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April – Accounts Payable Coordinator

Title

Accounts Payable Coordinator

Department

Finance

Demographics

• 
  32 years old
  
• 
  2 years of vocational training in Finance
  
• 
  10 years of experience in Accounts Payable
  

Market Size and Influence

• 
  An AP Coordinator is generally not included in the decision-making process to buy a new ERP system
  
• 
  If an AP Coordinator is involved, the focus is on the efficiency of the system to handle invoices and payments
  

Environments

• 
  Small cubicle in busy accounting area
  
• 
  Adjacent to accounting co-workers
  
• 
  Surrounded by multiple filing cabinets
  

Goals

• 
  Stay on top of everything
  
• 
  Have everything paid within a fixed number of days from receiving the invoice
  
• 
  Have everything finished by the end of the day
  
• 
  Don’t hold up anyone else’s work
  

Roles

• 
  Accounts Payable Coordinator
  
• 
  Cash Management Coordinator
  
• 
  Bank Management Coordinator
  
• 
  Payroll Support Staff
  
• 
  Petty Cash Manager
  

Core Activities

• 
  Manages all AP transactions
  
• 
  Processes supplier invoices
  
• 
  Double-checks invoices for accuracy
  
• 
  Processes credit card payments to suppliers
  
• 
  Matches invoices to appropriate shipping and receiving paperwork and purchase orders
  
• 
  Submits a list of invoices to be paid to the Accounting manager or Controller for review and approval
  
• 
  Creates payments and creates electronic payments
  
• 
  Prints checks and obtains signatures
  
• 
  Mails out payments
  
• 
  Helps close the AP portion of books
  
• 
  Identifies 1099 suppliers and sends out the forms
  
• 
  Reimburses employees for travel and expenses
  
• 
  Assists with payroll as needed
  
• 
  Resolves small banking errors and researches service fees
  
• 
  Confirms that all numbers on the receipts match the numbers on the purchase orders and invoices
  
• 
  Troubleshoots any numbers that do not match
  

Communication, Collaboration, and Interactions

• 
  Reports to the Accounting manager
  
• 
  Interacts periodically with the Controller who has final approval over payments
  
• 
  Interacts with almost every department
  
• 
  Interacts with co-workers to answer questions about reimbursements and purchase orders
  
• 
  Interacts with suppliers by email and phone
  

Persona Variables

• 
  Moderate and complex finance departments will have an Accounts Payable Coordinator
  
• 
  In AP-heavy companies or if the accounts payable processes are more manual, there may be several AP Coordinators and an AP supervisor
  

Pain Points

• 
  Amount of time required to deal with discrepancies and disputes
  
• 
  Amount of time required to deal with all the paperwork
  
• 
  Amount of detailed information required to do the job
  
• 
  Amount of time involved in trying to find out who to pay
  
• 
  All the time spent tracking down people who are supposed to provide information
  
• 
  Tediousness in correcting posted transactions
  
• 
  Tediousness and repetitiveness in entering invoices manually
  
• 
  Difficulty in trying to find out which ledger accounts to use for transactions
  
• 
  Difficulty in tracking down all the different people who have to approve supplier invoices and payments
  
• 
  Dealing with lengthy and involved vendor invoices and trying to enter them into the system
  
• 
  Dealing with the end-of- the-month paperwork
  
• 
  Interruptions all day long
  
• 
  Stacks of paper on the desk at the end of the day
  

Computer Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities

• 
  Outlook, Word, Excel
  
• 
  ERP system
  
• 
  Fast data entry skills
  
• 
  Multiple company forms
  

Values, Fears, and Goals

• 
  Concerned at times that software will replace her job or take away some control, but recognizes that automation can also make the job easier
  
• 
  Skeptical about bank reconciliation being fully automated and not having a human interaction component
  

Technology Attitudes

• 
  Comfortable with using technology for online processing and job tasks
  

Communication Style

• 
  Prefers face-to-face communication with co-workers to get questions answered
  
• 
  Relies on email in order to create a paper trail when resolving issues
  
• 
  Determines which co-worker requests are truly urgent and determines which ones to respond to
  
• 
  Tries to minimize time spent on the phone
  
• 
  Strives to be pleasant on the phone when dealing with vendors
  

8:00 – 9:00 AM

• 
  Finish any tasks from the day before, including reconciling cleared checks with bank statements
  
• 
  Open and organize incoming mail, email messages, and faxes
  

9:00 – 11:30

• 
  Match purchase orders and packing slips to invoices
  
• 
  Resolve any invoice and purchase order discrepancies
  

11:30 – 12:30 PM

• 
  Copy, print, and sort all items that need to be filed
  

12:30 – 1:30

• 
  Have lunch at desk
  

1:30 – 2:30

• 
  Enter invoices into the system
  
• 
  Enter new vendor information into the system
  

2:30 – 3:30

• 
  Respond to email messages and phone messages about invoice discrepancies
  
• 
  Run Aging report and determine who needs to be paid
  
• 
  Do a preliminary check run and get approval signatures
  

3:30 – 5:00 PM

• 
  Start work on bank reconciliation tasks
  
• 
  Work on month-end or period-end closing tasks
  
• 
  Clear desk and organize work for the next day
  
• 
  Go home
  

Accounts Payable Coordinator

Processes invoices

• 
  Receives invoices and organizes them by company name and invoice number
  
• 
  Confirms that all invoices are correctly coded
  
• 
  Enters all invoices into the system
  
• 
  Enters all supplier information and transactions, such as credits, into the system
  
• 
  Researches discrepancies and answers questions about invoices
  
• 
  Tracks down information for invoices that have invalid codes
  
• 
  Tracks down and resolves inconsistencies in invoices
  
• 
  Manages all invoice issues
  
• 
  Handles disputed invoices
  

Pays the bills

• 
  Selects items that need to be paid and gets approval
  
• 
  Generates the form of payment and gets the required signatures
  
• 
  Sends out the payments
  
• 
  Prints out a report with all the check numbers and the amounts after preparing a batch of checks
  
• 
  Processes credit card payments to suppliers
  
• 
  Processes credits from suppliers
  
• 
  Processes any voids, corrections, or issues that affect supplier invoices
  
• 
  Issues stop payments and reissues checks when necessary
  

Monitors company policy

• 
  Confirms that requests for travel and expense reimbursements are valid
  
• 
  Checks that information is entered into the system only when it is complete and accurate
  
• 
  Closes the books
  
• 
  Makes sure that all data is entered into Accounts Payable by the close date
  
• 
  Researches any questions about the data entered into the system
  
• 
  Assists in running reports for supervisors and management
  
• 
  Identifies 1099 payees and sends them the required forms
  

Cash Management Coordinator

Monitors and reports on cash balances

• 
  Generates the Cash Requirement report for the Controller
  
• 
  Handles the invoices and payments in foreign currencies and handles the conversion, when necessary
  
• 
  Writes off any credit balances specified by the Credit manager or Collections department
  

Bank Management Coordinator

Reconciles bank accounts

• 
  Retrieves bank statements and matches transactions in the system with those on the bank statement
  
• 
  Prints out the check register
  
• 
  Ensures that the books are balanced
  
• 
  Uses the bank statement to obtain information about receipts and payments
  

Payroll Support Staff

Supports payroll staff

• 
  Assists payroll staff in entering timesheet information
  

Petty Cash Manager

Manages petty cash fund

• 
  Monitors and documents any pay advances
  
• 
  Monitors and documents petty cash disbursements
  
• 
  Makes bank withdrawals when the office needs something