Have you purchased/read an Accounts Payable Book in the last 3 years?

If you’ve purchased an accounts payable book in the last three years, we’d greatly appreciate it if you would respond to a few of our questions. It should take less than two minutes – and you don’t have to leave your contact info unless you want. Your insights are appreciated as they will help me plan for the future. Go here for my two-minute survey.  Thank you. Mary Schaeffer.

It is important to keep in mind that accounts payable does not operate in a vacuum but is part of a bigger process, generally referred to as procure to pay or P2P. Truth be told, the way those other functions are handled also affects the productivity of the accounts payable function. They are interdependent on each other. While most of the dialog about P2P breakdowns usually revolves around the interactions between purchasing and accounts payable, that is only part of the chain. What follows is a review of some strategies that will make the entire P2P process run smoother.

The First Step

Before trying to convince other departments to make the following changes, figure out how they will benefit from your recommendations. Then, when you ask them for the changes, lead with their benefits.

What might those benefits be? For purchasing, improved and timelier data will translate into fewer annoying calls from accounts payable and aggravated calls from their suppliers. The same can be said for receiving – especially if they are careful in checking packing slips.

Remember, the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) always works. So, don’t start by telling them what you need, explain how your request will also benefit them.

The rest of this article appears in the August issue of Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow. That issue also includes articles on P-card Fraud Prevention, ACH Best Practices, Void checks, Auditors’ Unclaimed Property Secrets, Collection W-9s, Avoiding Uneven T&E Policy Enforcement. You can purchase an electronic copy of the August issue here.

For additional information or to Subscribe to Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow.

(c)2010 CRYSTALLUS Inc.

When was the last time your accounts payable department requested and checked vendor statements? Most readers know they should periodically request statements from vendors, insisting that the statements show all activity, including open credits. But how many actually get around to this task. Once you’ve identified open credits, either request a check for those items or use them against open invoices. Vendor credits often go unused simply because the customer (that’s you) doesn’t know about them and the supplier “forgets” to inform the customer.

Some organizations simply don’t have the staff to perform this task. If yours is one of them, consider hiring an audit firm to do this for you. If you limit the scope of the audit to this one task, you can usually negotiate a lower rate. In fact, there are some firms that specialize in vendors’ statements reviews. Since this work is often done on a contingency basis, management should not object. Given the fact that many organizations are actively searching for ways to increase the bottom line, this suggestion may very well be welcome by management. This is true even at organizations that had in the past, refused to consider this type of activity.

Are you scrupulous about checking your master vendor file before setting up a new vendor? Do you just look and see if you have a vendor with the same name already set up? Or do you take it one step further? Before setting up a new vendor up—using your strict naming convention—check to see if you have a vendor set up with the same address or the same TIN. Taking this extra step will prevent those few vendors who may have been set up using a DBA or some other name from slipping through. True, you may have two different vendors with the same address, but they won’t have the same TIN. This extra step only takes a minute or two to execute but could save your organization thousands of dollars down the road.

(c) 2010 Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow

Do you find that many of the employees in your organization ask the same accounts payable questions over and over again? Does your staff waste a lot of time answering phone calls that really never should have been made? How many Rush checks could have been avoided if the submitters would just remember your cut-off time is noon and not three p.m.? You get the idea. If there were some way you could convey this standard information to employees you might be able to improve the productivity of your department while still maintaining that high level of customer service you strive to offer.

There are several strategies you can use to disseminate information. Start by preparing a FAQ (frequently asked questions) sheet and posting it on your Intranet site and departmental bulletin boards. Try to keep it short, as you will lose people if it is too long. You might also design a quarterly accounts payable newsletter for internal use. It can be one page (front and back) or longer. Use it to provide new information, news about personal or procedural changes, and to reiterate information that seems to have gotten lost. The last piece refers to those annoying questions that keep popping up. The efforts involved in producing these documents (FAQ and newsletter) will be worth the investment when the phone calls about these simple everyday issues plummet.

(c) 2010 Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow

Do you have a process for tracking discrepant invoices? You should because if you don’t the chances of late fees, duplicate payments, and disgruntled vendors are likely to skyrocket. If you assume that your processors are following up closely, you are apt to be disappointed a good deal of the time. With a mountain of work facing most of them, problematic invoices have a way of disappearing or getting forgotten—hence the moniker, the Accounts Payable Black Hole.

