How often do your travelers check their credit card statements? If they are like me, it is once a month – right before I’m getting ready to pay the bill. This, as it turns out, is a really bad idea. A recent study  revealed that almost 40 percent of the credit card hacking cases last year involved the hotel industry. That’s right. Combine the fact that hotels don’t always do as good a job as they should when it comes to securing credit card data with the fact that many travelers are not vigilant about checking their credit card bills on a timely basis and you have a recipe for a fraud smorgasbord.

And that is what is happening. Crooks are getting a hold of this data and running up charges on the cards. In order not to get caught, your travelers need to start looking at their credit card statements on a very regular basis – either as soon as the bills arrive or, if they can, checking the charges online regularly.

To review other travel and entertainment best practices, consider AP Now’s T & E Best Practices to Ensure IRS Compliance and Prevent Fraud CD

(c) 2010 CRYSTALLUS, Inc. and Mary Schaeffer

It’s that time of the year - the time to evaluate what you’ve done in the past, set goals for your future and then the hard part - figuring out what you have to do to achieve those goals. Now, it goes without saying that most of our readers would like to hold onto their jobs and perhaps get promoted. If you fall into that category, here are some goals you might want to consider.

Demonstrate your cost-cutting skills.

Step outside your comfort zone at work.

Raise your profile at work.

Become invaluable to your boss.

Minimize the number of duplicate vendors in the master vendor file.

Improve departmental morale.

Improve relations with other departments.

No more headaches getting 1099s prepared because of missing information.

Minimize the number of B-Notices received.

Need help figuring out how to accomplish these goals? The January 2010 issue of Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow has some suggestions readers can use to help them meet these goals.

For information about the AP Now newsletter, go to http://www.ap-now.com/aboutnl.html

(c) 2010 CRYSTALLUS, Inc.

I was just reading a story about a fraud and it brought to home one of the unforseen consequences. In this case the fraudster was an employee in accounts payable with a drug problem.

In order to cover up her theivery, which went on for some time, she manipulated vendor accounts leading to frayed supplier relationships. The goodwill the organization had spent years building was destroyed. When the losses associated with a fraud are calculated, this unmeasurable cost is usually overlooked. Rebuilding trust can take a long time - assuming the supplier hasn’t decided to end the relationship for good.

(c) 2009 Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow

When most people think about saving money, accounts payable doesn’t leap to mind—unless it’s to cut staff. “That’s a crime on two levels,” says Mary Schaeffer, publisher of the Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow newsletter and author of 16 business books including Fraud in Accounts Payable: How to Prevent It. First, when times are tough, she explains, financial fraud grows as do other practices, actually increasing the work load in accounts payable. So if the organization does not want worsened financial results, the better course is to increase AP staffing.

What’s more, she notes, there are many ways a savvy accounts payable department can add to the bottom line, if there is the staff to perform those tasks. Recognizing that its readers are under fire, Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow has taken a hard look at what it can do to help and created several resources (some free) to do just that.

The organization also recently launched a Duplicate Payment Resource Center, a free online hub filled with articles and diagnostic tools anyone can use to determine if they have a duplicate payment problem.

The recent “Accounts Payable in Tough Times” issue of its print newsletter brings expanded content at the regular single-issue price. “The pricing on this reflects our understanding of the tough market conditions many of our readers are experiencing,” explains Schaeffer. She says that is the same reason the organization dropped its pricing for its recession-buster webinars.

The organization has also developed several webinars and CDs to help readers with accounts payable issues in difficult times.

(C) 2009

Whenever I tell people outside of accounts payable that I write about accounts payable they roll their eyes. It’s kind of the way, most (but definitely not all) of the accounting and finance world view accounts payable: a necessary task at every company - but one that is definitely unexciting and doesn’t deserve much attention.  I clearly don’t agree with this view and continually fight for more recognition for my hard working readers.

So, as I watched the crowd do the same thing when Susan Boyle got on the Britian’s Got Talent stage to perform, I could emphathize with her - and was of course, thrilled when she showed the judges and the world that they were wrong in their initial opinion. And, I’ve seen some of my readers do the same thing: Surprise and confound their bosses by coming up with smart money saving recommendations. And, I hope to see more.

Do you agree or disagree with my thesis? Please write me at publisher@ap-now.com - I suspect we’ll have a lively debate.

Do you have written policies and procedures that explain exactly how you classify workers? If not, you are already headed down the wrong worker classification path. At Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow’s Worker Classification Webinar  Balance Consulting’s Steve Mercatante, Esq. alerted the audience to the dangers of not having one. Before we started, he told myself and Kathie, our intrepid managing editor, that he was apprehensive that he would sound too lawyerly and that would bore the audience. 

As incredible as this may sound, especially given the topic, Mercatante was anything but dull. He started out by quoting a Wall Street Journal article that indicated in the last six years, there were 11,000 audits that resulted in 483,000 workers being reclassified and costing the organizations that employed them three quarters of a billion dollars (yes, billions) in back taxes and penalties.

