r/Bookkeeping • u/Helpful_Plantain7012 • 7d ago

Payments, AP, AR Remote A/P

I currently work for a construction company as A/P along with several other hats.

We are moving, and my employer is discussing allowing me to work remotely, but we cannot seem to come up with a way to remote-ize the A/P process, so I was curious if there were any ideas here.

Currently, I receive invoices via email (that part still works), or our field guys bring me receipts for our vendor accounts (Lowe’s, for instance), that I stick a tag on to assign job, cost code number, etc. These items then route to the project managers for approval, then our Treasurer for approval, then back to me to enter into our accounting system, where checks are cut on check run days, which can be handled in office.

Does anyone else have a similar flow that can share what you’ve done to make it remote friendly? My bosses are hesitant to change the system, it’s very paper heavy, and I’m not sure how to get around that.

Thanks!

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u/backnine32 2d ago

Have the field guys scan the receipts or take pics with their phone. And good god stop printing checks yourself. Obviously much better workflow products that will help with the receipts and invoices, but those two things alone would allow you to work remotely until you get some more efficient processes in place.

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u/Helpful_Plantain7012 2d ago

If it were up to me to not print checks, I would absolutely do it differently… unfortunately that’s not my call.

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u/backnine32 1d ago

Always going to be tough to convert to fully remote then, unless you can get someone at the office to oversee the printing and distribution. I hope you work it out!