By: Lee Jacobs, Head of Product for SquareWorks Automate
Financial teams are turning to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions to manage accounts payable (AP) and streamline strategic planning. Here’s how to get the most out of your ERP to optimize operations.
Today’s business world is one of complexity, uncertainty and constant change. It’s easy to feel caught off-balance or like you’re falling behind in the face of daily operations and constantly changing regulations, expectations and outside influences. For financial teams, who are often stretched thin managing a multitude of requirements to handle AP, financial forecasting and strategic work, it’s common to invest in an ERP solution to help with the work. But are you getting the most out of your investment?
It’s easy to get lost in the chaos, but here are tips from Lee Jacobs, former US Marine Captain and current Head of Product for SquareWorks Automate, on how a Marine would assess the situation and get to work:
1. Making decisions with imperfect information
Accounts payable teams often experience similar concepts as we did in the Marines, which we referred to as the “fog of war” – the uncertainty that pervades in the form of unknowns about the enemy, about the environment and even about the friendly situation. This is due to three factors:
- It can be difficult to see the big picture, and what the exact desired outcome looks like.
- Information is often trapped between siloed systems or between business units or groups that don’t talk to each other. Lack of information is one of the biggest impediments to good decision-making and can hamper progress or attempts to make meaningful change.
- Complacency; for many organizations, the status quo is the easiest path.
Gaining clarity and solving these known common issues can only happen with the right plan in place.
2. Establish a framework
The Marine Corps Troop Leading process establishes a framework for assessing the situation, planning, and execution. They use the acronym BAMCIS:
- Begin planning
- Arrange for reconnaissance
- Make reconnaissance
- Complete the plan
- Issue the order
- Supervise
This process starts off with determining your accounts payable pain points. These can include high overhead costs, staff turnover, late payments and delayed month-end close. Once the pain points are determined, do further reconnaissance to determine the details of each situation. Execution of the plan will be dependent on not just understanding the problems being faced, but also the potential pitfalls in establishing solutions, whether they are internal (for example, lack of resources or disinterest in change) or external (such as regulatory limitations or critical vulnerabilities).
Implementation of AP automation can be difficult if not fully embraced by all stakeholders. Significant changes in processes can be daunting, depending on different factors like the size or the organization and what kind of software or solutions were in place before AP automation was implemented.
Once the plan is executed, ongoing supervision and evaluation is necessary in order to measure, adapt and adjust where needed based on thorough understanding of the situation and how to navigate the pitfalls on the path to success.
3. How do we adapt to chaos
Clearly defining success is critical to not just executing the plan but also being able to continually improve going forward, no matter what happens. The business world is constantly changing, and AP automation protocols need to be able to adapt and adjust to new situations or processes in order for businesses to continuously see financial success.
Constant adaptation can be gained by implementing the Marine Corp’s OODA Loop:
- Observe
- Orient
- Decide
- Act
This system enables us to adapt to friction faster than it is able to overcome us. Marines are able to observe the enemy’s actions, orient themselves on what they think the enemy will do next, decide how to counter the enemy’s next action, and act more quickly than the enemy is able to adapt. Done repeatedly it breaks down the enemy’s will to fight which we call “getting inside their OODA loop”. In an AP team, succeeding through adversity can be achieved by thoroughly planning, understanding the most dangerous challenges and anticipating friction prior to circumstances overcoming the organization’s objective. The struggles many financial teams face today, whether ensuring the quality of their reporting, getting tasks done on time, removing delays from processes all while facing employee turnover can be assisted with the implementation of automated processes and the growing capabilities of AI. Investing in the automation process can have significant return on investment, but as in the heat of battle, it takes the best laid plans to make sense of the chaos.
To help AP teams overcome their toughest challenges and reduce friction in their day-to-day operations, SquareWorks Automate is here to help. With everything integrated directly into NetSuite, this tool boosts efficiency and visibility and allows finance teams to manage vendor relationships, speed up invoice processing, automate approvals, securely send payments, and even handle expense accruals—all from one platform. To learn more about this solution, contact us here.