Customer Service

There is great variation in how A/P organizations handle customer service. Many larger A/P organizations have a separate customer service unit that is dedicated to handling and resolving inquiries by vendors. Other organizations always refer vendor customer service inquires directly to the approver and handle little customer service themselves.

Intranest have become increasingly popular as a means for handling employee inquires and has reduced phone calls in those departments utilizing them. The Internet, on the other hand, is only slowly being adopted as a means for handling vendor inquiries with security concerns being the main obstacle. Only a few universities and high tech companies have taken the lead in installing Internet customer service modules for their vendors.

While most A/P organizations have standard for transactions and track results, less than half of all A/P organizations track rejects and errors caught by A/P.