Visibility of activities driving the performance of accounts receivable management : Exploring effective visual communications

Abstract

This study was an action research aiming to increase the efficiency of accounts receivable management. The purpose of the study was to enhance visibility of activities driving the performance of accounts receivable management by exploring effective visual communications. The assumption was that effective visual communications enhance visibility. Literature review investigated the concepts of accounts receivable and performance measurement. A few of the most common outcome metrics were introduced. Measuring outcome metrics, however, is too late in terms of improvement. Therefore, to contribute to performance, visibility of activities driving the performance is needed. This requires defining these activities and the indicators to measure them. As a response a model to define leading indicators was proposed. Conceptual framework was built around visual communications by exploring visual perception, visual attention and visual representations. A definition for an effective visual communication was provided. As an outcome, a selection of visual communications representing accounts receivable leading indicators was produced. The study concluded that a graph serves a purpose defined by the designer, who decides the approach towards the data. Therefore visibility is dependent on the designer’s understanding of the design principles, human sensory capabilities and also the substance in question. The concept of substance was not addressed in the study.