Rate your payments strategy.

January 20, 2016 Lynn Larson

Do metrics really matter? Isn’t ignorance supposed to be bliss? When it comes to managing an organization’s payments strategy, nothing could be further from the best practice. Since I will be doing the analysis for AP Now’s 2016 Payment Survey, I was thinking about why organizations should be tracking B2B payment metrics and where they might start. You could say the why boils down to cost.

Payment Metrics

Every organization wants to minimize its costs, but many lack the necessary metrics to support this goal. For example, to start determining the impact your B2B payments have on the bottom line, know the:

hard- and soft-dollar costs associated with your procure-to-pay (P2P) processes
number of payments by payment method (per month, quarter and year)

Create a plan, including a policy, to shift your organization away from costly check payments and toward electronic payments.

Where Does Your Organization Stand?

By taking the quick (less than 15 minutes) payments survey by AP Now, you will receive results to gain insight into how your organization compares to others. Note: The survey closed February 2, after this post was published.

Meaningful metrics provide the substance behind a smile rating.

Building or Refining a Metrics Plan

Following are some exploratory questions to help you make the most of metrics.

What metrics are most relevant, based on current goals? Metrics allow organizations to derive key performance indicators (KPIs) for evaluation purposes. Avoid going overboard and obtaining a bunch of numbers that are not used or necessary.
Where is the data available? How easy or difficult is it to obtain?
How does your organization utilize the information and how often? Sadly, metrics data often ends up getting filed away and forgotten. A better question is, how can your organization utilize metrics?
Who are the parties responsible for providing the data, analyzing it and sharing the results?
Who should receive the results and in what format? For the C-Suite, a consolidated dashboard visually depicting KPIs is ideal.
What are the acceptable minimum thresholds for each metric or KPI? When would remedial action or further research be needed? Pay particular attention to any metric anomalies compared to a previous period.

Related Resources

About the Author

Blog post author Lynn Larson, CPCP, is the founder of Recharged Education. With more than 15 years of Commercial Card experience, her mission is to make industry education readily accessible to all. Learn more…

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Separate yourself from the crowd.

January 5, 2016 Lynn Larson

Make this the year you strengthen your professional biography. How ready are you to demonstrate your knowledge and experience to your management, industry peers, clients (if applicable), or even potential future employers? Following is a list of six actions you can take. The first one is something I overlooked when leaving my P-Card program manager role to work for the NAPCP full time. I wish I had kept more specific data on how the card program evolved during my tenure. I thought I would remember all the numbers...

Document your accomplishments, including quantifying your impact on the card program (or, if you’re a provider, a client’s card program). Keep these notes in your personal records, so you can share them during your next job performance review. Also ensure your resumé and LinkedIn profile communicate key information. Sometimes new jobs find you when you least expect it.
Pursue new workplace endeavors, such as volunteering for a work group, committee or project. You will likely learn something new as well as expand your network.
Identify how you can further contribute to your organization’s goals. Be willing to express ideas at appropriate times. You especially do not want to be at a loss for words when your boss solicits possible solutions to a problem.
Broaden your industry knowledge and/or increase participation. There are many ways to do this: pursuing speaking roles, subscribing to relevant publications, completing surveys (and receiving the benefit of the resulting research), becoming certified in your specific field, taking advantage of continuing education, and so on.
Refine your “elevator pitch,” so you are prepared when opportunities arise. For tips, refer to content from Mind Tools. Your familiarity with the organization, your card program trends, industry news, etc. can help make you memorable.
Consult with your boss or professional mentor. Describe how you think you can improve, but also seek their input. One executive told me that he sees a lack of writing skills in the workplace, which can hold people back, so he encourages subordinates to write more often and obtain feedback from an impartial source.

Knowing where you have been and what you have accomplished can lead to bigger and better things.

Other Resources to Kick Start the Year

Annual P-Card housekeeping tasks to get the new year off to a great start
The previous blog post on the best unquantifiable goal for 2016

A Note of Gratitude

I thank the individuals (end-users and providers) who took the time to contribute to the Recharged Education website content in 2015. Such participation is another example of how to enhance your professional biography.

Greg Anderson, Application Design Resource LLP
Michael Campbell, Radiate Presentation Design
Larry Coffey, CPCP
Linda Dyck, CPCP, Canadian Blood Services
Tanya Grosz, University of Northwestern – St. Paul
Diane Kush, MUFG Union Bank N.A.
Diane Merrigan, CardConnect®
Mary Schaeffer, Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow
Julie Simpson, GoldSpring Consulting LLC
Margie Strong and Chad Robison, Intermountain Healthcare

Please contact me if you are interested in contributing this year.

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The best unquantifiable goal for 2016.

December 28, 2015 Lynn Larson

I avoid making a New Year’s resolution because it feels like a commitment to be perfect—to suddenly change something on January 1 and maintain the change without failure. Instead, I find that year-end reflections help me identify ways to be better in the year ahead. While I appreciate quantifiable goals, especially in the work place, I think there is a place for pursuits less concrete, like “being better” through mindfulness. It is an ongoing practice. My favorite yoga instructor says, “Be interested in where your practice takes you today, not judging or comparing today to past days.” This philosophy has broad applicability beyond yoga.

The reason I consider mindfulness the best unquantifiable goal is due to its stress reduction benefits. It leads to a calmer mind, enabling more positive experiences. Following are two key activities that contribute to a mindful state.

“Mindfulness means being aware of how you’re deploying your attention and making decisions about it, and not letting the tweet or the buzzing of your BlackBerry call your attention.”

— Howard Rheingold

Focusing on the Present

Thoughts of everything I need or want to do tend to surface at inopportune times, like right before going to bed. For me, doing a brain dump by creating a prioritized “to do” list is useful. However, we all know other things routinely prevent us from tackling our lists. These are the times when I have to remind myself that right now I am doing “X” and cannot worry about anything else.

When we are finally in a position to address our respective lists, the trick is consciously staying with one thing rather than trying to multitask. Refer to my blog post from a year ago that reveals what has worsened the multitasking epidemic and what we can do about it, based on insight from Daniel J. Levitin, author of the book The Organized Mind—Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload.

Redirecting Negative Reactions

My alternative labels for this are “think differently” and “do not be mad in the moment.” I do not find any value in being irritated, so I have sought different outlets, although not always successfully. My strategies include trying to:

Accept uncontrollable situations (e.g., long lines at retail stores, the post office, etc. and rush hour traffic). For instance, I try to view being stuck in traffic as the chance to enjoy a good radio station.
Be grateful for wherever I am or whatever I have to do because there is always something worse. As an example, I may not like every work task that I have to do, but at least I am able to work. Not everyone has this luxury.

This week, I chose to write about mindfulness (versus commercial payments) because the holiday season can be such a hectic period. I believe in the power of pausing to rejuvenate the mind, including our attitude toward work. One of my ongoing sources of inspiration is the magazine Experience Life.