The proper way to handle discrepant invoices is just one of the many issues we’ll explore in our “Laying a Strong Foundation” webinar next week. If you want to make sure your company doesn’t have a black hole in accounts payable or want your staff and management to have a true understanding of the basics of a good accounts payable function, please join us on March 25, 2010. I’ve put together an information-packed 60-minute discussion of the elements that lay the foundation for a robust accounts payable function. CDs of this session will be available shortly after the event.

(c) 2010 Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow, a CRYSTALLUS, Inc. publication

Does your heart drop when you hear someone ask one of your staffers why they are doing something a certain way only to hear, “I don’t know, we’ve always done it that way”—or worse—“Because the manager said to do it that way.” If your experiences are anything like mine, the staffer is sure to be offering up this explanation to the CFO or VP of Finance.

There are a number of reasons this happens. First, it could be exactly as the staffer replied. No one ever explained why they were doing certain things a certain way. Or, when they were new and the explanation was offered, it got lost in the haze of trying to learn the basic processes.

That’s part of the reason I wanted to develop the Laying a Strong Foundations for AP Basics course. Not only will we review the processes, we’ll explain why things are done the way they are. By the way, several organizations that have signed up also bought an Add-a-Buddy slot for their controller so he or she can listen to the information as well from the comfort of their office. We’re hoping that listening to this session will provide a clearer understanding of the challenges faced each day in accounts payable.

Additional information about the event and the CD that will be available after the session can be found at http://www.ap-now.com/accountspayablebasicswebinar.html 

I was working on an accounts payable article when the phone rang and to my disbelief it was a very pleasant young lady inquiring about the model number for our copier. I was flabbergasted; she was trying to pull the copier scam. The call lasted less than 30 seconds because as soon as she realized I knew what she was up to, she hung up. I sat there musing about it for a few minutes. I was perplexed at how this scam that is now at over 30 years old could still be going on—and apparently working. Doesn’t everyone know about it? And, then a light went off.

While most of our readers know about this scam, new folks to the working pool probably don’t. The crooks don’t want to get you or me on the phone, they’re hoping for the new hire with only a few years (or less) experience they can con into giving them the copier model number.

We’ve prepared a short white paper explaining this con in detail along with instructions on what employees can do to thwart it. To get it you must be signed up to receive AP Now’s free weekly ezine or subscribe to the Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow Newsletter or The CFO & Controllers’ Accounts Payable Management Journal.

After meeting one of these conditions, send an email to publisher@ap-now.com with the words Blog Copier Scam in the subject line.

Here’s a nifty little tip that will certainly help accounts payable with its master vendor file headaches.

Before setting a new vendor up in your master vendor file, check not only to see if the name has already been entered, but check if any other vendor in the file has the same address or TIN. This step will only take an extra minute or two but could save your company a lot of money but preventing inadvertent duplicate payments.

It’s the little strategies like this that add up and could make you an AP Super Bowl winner.

(c) 2010 Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow and CRYSTALLUS, Inc.

Although not nearly as lyrical as the original, we offer you AP Now’s 12 Holiday Wishes for 2009 year end

1. May AP get year end closed well before midnight!

2. Let fraud of all types not slip through your safeguards,

3. And duplicate payments become but a fading memory.

4. May your staff be satisfied with their work and their pay,

5. Let your boss be pleased enough with your work to fight for that promotion you so richly deserve.

6. And let employment be found elsewhere for those disgruntled co-workers who make life so difficult for you and your staff.

7. May there be adequate budget so you do not have to layoff anyone.

8. May your 1099s fly out the door in January without a hitch.

9. Let B-Notices clutter your mailbox nevermore.

10. May the auditors, be they escheat, sales and use tax, or worse, never darken your doorstep again.

11. Let you find both the humor and the patience to deal with the absurd -especially on those occasions when ridiculous seems to rule the day.

12. And most importantly, may you unearth a little spare time to sit down, plan, and enjoy yourself.

… and of course, may there be a few dollars left in the budget so you can a subscription to Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow, AP Now’s Quarterly Diagnostic or The CFO & Controller’s Accounts Payable Management Journal.  

(c) 2009 Mary Schaeffer, CRYSTALLUS, Inc. and Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow