I think first and foremost, you have to be organised.
Secondly, process the invoices as they come in. In this way, when you receive the statement, you will know immediately if there are any missing invoices or credit notes.
Have a system whereby you have your monthly accounts and those with various due dates during the course of the month. What I do is work with two “concertina” files, the monthly accounts get filed alphabetically and the “due date” accounts get filed in date order.
On a daily basis, I check the due date file and take out any accounts due for payment on that particular day. If you do the payments as well, then all your work has already been done. You now just have to go into the bank and load the payment. If you have someone else who does the paying, it’s just as easy, the payment requisition is complete with all back up documents (you did this when the invoice came in) and now you just hand it over for payment.
My month end accounts run just as smoothly at month end, because everything is processed and just waiting for the date they will be paid.
I found this process worked very well for me as I was also PA to 5 managers, and had to make sure I could “quickly” process the creditors when they wanted other work done, such as flight bookings, letters, etc.
If you would like more tips or advice on working with creditors (or even debtors), drop me a line and I’ll be happy to assist.
Take care
Jenny
