Pauline very much enjoyed working in the cafe. When she was a teenager, she had worked with her Grandfather learning how to make the various coffee drinks. Most, of the many cousins in the family, had worked at Mario's at some point - several still worked here part-time. Mario had instilled into all of them his goal to serve only a perfect coffee (several had also picked up his love of telling good stories!). Most of her time had been spent working closely with new baristas, ensuring product quality, and with learning the other aspects of the busy cafés. There were a few problems, service was sometimes slow, and they would periodically run out of supplies, but business was still good. 

 

After a few months, she was feeling more confident in her role, so Pauline started focusing on growing the business. Her first business opportunity came when she had lunch with a high-school friend, Daisy Mathes. Daisy owned a catering company. Pauline, remembering her grandfather had started out providing a coffee service at weddings, saw an opportunity. After much discussion, they decided to work together. Daisy would offer a coffee service as part of an event package and Pauline would subcontract when the service was requested. 

 

Another opportunity presented itself when her leasing agent found a perfect location for her to expand. The location was close to a local college and was large enough that she could provide a lounge space for customers. Working with her agent, she negotiated a long-term lease and started working on renovations and hiring staff. Pauline was elated that all her strategies were coming together, but at the same time was overwhelmed with the amount of work that she was doing. She needed help.  

 

She decided to hire for some key position:  

 

1. General Manager (Mona): responsible for daily operations, and the coordination of facilities and equipment. The General Manager would ensure equipment was working and repaired when necessary, facilities were kept clean and damage free.

 

2. Café Managers (Daisy, Morton): responsible for the day-to-day operation of each of the coffee shops, the Manager would work on all front-line operations, ensuring proper staffing, training, and product quality was maintained.

 

3. Coordinator (Isabella): responsible for catering event bookings and ensuring supplies for catering events were ready and shipped to and from events. 

Managing event payments, collecting supplier invoices, and ensuring they were distributed for authorization for payment, or sent to the accountant for payment.

 

4. Accountant (Yoshi): responsible for the collection of sales receipts from each store, ensure invoices were collected, prepare payments for accounts payable, and enter all transactions in a spreadsheet.

 

As the accountant, Yoshi is the person responsible for the administration of accounts payable (AP) for Mario's coffee. The task has always taken up a lot of time and personal resources. He spends a lot of time on the telephone with suppliers answering why their invoices have not been paid, asking for duplicate copies of invoices, and solving problems with invoices. As it is a manual AP process, there are many errors, the process involves many different people, and there is difficulty communicating to the various people ordering supplies without purchase order.

 

The AP process at Mario's works as follows: The mail is opened by the Coordinator, Isabella. She separates invoices into two piles. The first, on-going service providers such as Telus (Business Internet) or BC Hydro (electricity) are sent directly to Yoshi for payment, and in the second pile, inventory and supply invoices are forwarded to the responsible manager for confirmation. The responsible manager confirms the details of the invoice, items ordered, if they were received, and reviews for appropriate pricing. If they are able to confirm the invoice details, they physically sign-off on the invoice and return it to Yoshi for payment. If there is a problem, the responsible manager contacts the vendor and requests a correction to the invoice and has them issue a new invoice.  

Pauline very much enjoyed working in the cafe. When she was a teenager, she had worked with her Grandfather learning how to make the various coffee drinks. Most, of the many cousins in the family, had worked at Mario's at some point - several still worked here part-time. Mario had instilled into all of them his goal to serve only a perfect coffee (several had also picked up his love of telling good stories!). Most of her time had been spent working closely with new baristas, ensuring product quality, and with learning the other aspects of the busy cafés. There were a few problems, service was sometimes slow, and they would periodically run out of supplies, but business was still good. 

 

After a few months, she was feeling more confident in her role, so Pauline started focusing on growing the business. Her first business opportunity came when she had lunch with a high-school friend, Daisy Mathes. Daisy owned a catering company. Pauline, remembering her grandfather had started out providing a coffee service at weddings, saw an opportunity. After much discussion, they decided to work together. Daisy would offer a coffee service as part of an event package and Pauline would subcontract when the service was requested. 

 

Another opportunity presented itself when her leasing agent found a perfect location for her to expand. The location was close to a local college and was large enough that she could provide a lounge space for customers. Working with her agent, she negotiated a long-term lease and started working on renovations and hiring staff. Pauline was elated that all her strategies were coming together, but at the same time was overwhelmed with the amount of work that she was doing. She needed help.  

 

She decided to hire for some key position:  

 

1. General Manager (Mona): responsible for daily operations, and the coordination of facilities and equipment. The General Manager would ensure equipment was working and repaired when necessary, facilities were kept clean and damage free.

 

2. Café Managers (Daisy, Morton): responsible for the day-to-day operation of each of the coffee shops, the Manager would work on all front-line operations, ensuring proper staffing, training, and product quality was maintained.

 

3. Coordinator (Isabella): responsible for catering event bookings and ensuring supplies for catering events were ready and shipped to and from events. 

Managing event payments, collecting supplier invoices, and ensuring they were distributed for authorization for payment, or sent to the accountant for payment.

 

4. Accountant (Yoshi): responsible for the collection of sales receipts from each store, ensure invoices were collected, prepare payments for accounts payable, and enter all transactions in a spreadsheet.

 

As the accountant, Yoshi is the person responsible for the administration of accounts payable (AP) for Mario's coffee. The task has always taken up a lot of time and personal resources. He spends a lot of time on the telephone with suppliers answering why their invoices have not been paid, asking for duplicate copies of invoices, and solving problems with invoices. As it is a manual AP process, there are many errors, the process involves many different people, and there is difficulty communicating to the various people ordering supplies without purchase order.

 

The AP process at Mario's works as follows: The mail is opened by the Coordinator, Isabella. She separates invoices into two piles. The first, on-going service providers such as Telus (Business Internet) or BC Hydro (electricity) are sent directly to Yoshi for payment, and in the second pile, inventory and supply invoices are forwarded to the responsible manager for confirmation. The responsible manager confirms the details of the invoice, items ordered, if they were received, and reviews for appropriate pricing. If they are able to confirm the invoice details, they physically sign-off on the invoice and return it to Yoshi for payment. If there is a problem, the responsible manager contacts the vendor and requests a correction to the invoice and has them issue a new invoice.  

1. Identify the key people involved in the Accounts Payable (AP) process.
2. Using BPMN, draw an 'as-is' diagram for the AP process.
3. Provide an analysis of the process.  Are there any problems?