He also pointed out that the IRS no longer strictly follows the 20 Factor Test (remember that?). CDs of the event are available for sale.

To make sure you get your TIN Solicitation procedures right, please join us on April 2 as Mercatante’s colleague, Denise Johnson, Esq., addresses the issue of W-9 & W-8 TIN Solicitations: A Best Practice Program for 2009 and Beyond.

Do you remember teachers telling you in school that “there was no such thing as a stupid question”? Well I took that to heart - both then and now. I especially believe that to be true when it comes to accounts payable. That’s why I encourage people to write me with their questions when they have them. I don’t promise to answer them all, but I do promise to try.

If I can provide a simple answer to an accounts payable related question right off the top of my head, I do respond. The problem arises when I don’t have an answer - and that does occasionally happen. In that case, if appropriate, I often turn to my trusty ezine audience to see how readers are handling a particular situation.

Now here’s the irony, at least for me. Occasionally I am asked an accounts payable question to which I have no response and I think, ‘this is great. I’ll get someone an answer and a great article for the accounts payable newsletter or one of my books at the same time.” And, you guessed it. These are the questions no one has an answer to. That means I can try and research it with experts (which I often do) or put it aside for another day when no answer is readily found. Unfortunately, for me, this happens when I am asked a question that I believe will make a really great article.

But, back to the other side of the coin. What may look like a dumb or innocuous question to you may actually be preying on the minds of a number of your colleagues. So, please ask away. You can send your questions to me directly at publisher@ap-now.com 

Thanks for listening.

© 2009 Mary S Schaeffer Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow

Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow received the following inquiry from a reader in the healthcare industry whose company is considering the purchase of a new computer system. “According to the demos I have attended”, she wrote, “Most of the work and verification is done in purchasing. This is going to be a big change for that department and for accounts payable. 

“I am wondering,” she continued, “how other companies divide job duties and how they went about implementing procedures/systems the first time around. Right now in our company, purchasing places the order and receives the shipment.  AP gets a copy of the PO and when the packing slip comes in purchasing verifies and codes what they know then passes it along to AP.  I then verify what they have done and key it into the system.  I correct any errors and hold items that are questionable until a manager can verify them.”

I responded that typically – and I use that word loosely – there are three parties involved. The receiving is not done in purchasing but in a separate receiving unit. I hope that the person purchasing is not the one receiving the goods and verifying the packing slip. If so that would be a serious slip in internal controls. The verification and matching of the three documents is almost always done in accounts payable. I also said I’d ask readers how they handled this issue. Responses can be posted to the Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow blog (registration required) or sent to marys@ap-now.com for anonymous posting.  

Those interested in this issue might also be interested in the Accounts Payable Internal Controls CD or the Accounts Payable Best Practices CD.  Return to the Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow home page.

Quite a few years ago, when I used to write for both accounts payable professionals and credit professionals, I made a remark to my husband (who used to be a credit manager) and a credit manager who we were dining with. I simply stated that I thought in most organizations the accounts payable staff was not held in as high esteem as the credit staff.

This evoked some laughter and a few rude remarks from my dinner companions. “She obviously never worked as a credit manager,” remarked our friend to my husband - which set off another round of laughter. While they were correct in that assertion, I have spent years talking to people in both professions and I still stand by my original claim.

This encounter was brought back to me recently when I received a note from a reader asking if I really did believe accounts payable issues were not held in high regard in most organizations. I will tell you this. In my humble opinion, things have gotten better for accounts payable in some organizations. However, I believe there are still many where accounts payable is not held in high regard and the issues are not given the attention they deserve.

That is why many organizations still allow an unconscionable number of Rush checks, still permit checks to be returned to requisitioners and often have an accounts payable organization headed by someone with the title of supervisor - even though that person is doing much higher level work.

To be perfectly fair, there are organizations that do recognize the contributions there accounts payable staff makes to the bottom line, recognizes that and rewards them appropriately. I just wish there were more of them. Do you agree?

Mary Schaeffer
www.ap-now.com

© 2008 Mary S. Schaeffer, Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow, & CRYSTALLUS, Inc.

As regular readers of our weekly accounts payable ezine (sign up at http://ap-now.com/ezinesignup.html) may realize, we end each issue with our signature, “thanks for listening.”  And, I really do mean it. I realize that most of our readers are extremely busy professionals and do appreciate the time they take to read what I have to say. And, the same goes for those who visit this blog. Your visits are appreciated.

But, it will get pretty boring if I’m out here yammering away by myself. We really do want to know what you think - if you agree or disagree. Otherwise, I feel like I’m sitting in my kitchen talking to my self.  We can tell from the click through stats that the blog is popular and people are visiting - but I have to tell you, the silence is kind of deafening. So, please join in and let us know what you are thinking. Feel free to comment here - or drop me a personal note at publisher@ap-now.com. Otherwise, left to my own devices, I may start posting about african violets and add pictures of my children.

Thanks for listenig - and participating
Mary Schaeffer

Return to Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow home page.