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• Who Is PSSI?
• Tips & Best Practices: 
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  • The Hidden Harm of Organizational Change Resistance
  • Peter Drucker on 8 Practices of the Best Executives
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central: Transitioning to a Virtual Accounting Dept.
• ALERE Software: How ‘Kits’ Work
• 7 Minute Manufacturing Overview video 
• Free White Paper: Software That Matters
• Commentary: Supply Chain Disrupters (Part II): Shortening Lead Times

MSDynamicsWorld.com blogger Kerry Peters suggests in a recent article a couple ideas to help companies cope during the current national lockdown with the challenges of running your accounting department virtually.

Companies these days are usually unprepared to work at their offices without paper, let alone try to run with a widely dispersed team.  Fortunately, Ms. Peters provides a few tips and insights for your A/R and A/P functions, which we’ll recap in part below.  (Click the link above for her full article.)

Accounts Receivable: Historically and commonly, the Accounts Receivable area is dependent on the delivery of mail. If your company is already using a lockbox service where your customers send payments directly to your bank for immediate deposit and processing, you’ve made a smart move. If you haven’t gotten around to that yet, you need to decide which of your team members will be responsible for processing the daily bank deposit and have your company postal mail temporarily forwarded to their home, using the mail forwarding service provided by the US Postal Service. It can be done online, can take effect immediately, and can be easily and quickly switched back to the company address when you are ready. As an additional measure, sign up for Informed Delivery, which is a USPS service that images the exterior of every letter delivered and provides a daily email of those images so you can see what was delivered.

The team member who receives that mail is then responsible for two things: 1) processing checks received so they are deposited to the bank, and 2) scanning and distributing electronic copies of any other documents received for processing by other team members. Depending on the volume of checks your company receives, you will want to be sure they also take home the check scanner. As another alternative, they could even use your bank’s mobile app to scan and deposit checks.

More than any other function, this adjustment affects how quickly (or slowly) customer payments get deposited to your bank accounts, so make this a top priority to avoid seeing slowdowns in your cash flow and a dwindling bank balance.

Accounts Payable: The Accounts Payable team is going to need some assistance gathering everything they’ll need to do their job from home. If your company pays their vendors primarily with paper checks, they will need to bring home a supply of paper check stock, windowed envelopes, a supply of postage, appropriate toner and supplies for the check printer, the actual check printer, and any unpaid payables files or unprocessed paper invoices.

Before you help them get all this stuff loaded up, make sure you have a plan for how the payment run will be approved and how the checks will get signed. If you are still manually signing paper checks and do not alter your process, envision the delays in sending check stock back and forth between different people’s homes and the resulting bottleneck in check processing. It could mean the difference between a single day’s time versus a full week if the checks are printed, sent to another person for signing, and then sent back for stuffing in envelopes to be mailed. Knowing a reliable courier service or being ready to have FedEx supplies and knowing where and when to drop them off will make a difference.

Even more attention to fraud prevention than usual should be paid in this area. Someone else should know how much check stock has been taken and which check numbers should be monitored with the check register. Now is also the time to have someone else setting up new vendors. More detective controls where a second person reviews completed work will be needed.

Consider finding ways to scan and store documents instead of creating the old-fashioned voucher packet. Accounts Payable can be the easiest area to make paperless, and most companies already have everything they need to work differently – you just need to decide to change your processes. Start with making sure that invoices received electronically are never printed. Work with your accounts receivable person (who is managing the mail) to start scanning invoices and emailing them, instead of passing on paper copies. This is a great time to begin thinking differently about these processes.

Dynamics Business Central 365 represents yet another step in the continuing evolution of the product formerly known as NAV, and PSSI is committed to keeping our clients and prospective clients up to date on the latest changes.  Continue to follow this newsletter for news and updates in the future. 

Thinking about integrating Dynamics 365 Business Central into your business?  Or just have questions about the process, or need advice and recommendations?  Call us any time at 877.273.2444, or visit us on the web.

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