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.

I was talking to Tracey Reid the other day about unclaimed property and she shared a startling statistic - one that should be of interest to professionals concerned about accounts payable and duplicate payments.

As you may know, Reid is an expert in unclaimed property matters. She believes that roughly 65% of the dollars turned over to the state are either duplicate payments or other monies that will never be returned to their rightful owners because estimating was used to arrive at the amounts.

While there is nothing wrong with estimating when records are not available or too cumbersome, the result is something not intended by the original laws. Since monies turned over to the states as a result of an estimating process are not identified with a particular owner, they can never be returned. Hence they sit in the state coffers forever.

This could be avoided by proper due diligence along the way. Reid will discuss proper due diligence in the webinar/audio conference she’s giving for Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow on October 7th as well as at our Unclaimed Property seminars in Cincinatti and Los Angeles.

You can find information about these seminars at http://ap-now.com/UPseminar.html; information about all Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow webinars at http://ap-now.com/webinar.html and information about CDs from past events at http://ap-now.com/apcds.html 

Don’t let your assets disappear, says INGDicrect. The financial institutio is alerting all consumers to the issues surrounding Unclaimed Property and offering advice so the consumers property will not be considered abandoned by the states. What’s more it wants you to write a letter to your legislators to ” make them aware of how a law that was intended to protect consumers is doing just the opposite”

While this may be good news for consumers, it is not for the states - who will ultimately be forced to become even more aggressive in their pursuit of unclaimed property. Well - okay - not all the states will become more aggressive just the ones that rely heavily on that income.

Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow has help for its readers grappling with Unclaimed Property issues. For information about its Unclaimed Property Toolkits, Seminars or webinars visit ap-now.com

I’ve just finished putting together the final material for Accounts Payable NOw & Tomorrow’s Thursday’s webinar and I am pretty excited about it. It focuses on one of my pet peeves. Poor practices in accounts payable can cost organizations a lot more than they realize. It’s that simple.

The title of the webinar says it all:  Controller & CFO Crash Course: Simple Ways to Maximize AP Productivity  I’m going to start the webinar by quickly going through the math to show people just exactly how much the poor practices cost. We’re going to show how to bring it right down to the bottom line – so that everyone gets the full impact. I really don’t think some people realize just how much some poor practices hurt their bottom line.

Then we’ll go through the individual issues that are often ignored and demonstrate the financial impact, wherever possible. The fact of the matter is, as most reading this are well aware, there are many simple things that can be done to improve both AP and the bottom line.

While I don’t think I have anything earthshattering to share I do believe that by looking at these practices from a different point of veiw, controllers, cfos and other high executives will get some appreciation for the financial impact poor practices have on their bottom line. While many do get it, there are still a good number out there who do not realize the full financial impact of these practices.

Okay, I’ve ranted enough. I’ll get off and finalize my notes for the lecture. The webinar is scheduled for Thursday, June 19th and CDs will be available two weeks later. I hope to see you there.

Mary Schaeffer

Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow

author 12 John Wiley & Sons books including The Controller & CFO’s Guide to Accounts Payable