AP Managers Offer Best Ideas to Motivate Staff

From: IOMA

Amid the razzle-dazzle of all of the latest high-tech AP automation tools, it's easy to overlook the things you can do to improve AP operations that have absolutely nothing to do with technology. These ideas have to do with your people--your most important asset. We collected many of these ideas--they came from AP managers during conference sessions, interviews, reader surveys, informal chats, off-the-cuff remarks, and so on. The point is, each and every one has been field-tested.

We've selected 20 AP staff motivation ideas and present them here. Of course, not all of these ideas will be right for your department. But we guarantee that you can put at least one of these ideas to work right now--with great success.

1. Delegate more responsibilities to your staff members (make sure you also delegate corresponding authority).
2. Have staff take on more accountability for problems and to recommend possible solutions if something isn't working.
3. Hold regular AP staff meetings to discuss status of work, assignments given, and concerns.
4. Move GL tasks such as reconciliations from AP specialists to staff accountants to allow the specialists to focus on AP-specific issues.
5. Shift non-AP work to other departments more experienced in the function.

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