APA Blogs

Bitcoin. A word we have all heard so often but a lot of us don’t actually know what it is. Yes, it’s a digital currency that could increase drastically and make us a lot of money. But how does that digital currency actually translate into money? And is it safe to buy? I have heard of friends of friends who have lost thousands – perhaps you have too. The word Bitcoin also often conjures up thoughts of the dark web and either very high returns or very high risk. Let’s

You might be thinking, but isn’t a manager supposed to manage me? Why would I want to manage my manager? A common complaint from employees is about the quality of their management. Also called “managing up”, managing your manager could help you if you’ve ever wished that you could change certain traits in your manager or certain aspects of their management. Believe it or not, the nature of the relationship between employee and manager is not determined only by the manager. There are actually a number of ways you can guide

Getting noticed in any career is going to be a fairly challenging task, but within accounts payable, being recognised as a vital member of the finance team, it is especially so. In AP, it’s not just important to be able to move up in the career ladder, because even though the majority of us start off as AP clerks, we want to progress to team leader and management roles. In this post, we’ll discuss the most efficient ways to actually “get noticed” throughout your career in AP.

The entry route into

There is no doubt in any business industry how important statistics and reports are, but in Accounts Payable, they are especially crucial to the success of the department and therefore to the business as a whole. Without statistics, it is impossible for AP managers to truly understand their department and ensure every minute detail is taken into account – this is central to AP success because, as you’ll already know, it’s all about the numbers and the details!

AP staff will usually be focused on those statistics that track the business’s

Leadership with the accounts payable role is crucial to having a successful career. Not only do AP managers and team leaders need top-notch leadership skills, but anyone working with an AP role – from beginners right up to executives – needs to hone these skills. For some AP managers and AP staff who are required to lead team members, these leadership skills may not come naturally but this post will discuss the elements which should receive your focus…

Leadership encompasses many facets, not only the ability to lead and manage yourself,

I enjoyed Samantha Ryan’s recent “impassioned” blog about accounts payable automation and trained monkeys. So much so that I felt the need to respond because I totally agree with Samantha…but I also sit on the other side of the fence. Our invoice capture and approval automation solution, iCompleat, was designed from scratch to automate up to 90% of the account payable function and is probably the most disruptive software ever to impact AP.

The importance of accounts payable staff and management cannot be understated as it is critical to ensure that

Written by a guest contributor:

Are you lucky enough to love what you do?  Are you feeling blessed because you can see the fruits of your hard labour? Do you wake up each morning and leap out of bed, race to get dressed and almost get done for speeding as you make your way to work? (well, OK maybe not to that extent, but you know what I mean).

I’ll tell you why I can relate to the above:

I work for a great company, voted by Sunday Times one of 25 best

A career in finance is a dream for many but the thought of achieving and reaching the higher levels in finance can be overwhelming. What are the best qualifications to study? How do I stand out from the rest? How can I get my first job without experience? How long do I need to stay in my first job before it’s acceptable to move to the second? How can I prove myself without a portfolio, customer testimonials or a pile of excellent references?

These are just some of the many questions

What was your immediate answer when you read the title of this post? Yes? No way!? There are both proponents and opponents for recruiting with the help of gut feel. Some experts say if you are in tune with your “gut” it can help to secure the right candidates for certain roles, while others say it definitely has no place in recruitment.

Opinions already start forming in the recruiter’s mind during the interview, and as much as this shouldn’t happen, it does naturally. “First impressions count” is all too true in

When you look at employee expenses from the viewpoint of a fraudster, you can understand why it poses such a risk to companies. With most finance teams having to manually check and process a monthly flood of paper receipts, it creates the kind of inefficiency and lack of visibility that enables expense fraud to thrive.

It’s estimated that UK businesses continue to lose in excess of £100 million each year to expense fraud as costs are routinely exaggerated and falsified. Only a tiny minority of the illicit costs submitted will ever