Interview With An Accounts Payable Representative
We can’t get over just how incredible all of our employees are and that’s why we are excited to share with you our next installment of our employee interview series! This month we are talking to Accounts Payable Representative Mary Bingham to learn what it’s like working in the finance department at UTOPIA Fiber!
What’s your name, your position, and how long have you been at UTOPIA Fiber?
My name is Mary Bingham, I’m our accounts payable representative, and I’ve been here for almost 13 years!
What do you do as the Accounts Payable Representative at UTOPIA Fiber?
To put it simply I make sure our vendors get paid in a timely manner. I enter invoices, make sure that they are coded correctly, and create job costs to ensure proper coding of invoices.
What inspired you to go into Accounts Payable as a career?
So I started out here as the receptionist and then I was the receptionist for four and a half years but about 10 months after I started here our CFO at the time asked me if I could start helping out the accounting department because the accounting department at the time only had like 3 people in it. And then they just kept giving me more work to do and then once a job became available I applied and went from being the receptionist to the administrative assistant but I still had all my account jobs and then the accounts payable job opened up and I applied and started there.
What’s the biggest obstacle your team faces?
Inventory! Haha that and Ensuring that our systems, processes, and policies are keeping up with the incredible growth we’re experiencing. This includes helping all departments across the company have visibility into their budgets versus actuals so they can make every dollar count towards our goal of growing the largest open-access fiber network in the country.
What’s your favorite thing about working at UTOPIA Fiber?
Oh definitely the people, I love all of our coworkers. I love how my voice is heard by management and how it doesn’t matter if somebody here has the word “Officer” in their title, I can still text them whenever I need something. In my mind, we are all treated equally, as one. I think that’s how we operate so proficiently. This whole company works as a team and we work very well together, we are a family.
What’s been the funniest experience you’ve had at UTOPIA Fiber?
Anything that has to do with Jesse because he’s always scaring people around the office, especially me. That and Jesse is just generally so funny, he has little tickets that he gives people for silly things, like he gave Rachel a ticket the other day for her parking that was funny!
What do you wish people knew about UTOPIA Fiber?
I wish people knew that we have grown so much since the beginning when we didn’t have a lot of support! That and the people here work their hardest to make sure residents and businesses have the best fiber internet service possible. The people here just really care about what we do and are dedicated to providing the best service! I think that’s why I’ve been here so long because of how awesome the people are and their dedication to the cause.
I also wish people understood how great the pricing is, I’ve talked to some people who say that “UTOPIA Fiber is too expensive” and I’m like no it’s not. It’s $65 for 250 mbps which is really cheap for what you get on our network with symmetrical speeds.
Outside of work what’s your favorite thing to do?
I think my favorite thing to do is to take walks in the mountains during summertime. I just love love love being in the mountains! That and I love spending time with my kids!
That’s all for today’s interview! We hope you enjoyed getting to know Mary as much as we did! We are so grateful for all the hard work that Mary and her team put in every day to help make sure everything runs smoothly here at Team UTOPIA!
Who should we interview next? Let us know on our socials if there is a department you would like to hear from. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Reddit, TikTok, and Instagram.