Written By: Tom Flynn, VP of Marketing
We wanted to take this opportunity to acknowledge the Accounts Payable Association, their leader Jamie Radford and his superb team to thank them for hosting and promoting this year’s Accounts Payable Appreciation Week!
It’s important for us to take time to acknowledge the contributions of AP professionals across the globe. From our vantage at SpendMend, AP is positioned as a critical hub within any organization. They are situated between many essential groups and are asked to partner with each of these groups on important tasks and workstreams.
AP often reports up to financial leadership in some fashion and in that role, they are tasked with managing and maintaining critical finance goals and controls. AP must also forge a relationship with sourcing and procurement so the P2P process is seamless. AP also maintains a large population of employees and are tasked with getting payroll out on time as well as getting expenses paid. Possibly the largest and most difficult task of an AP department is the onboarding and management of a huge population of suppliers. In that role AP serves are the final gate keeper on all money before it leaves the organization.
Simply put, AP is asked to do many tasks while interacting with vast arrays of groups and in most of these cases there is zero room for error. Whenever people refer to AP as the “back office” it is always important for them to understand that “back office” does not mean “background.” It is more accurate to think of the AP “back office” as the “back bone” of an organization because AP is a central pillar in any business. The last twelve months have demonstrated this reality more than any other time in recent memory.
When global pandemic challenged commerce across the globe, AP professionals everywhere rose to the challenge to provide leadership and grit on par with front line healthcare workers. You ensured that bills were paid, that supply chains remained open, and that organizations continued to function under these new adverse conditions. These were circumstances that most people had never seen before, and for most people, they had never even dreamed of such circumstances. AP departments everywhere came through in a big way all the while suffering large scale staff reductions and mobilizing their staffs to move out of the office and work from home.
If you are in Accounts Payable in some form or fashion, then please know that this message is absolutely for you. Thank you for your contributions on a daily, weekly, monthly basis and keep doing the great work that you’re doing.