Office Manager Tip: Process Your Laundry, I mean Invoices

As I mentioned in my first post, I often equate routine office work with housework. To further exploit that theme, today’s topic is laundry, I mean, accounts payable.

To the degree that the diversity of your tasks vary, this tip becomes more applicable. Like laundry,  where the whites and the colors are sorted, I sort my AP invoices before processing. For me this means job-related invoices (from subcontractors) and overhead expenses. This is the first batching.

If you’re like my husband and further sort the laundry by fabric type, then sort out your AP batches by due date, vendor number or name; you get the gist. For example, not only do I sort out my AP invoices by job-related and overhead expenses, I further sort out job-related invoices by the job number.

You wouldn’t run a load of laundry with just a pair of pants unless, of course, they happen to be your lucky jeans and you entered a line dancing contest. I usually wait to process my invoices until I have about four. Take into account the flow of paper in your office and experiment with your batches. That said, touching a piece of paper too many times, while shuffling it in and around your in-box, can get you in a different rut.

The kind of trouble you may find yourself in can also vary; most likely, if you wait too long to process or batch up too many before you do, invoices may age past their expiration date. Now, I’m thinking of cleaning the fridge. (Ewww, who left the cottage cheese in here from last May?)

When you run out of new invoices to process, you don’t have to buy new socks; this is where the analogy ends.

Questions:

  • How many accounts payable invoices do you process a day? a week?
  • Do you agree or disagree with the premise?
  • What are your tips?
  • More Tips.

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