Why You Should Be Tracking Supplier Relationship Health

In today’s ever-changing landscape, maintaining healthy supplier relationships is more critical than ever. Companies that maintain good relationships with their suppliers stand to gain a huge deal, from early payment discounts to more favourable terms on future purchases. Paying your suppliers on time avoids late payment penalties and delays in receiving goods and services, keeping the supply chain flowing smoothly.  

Why Quantifying Supplier Relationships Matters 

Quantifying supplier relationship health through data is not just about tracking performance; it's about uncovering the intricacies of your procurement process. By analysing data on payment delays to suppliers, you gain insights into the bottlenecks in your procure-to-pay cycle.  

For instance, understanding which purchase requests and payment approvals take the longest, and identifying the total time taken to pay invoices, can highlight inefficiencies. This data enables businesses to pinpoint causes of delays, such as specific approvers or procedural hurdles. Armed with this knowledge, companies can implement AI or automation solutions, streamline processes, and improve user experiences to make approvals as frictionless as possible. This proactive approach ensures a more efficient, responsive, and mutually beneficial supplier relationship. 

How to Measure and Track Supplier Relationships with Kloo's AP Insights

Reporting functionality on leading accountancy systems often falls far short of companies’ needs, leaving them still spending hours on Excel managing reporting that should be automated. With one click, Kloo integrates with your accounting software (currently available for Xero and Sage Intacct) and draws the necessary data and transforms your accounts payable data into actionable insights, with dashboards for procurement efficiency, cash flow, and supplier relationship health. 

Among other things, these agile reports visualise and compare supplier interactions, identify issues and target these issues with automation. If you have a specific query about payments to suppliers not reflected on your dashboard, AP Insights has natural language queries, meaning you can ask the platform a question like you would in ChatGPT, and receive an answer from your data.  

Key Takeaways: 

It’s no secret that the health of supplier relationships is pivotal in the current business environment. By effectively tracking and quantifying these relationships, companies can not only maintain operational efficiency but also gain strategic advantages. Kloo's AP Insights tool is instrumental in this regard, providing a sophisticated platform to analyse and improve supplier interactions.

Its ability to process natural language queries ensures that complex data is accessible and actionable. In an era where data drives decisions, having a tool like AP Insights is essential for businesses looking to thrive and maintain robust supplier networks. Embrace the future of supplier relationship management with Kloo and turn your data into a competitive edge. 

Learn more and sign up to get AP Insights for free here.