Why AP Teams in Distribution Are Burnt Out and How to Fix It

Today's accounts payable (AP) professionals in manufacturing and distribution face increased transaction volume, industry volatility, and other stressors. Your AP team is likely facing increased workloads and outdated manual processes that delay payments.

With supplier pressure to pay on time, a bigger workload, and inefficient processes that lead to longer hours, AP professionals face burnout. Your accounts payable department is essential to maintaining positive relationships with your vendors and customers. AP automation for distributors can help reduce pressure and prevent burnout.

What Is Causing Burnout in Distribution AP?

Your AP team is processing multiple, complex invoices from different vendors. If you’re like many business owners, you’re also experiencing staffing shortages. According to the Institute of Financial Operations and Leadership, 53% of businesses surveyed reported that talent shortages prevented them from meeting their 2024 goals.

With tedious manual processes and fewer workers to handle the volume, your AP team is under pressure. If they are dealing with slow manual AP workflows and invoice-processing fatigue with no end in sight, you risk turnover.

Manual AP workflows can delay approvals and payments, leaving your AP team to deal with vendors calling and asking about payment status.

Warning Signs of Accounts Payable Burnout

Once someone on your team starts feeling the burn, they’re more likely to work at a slower pace and make more mistakes. It creates a domino effect, with the rest of your team picking up the slack and risking burnout themselves.

Look for these warning signs of burnout:

• Multiple duplicate payments: An uptick in duplicate payments may indicate too many data silos or reduced focus due to burnout.
• Missed early payment discounts: If your team starts missing early payment discounts, they may be experiencing cognitive overload, which slows them down.
• Increased PTO: If you notice your AP team taking more time off than usual, it could signal burnout.
• Lost invoices and other documentation: Burnout can lead your team to lose more invoices or take longer to locate vendor information.
• Increased invoice exceptions and purchase order discrepancies: Feeling burnt out makes it harder to concentrate, which can lead to data-entry errors that result in invoice exceptions and purchase order discrepancies.

How to Identify the Bottlenecks Burning Out Your AP Staff

Distribution accounting teams are facing staff shortages, turnover, and hiring freezes. Assessing your AP workflows to identify automation opportunities can reduce stress and improve team efficiency.

The team at Roofers Mart, a WorldView client, found themselves in this situation when they realized they were spending more time addressing AP issues than improving their department.

Before the Roofers Mart team could automate workflows, they needed to clean their data and figure out what to automate. They started by identifying and correcting vendor records, addresses, and phone numbers. Then the team assessed each step of the AP process to find and improve inefficiencies.

If your team is burning out, track a few invoices from receipt to payment to identify where your process stalls. You might see slow approval processes, or you might notice that an invoice sits in a generic email inbox for days before someone finally routes it to the accounting team.

How to Automate Your Workflows

Once you’ve identified inefficiencies, you can begin researching tools to automate processes and eliminate bottlenecks. Distribution accounting is complex. Your team is working with precise tracking across multiple SKUs.

WorldView’s AP automation solutions can save your team time and improve efficiency. Our solution automatically imports invoice information from emails and routes them for approvals or exceptions.

You can set up custom dashboards with valuable insights for everyone on your operations team. Your AP manager can check the dashboard to see how many invoices are still awaiting approval, how many have exceptions, and who has a particular invoice.

Best Practices for Implementation

New software won’t instantly change your workflows. Technology implementation is one of the top five challenges of distribution management. You can clear this hurdle by thoroughly understanding your needs and selecting automation technology that addresses your challenges.

When you start changing your process, create a team that includes AP team members at all levels. Your employees will be more likely to embrace the new technology if they know you’re listening to their concerns. Have a small team test the new software and help train the broader team.

How WorldView’s AP Solutions Saved an AP Team

After Roofers Mart implemented WorldView’s AP Automation solutions for building supply finance, the system automatically routed invoices to an approver. They used the system to track due dates and early payment discounts. They saved more than 720 hours of work and recovered more than $70,000 in early payment discounts.

Results like these will keep your AP team from fielding calls from angry vendors. Team members can also spend more time on their daily work rather than chasing approvals or researching and resolving exceptions. When your team can focus on their work, they are more likely to be satisfied, reducing burnout.

WorldView can help your AP team become more efficient. Schedule a demo to learn how.