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Three Steps to Improve your AP Performance
Improving your accounts payable (AP) performance takes more than a one-and-done effort. Robust process governance, cloud-based technology, and the right delivery structures can help organizations achieve greater AP productivity. APQC recommends these three critical steps that your organization…
3 Ways to Prevent an Uncollectable Balance Pile Up
In this period of inflation, customers are tightening their spending belts, which could result in them deprioritizing or losing their ability to pay owed balances. As such, organizations should keep a close eye on cash flow and be vigilant of early uncollectible balance warning signs. Here are…
What is Cash Flow Management?
Cash flow management involves planning, tracking, and controlling the flow of cash in and out of a business. It is a necessary process in financial planning to ensure that sufficient funds exist to meet business needs. Effective cash management is a critical component of a company’s financial…
What is a Chart of Accounts (COA)?
The chart of accounts (COA) is a listing of the general ledger account names and identification numbers arranged in the order in which they customarily appear in financial statements. It can also include a description of what should be included in each account. The COA is a key accounting tool used…
Where will Finance Focus in 2024?
APQC conducted its annual 2024 Financial Management Priorities survey in late 2023 to better understand the focus areas, initiatives, and challenges that will shape the finance function in 2024. The survey, which included approximately 330 participants representing 22 different industries, asked…
The Top Characteristics of Best-in-Class Finance Functions
Top finance functions are embarking on substantive changes to their processes and their organizational role. APQC conducted a case study research project throughout 2018 seeking best practices from organizations transforming their finance and accounting functions, and found some common themes…
Why Try to Improve What You Can Eliminate in Finance?
APQC is engaged in current and ongoing research on planning, budgeting, and forecasting through our Open Standards Benchmarking Survey on Planning and Management Accounting. As part of our research, we look at both key performance indicators, as well as practices data, about these processes…
4 Reasons Not to Fear Robotic Process Automation
Robotic process automation (RPA) has quickly become inevitable. In March of 2018, APQC interviewed Tilak Banerjee, a director at Dell-EMC, on RPA: “When we started in 2015, RPA was more or less a new concept in the shared services industry,” said Banerjee. “Right now, a lot of companies I talk to…
The Benefits of Automating your Invoicing and Accounts Receivable Processes
Invoicing and accounts receivable (AR) are core finance transactional processes that lie at the heart of an organization’s liquidity and working capital management. These two processes are flip sides of the same coin, with invoicing encompassing the activities involved in billing customers for…
Three Keys to Successful Finance Process Management at Cargill
Business process management is a proven operating model to help organizations reduce variability, increase standardization, and improve process performance. APQC recently interviewed the Global Credit-to-Cash Process Owner at Minnesota-based Cargill Inc., a multinational food, agriculture,…