One of the reasons I like working with companies that use a Dynamics ERP system is because they are not too big to get the attention of the CEO for certain projects. When it comes to CEOs, very rarely do I interact with them. I don’t know if it’s because they don’t care about Accounts Payable processing or if they just have other things to do.
They Do Know…
However, CEOs do know the importance of Accounts Payable. I haven’t met a CEO yet that didn’t care about their organization’s expenses and knowing what those expenses are. I am not 100% sure that CEOs in general care about the process of Accounts Payable, but they definitely care about cash flow management. Below are 6 metrics that will give CEOs the information they can use to run their companies.
6 Metrics
- ROI– Initially, CEOs use return on investment to make sure the project was successful. ROI is a great, simple benchmark that gives you the thumbs up or thumbs down on an AP Automation project.
- DPO - This stands for day’s payable outstanding. DPO measures the efficiency of how the company pays its suppliers. For CEOs, this is a great tool to watch the accounting team overall… not that we need it.
- CPI– I know you knew this would be one of the metrics. I can’t write an article without mentioning cost per invoice. Even though CPI is a component of ROI, the reason the CEO would like this measurement is to know how the company’s expense based processes are doing. CPI will tell the CEO on a frequent basis how much the process costs the company.
- Cycle Time– Similar to DPO, cycle time (sorry for another three-letter acronym – TLA) focuses on the approval process, so it has the ability to, with a number, measure the efficiency of the staff rather than the entire process.
- Discounts– There are a lot of ways to slice this number, but I recommend looking at how many discounts were captured over a particular time period (usually a week or a month) and the discounts that can be captured on a certain day or week.
- Late Fees– I know this is a negative number that sometimes we don’t want anyone to know, but the CEO should know. Too many late fees or late fees from a certain type of invoice is an entire business problem… not just accounting. The whole business should be part of the solution too.
Just the CEO?
Normally, when I write about the CEO, it comes across as a single person. In most companies, it is a single person; however, I think these metrics can work well for a leadership team or a Board of Directors. It’s a great way, once you are automated, to dispense information to show your progress.
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