In November 2021, another 4.5 million people quit their jobs, leaving every industry feeling the pinch of being understaffed. “The Great Resignation” has been attributed to everything from a lack of flexibility to burnout. However, much of the club workforce shortages are due to staff finding employment in higher-paying sectors such as landscaping and construction.
While many industries faltered during the pandemic, interest and participation in golf experienced a surge. Research by the National Golf Foundation shows there were “three million new golf players in 2020” compared to 2019. Nevertheless, the dramatic upswing in business has its downside. Currently, the golf industry is dealing with a lack of equipment, high rates of staff turnover, and staffing shortages.
Golf Club Accounts Payable Requires Experience
The effects of being short-staffed are hitting Clubs nationwide. Many Club employees are being cross-trained in various positions to cover the lack of staff. While cross-training a ranger to take shifts in the pro-shop might work, some functions cannot be so easily reassigned. Having inexperienced staff take over financial job duties can be disastrous.
Accounts payable functions are often repetitive and time-consuming manual processes. Generating invoices, verifying payment amounts, and reconciling statements usually require sorting through a lot of paperwork and the review and approval of several people to accomplish. When employees who are not familiar with the financial workings of a Golf Club try to fill in, this already lengthy process takes even more time.
What is not always considered is the extra cost that comes with the extra time. Labor shortages typically cause employees to work late to cover their additional job responsibilities, which results in overtime. And overtime still does not guarantee that vendors and suppliers will be paid on time. Slow processes like paper check payments and manual records can delay the disbursement of funds and result in late fees or, worse, the loss of valuable vendors. Inexperienced or overworked employees unintentionally make mistakes that can also cost time and money to rectify.
Digitize Your Golf Club Accounts Payable Process
Automating repetitive and tedious manual functions creates a more efficient workflow and saves your Club time and money.
Golf Clubs have several opportunities to automate from bookings and check-ins to no-touch payments in the pro-shops. Yet the best place to start is with AP automation since most operations lead back to income or payables.
Golf Club payment automation allows Clubs to work with the different payment types that suppliers accept, such as:
- Virtual Cards
- ACH
- Check
With the right Club payment automation technology, Clubs can get more done with fewer employees. By eliminating a manual, time-consuming payments process, staff can focus their attention on customer-facing and revenue generating activities. This is a benefit since the current climate calls for Clubs to recruit and maintain positions that provide the hands-on service that golfers expect.
How Club Automated Payment Solutions Help Your Short-Staffed Golf Club
- Full Visibility – Gain complete visibility of all payment activity and reduce the need for several people to review and approve
- Easy Access – A cloud-based payments processing platform that is accessible at any time from phone, tablet, or computer
- Faster Reconciliation – Real-time invoice and payment tracking that reduces the possibility of duplicate invoices, double payments, or lost payments
- Safe Payments – Virtual card payments are safe, secure, and help to minimize check fraud
- Earned Revenue – Pay suppliers on time, avoid late payment fees and earn rebates that generate new monthly revenue when you pay suppliers that accept virtual cards
While the forecast is for automation to replace 30% of jobs, the type of jobs is an essential factor. The main targets are repetitive and routine functions that employees do not like or have the time to do. Golf Club payment automation helps private Clubs keep on top of finances during labor shortages, but it also allows commercial Clubs to operate more efficiently.
Accounting crosses industries and can be automated by every business, from small businesses to giant corporations. And since being understaffed is a country and industry-wide occurrence, everyone can benefit from AP automation.
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Edenred Pay, an Edenred Company, is the global leader in B2B payments automation. Our integrated platform connects buyers with trading partners, ERPs, banks, FinTechs, and payment rails to optimize supplier enablement, invoice approvals, and B2B payments and create a frictionless process for B2B transactions. Learn more at www.edenredpay.com or schedule a meeting with us.
