The TAPN/IOMA certification program has been very successful since first introduced at Johnson & Johnson.

A major contributing factor to the success of this program has been the recognition an A/P professional receives having successfully met the standards for the most comprehensive certification program available today. This recognition comes not only from their management, but also from their peers.

In addition to the other benefits afforded by certification, two additional benefits were recently cited by TAPN member A/P organizations.

MOTIVATION

Through participating in the certification review prior to administrating the exam, A/P professionals get a clear view of numerous A/P best practices. They can judge where their organization stands with respect to implementing such practices.

Those of you who read my blogs will remember that I recently conducted a certification review and testing for 62 A/P professionals in the Gauteng Shared Service Center in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Here is a quote from Fannie Hanekom, the Director of A/P Operations at the Center, summarizing his view of the impact this certification program had on his staff.

“What is encouraging to see is that this exercise seems to have blown new life into interest of matters regarding accounts payable. From that perspective alone the effort was definitely worth it.”

EMPLOYABILITY

The pace of change in A/P is fueled by the growth of technology solutions that are resulting in electronic invoice and payment processing. This rapid change is resulting in fewer resources required within A/P organizations to perform the traditional manual functions. At some point if other assignments are not available, management will be faced with the need to downsize the staff.

Most A/P professionals realize that this is a possibility and are requesting appropriate training, so they are potentially employable at other companies.

I was requested to conduct a certification training and testing session at Lucent Technologies for a group of A/P professionals who were being downsized. Lucent’s A/P management offered these professionals the opportunity to obtain the APS ( Accounts Payable Specialist) certification designation. Lucent’s management felt that with such designation, the resumes of the personnel being downsized would reflect their overall knowledge of the A/P process and potentially make them more marketable.

Typically when the benefits of certification are listed, these two do not make the list. But given the circumstances within your organization they could be very beneficial to you.

Tom Nichols, president of Process Management Improvement, Inc., provides research, AP process improvement consulting, training and seminars to large companies and financial associations. Email Tom Nichols