AP Now's Accounts Payable Shortcuts Contest

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We recently asked our readers to identify shortcuts they had developed to help with their operations. Here are the top three suggestions as voted on by our readers.

And the Winner Is:

Managing Vendor Inquiries

In a former position, my job was extremely high volume. Part of my duties included answering vendors when they called in (of course). Many times, I would be in the middle of a task, only to be interrupted multiple times, answering a call from a vendor, having to go into other parts of the system to find information they were requesting.

So I set up my voicemail, stating that I return all calls daily between 1 and 3 pm EST. That way, I could focus on my tasks at hand, check all of my voicemails at once, gathering the information, and returning all calls at the same time. (We had caller ID, so if there was a call that I was expecting, obviously, I would answer it.) During that 1-3 timeframe, I would answer any incoming calls instead of letting them go to voicemail. This made a huge difference in increasing my efficiency and ability to handle such a large workload.

And the Runners Up Are:

More Effective Use of Mouse

This may sound silly, but I found that the most beneficial short cut was switching my mouse to my left hand.  It was a simple change and only took about a week to adjust, but has make such a difference in my processing efficiency because I’m not constantly switching my right hand from my mouse to my ten-key.

Managing Remittance Advices

Don't send any remittances with invoices, even utility bills. For most vendors, this isn't a problem since they use invoice numbers, which show on the remittance section of the check. For utility invoices (electric, phone, etc.), use the account number for the first line of the address. The print out on the check will look like this:

AT&T
Acct #123456
PO Box 456
Springfield, IL  54321

That way, the check payment will get applied to the correct account when the vendor receives it.

If you liked these short tips based on our readers' real life experiences, you'll probably benefit from our newsletter and our weekly ezine.

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