A surprising role for AP: Blunting the impact of business cycles for Avid Acceptance

Avid’s CFO, Curtis Ash, lays out their innovative AP strategy in three vital elements: control over cash flow, clear visibility into vendor performance, and agility in workforce management.

Ash’s most common strategy is, of course, control over cash flow. That’s critical in any environment, so Ash explains how he leverages accounts payable automation software for complete control. “We don’t want to play games with our vendors, but we also don’t want to pay bills until the moment they’re due,” says Ash, articulating a best practice in cash flow management. “Stampli makes it easy to have complete visibility into when invoices come in and when they should be paid. We use analytics to understand when invoices are received and coded, and we carefully control when payments should be sent out.” 

The second part of Avid’s strategy centered on managing vendor performance. “You have to watch how your partners manage their cash flow, too. In tough times, cash crunches lead some vendors to cut corners or not do all the work that they’re supposed to do,” Ash explains. But managers in the field often lack easy visibility into vendor obligations because the invoices, which detailed those obligations, are not easily accessible: they are files in someone’s inbox or paper on someone’s desk, and it takes time to get them. “With the more archaic AP process, typically a manager would have to email their accounting partners, which slows everyone down.” 

With Stampli, field managers now have access to any relevant invoices (with strict controls on viewing permissions), right from their phone or laptop. This means that managers can easily validate vendor performance against their obligations, in real time, to help the business maintain high standards of accountability and ensure value for every dollar spent. “Stampli syncs up managers and the accounting department so we can ensure vendors are completing the work they’re supposed to do. And nobody has to take hours out of our day.”

The final prong in their AP strategy was to enable agility in workforce management, in order to dodge the vicious cycle of over- and under-hiring. AP automation lets Avid scale efficiently without needing to swell their ranks during peaks — or make painful cuts on the finance team in quieter times. “We’ve typically grown 30-40% annually,” Ash reveals. Under these conditions, a manual AP process would be a bottleneck, requiring a proportional increase in personnel. But AP automation software like Stampli enables scalable growth without the need to increase headcount.

For this same reason, AP automation enables an intelligent redistribution of human capital during a period when new business slows down. “When new business is slow, we still need to manage our existing portfolio,” Ash says. With his AP staff processing invoices more efficiently, Ash can redirect their time to other tasks, such as working closely with vendors to manage payments or assisting in portfolio management tasks that are crucial during a downturn. This agility allows Avid to maintain consistent staffing levels in the finance department throughout various economic cycles, while still adapting to the shifting workload.

Avid’s AP strategy rippled out to have a stabilizing influence across the entire company. It’s proof that, with the right approach, accounts payable can be more than just an administrative necessity — it can be a driver of resilience and prosperity in any economic climate.