Thursday, July 9, 2009
Who is the Squawking Resource?
I thought it would be a good idea to first tell you who I am, what my blog is going to be about, and why I am doing it.
You see without aging myself horribly, I am someone who has been in the transactional side of accounting for, well let's just say close to 30 years. Yes I know what you must be thinking, but I started really young.
The transactional side of accounting are those departments that are the heart and soul of any company. It is the order to cash department that records the sales and revenue of the organization, it is the accounts receivable department that creates the invoices and chances the collections, to the accounts payable department that are the gatekeepers of the company's cash. What do all these department's have in common you might ask? They all work with an avalanche of paper, non-stop activity, tired eyes and fingers from all the data entry, and in many cases do not receive the recognition they deserve. Often times this is due to having to spend so much time entering data or looking for a piece of paper they are not able to truly 'specialize' in anything.
In my 30 years I have seen it all. Believe it or not I started in an accounts payable department that was 100% manual. I started when journal entries and booking of the transaction was done on green bar paper, checks were manually written, (electronic payments weren't even an idea yet), and credit cards had not entered the B2B arena. Yes, companies just like people used cash and checks to pay their bills. Everything took longer and was harder to track and account for. The scary thing is, there are still companies out there operating on a very manual basis. Not because they don't want to engage technology and automate, but because to do so can be confusing and overwhelming especially if you are not very techy.
So now the reason for my blog. There are huge and exciting changes happening in these areas and in some cases it is almost down right mind boggling to know which one is right for you and your company. With so many companies putting pressures on these departments to lookfor ways to streamline their processes and save costs and so many vendors looking to sell you the "perfect" automated tool, well it's enough to make someone's head spin. That is where I and this blog come in.
As I have watched these areas evolve, I too struggled to find the right resource to network with, bounce ideas of off, share pain points so I would not make the same mistake. While there is information out on the world wide web, much of it seems to come from "experts" in the field, researchers, and vendors sites. I could never really find the data, metrics, information, or engage anyone in communication regarding improving and streamlining the processes.
I am hoping this blog, shared by all of us in the industry, can provide a portal or conduit of information, facts, figures, and Q&A that will help us make sense of what is going on, be able to choose the right vendor (then ultimately really get the software and process to work like the sales person said it would) and find ways to streamline while improving overall efficiencies in our companies.
So join me as we explore this changing face of AP, AR and Order to Cash. Feel free to ask questions regarding any area of these three departments. If I don't know the answer, I will find it out.
Thanks for stopping by and hope to see your posts and Q&As.
You see without aging myself horribly, I am someone who has been in the transactional side of accounting for, well let's just say close to 30 years. Yes I know what you must be thinking, but I started really young.
The transactional side of accounting are those departments that are the heart and soul of any company. It is the order to cash department that records the sales and revenue of the organization, it is the accounts receivable department that creates the invoices and chances the collections, to the accounts payable department that are the gatekeepers of the company's cash. What do all these department's have in common you might ask? They all work with an avalanche of paper, non-stop activity, tired eyes and fingers from all the data entry, and in many cases do not receive the recognition they deserve. Often times this is due to having to spend so much time entering data or looking for a piece of paper they are not able to truly 'specialize' in anything.
In my 30 years I have seen it all. Believe it or not I started in an accounts payable department that was 100% manual. I started when journal entries and booking of the transaction was done on green bar paper, checks were manually written, (electronic payments weren't even an idea yet), and credit cards had not entered the B2B arena. Yes, companies just like people used cash and checks to pay their bills. Everything took longer and was harder to track and account for. The scary thing is, there are still companies out there operating on a very manual basis. Not because they don't want to engage technology and automate, but because to do so can be confusing and overwhelming especially if you are not very techy.
So now the reason for my blog. There are huge and exciting changes happening in these areas and in some cases it is almost down right mind boggling to know which one is right for you and your company. With so many companies putting pressures on these departments to lookfor ways to streamline their processes and save costs and so many vendors looking to sell you the "perfect" automated tool, well it's enough to make someone's head spin. That is where I and this blog come in.
As I have watched these areas evolve, I too struggled to find the right resource to network with, bounce ideas of off, share pain points so I would not make the same mistake. While there is information out on the world wide web, much of it seems to come from "experts" in the field, researchers, and vendors sites. I could never really find the data, metrics, information, or engage anyone in communication regarding improving and streamlining the processes.
I am hoping this blog, shared by all of us in the industry, can provide a portal or conduit of information, facts, figures, and Q&A that will help us make sense of what is going on, be able to choose the right vendor (then ultimately really get the software and process to work like the sales person said it would) and find ways to streamline while improving overall efficiencies in our companies.
So join me as we explore this changing face of AP, AR and Order to Cash. Feel free to ask questions regarding any area of these three departments. If I don't know the answer, I will find it out.
Thanks for stopping by and hope to see your posts and Q&As.
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