Then one day, I got a phone call. I was shocked. It was Mary.

"We've got a new CFO and they're interested in AP Automation".

I said, that's great! But I thought you didn't need any help. Mary admitted to me that it wasn't that they didn't need it, she just didn't understand it and was embarrassed to tell me this.

She was afraid that something new like this might make her look weak, or that she might be looked at as the bad guy (or gal) for bringing in new processes, or worse, would she need to let someone on her team go if this actually worked.

The new CFO got what they wanted, which was process efficiency in finance and low and behold Mary's AP Department became so efficient that this opened up some doors for promotions! Mary was eventually promoted to Corporate Controller and much of this was attributed to the efficiency gains that we're realized once she embraced AP Automation.

In the end, Mary's fears were preventing her for making progress. In the end it all worked out and the AP team couldn't have been happier and wished she had done this sooner.

Don't let fear paralyze you from making decisions and moving your business or personal life forward.