{"id":4245,"date":"2020-04-15T17:01:55","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T17:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peeriosity.com\/shared-services\/articles\/?p=4245"},"modified":"2022-08-24T15:55:50","modified_gmt":"2022-08-24T15:55:50","slug":"impact-of-covid-19-on-the-accounts-payable-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peeriosity.com\/shared-services\/articles\/2020\/04\/impact-of-covid-19-on-the-accounts-payable-process\/","title":{"rendered":"Impact of COVID-19 on the Accounts Payable Process"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

A few weeks ago, Shared Services organizations were comparing approaches for responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, and this week Peeriosity will facilitate a panel discussion with Peeriosity members on a Peeriosity PeercastTM<\/sup> featuring leading member companies sharing ideas and answering questions about Shared Services delivery with the emergence of COVID-19.\u00a0 This \u201cfor members only\u201d PeercastTM<\/sup> supports open and candid discussions between members in a confidential environment, completely free from outside influence or bias, with the ability for all attendees to communicate and follow up with other members at any time.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Because Peeriosity includes research on the detailed processes often within scope for Shared Services, a more detailed poll was recently conducted to better understand the impact of COVID-19<\/a> on the Accounts Payable process, with additional polls and discussions between members planned over the upcoming weeks.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

iPollingTM<\/sup> Results Review<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Peeriosity\u2019s iPollingTM<\/sup> was used recently to deliver real-time insights into how members were responding to the COVID-19 pandemic to complete work activities in the Accounts Payable process area<\/a>.\u00a0 The first polling question asked about the percentage of the Accounts Payable team that was working from home.\u00a0 As many may remember it wasn\u2019t that long ago that remotely processing<\/a> Accounts Payable was problematic, with hard copy paperwork required in some instances, and remote connectivity to ERP systems not widely available, even when the process was primarily electronic or reliant on invoice images instead of paper.\u00a0 For Peeriosity members, those days are in the past, with every responding company indicating that either all or close to all Accounts Payable team members are currently working from home.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"impact<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The second polling question asked about the impact COVID-19 has had on being able to both conduct business as usual and meet expected performance targets.\u00a0 Interestingly, 63% indicated that there was limited disruption, with an additional 29% indicating that the disruption was moderate, with a number of issues that were addressed within a reasonable period of time. \u00a0In other words, for 92% of Peeriosity member companies, COVID-19 hasn\u2019t been a significant challenge for the Accounts Payable process. Only 8% indicated that the disruption initially was significant with \u201cmost of the kinks\u201d now worked out.\u00a0 No one reported that the disruption was significant, where the difficult challenges have not been adequately addressed.\u00a0 Here are the details:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"effect<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Here are some comments from responding companies:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n