A lot of the time businesses, even small businesses, don't realise how much easier a supplier can make their lives. For this purpose let's look at a hypothetical example.

Let's say a small to medium size business makes six orders in a month. That would effectively mean having to process six separate invoices with six separate cheques at month end. Ask your suppliers to create consolidated invoices for you. For example, in our industry the transactions are typically low dollar, high volume. By giving our customers one consolidated invoice at the end of the month, we can save a great deal of time in the accounts payable process. Orders are supplied with a delivery docket for reconciliation and then at month end you simply receive one invoice for payment and write one cheque. Be sure to request this kind of service from all of your suppliers.