Managing Accounts Payable is the leading source of information for accounts payable professionals and those responsible for the function. Each monthly issue contains 5-7 articles, 6-10 short news clips, a manager’s forum on the back page and calendar of upcoming seminars and conferences. The material comes from internal research, surveys, case studies, conference material and interviews. Subscribers to the newsletter have the opportunity each year to participate in a benchmarking or operations survey. Participants receive the results for free. Topics covered in the newsletter include: invoice handling; check preparation, printing and filing; exception and Rush check processing; techniques for reducing duplicate payments; staff and career management; working with other departments, master vendor files; terms and discounts; T&E; VAT Reclaim, EDI; XML; technology; imaging p-cards; post audit firms; benchmarking; 1099s; check fraud; case studies; escheat or unclaimed property; and sales and use tax. Spot e-mail surveys are also conducted and reported on when issues such as the 9/11 tragedy occur. The newsletter sponsors five accounts payable conferences each year. An annual buyers’ guide is included with a subscription.
Your AP department will have a lot more Form 1099 work to do under President Obama’s new budget plan. The government’s goal is to ferret out individuals and businesses that under-report their income. True, these proposals have been kicking around Washington for a few years, but they’re now more likely to pass. Reason: The increased tax revenue they’ll bring to the government will offset Obama’s planned tax breaks for individuals and businesses.
When thinking about automating the invoice process, most AP pros will immediately think of invoice imaging and electronic invoicing. But before you go those routes, the first step should be to consider ways to eliminate the invoice altogether. There are two main tools you can use to eliminate invoices: 1) corporate purchasing cards (p-cards); and 2) evaluated receipt settlement (ERS). Companies can generally eliminate a quarter of their invoice volume using these two methods.
A whopping 71 percent of organizations were attacked by payment fraudsters in 2008. And when the attacks succeeded, the scam artists typically glommed onto over $15,000 per incident, according to the 2009 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey from the Association for Financial Professionals.
MAP believes that outsourcing certain AP tasks will become more prevalent over the next few years. These tasks—which are really sub-tasks of the overall invoice and payment process—run the gamut from invoice receipt and imaging to data input to check printing. Regardless of what is outsourced or the extent of the outsourcing, there are important factors to consider.
Many AP departments are operating today with a downsized staff. As a result, AP managers and supervisors now have even less time than before to get their work done. That’s because if they sit down and analyze where their time goes, they will likely find that they spend much of it doing things their staffers are supposed to be doing. What’s more, these tasks are usually the hardest, most annoying, and least-satisfying jobs in the department.
OUTLOOK FOR AP OUTSOURCING
While only 2 percent of total invoice processing is outsourced, a higher percentage of organizations have outsourced at least some of the sub-processes, according to the Hackett Group. For example, 3 percent of pre-processing has been outsourced, but it’s expected to jump to 12 percent by 2010 (see figure below), says the Hackett report, Automating the Invoice Process: Optimizing the Approach and Building the Business Case. The report points out that the…
New AP Benchmark Data for Invoice and Expense Report Processing Mix of Automated Payment Tools to Move Away From Paper Checks How to Optimize Your Payment Timing and Keep Vendors Satisfied A Sample Internal Report Card to Use to Grade Your AP Department’s Performance Tips on Making Payments from Invoice Copies or Faxes AP Compensation Survey Reveals Latest Salary and Bonus Data Optimizing Your Purchasing Card Program Using Technology to Improve AP’s Image…
IOMA/TAPN AP CERTIFICATION PROGRAM
Register now for a one-day intensive AP review class to prepare for the AP Certification Exams. Classes will be held in:
Chicago (July 22); Boston (Sept. 17); Orlando (Oct. 14)*; Houston (Nov. 11); San Francisco (Nov. 17). Go to: www.ioma.com/certification/aptraining.html
(*held before IOMA 8th Annual AP Conference & Expo listed below) …
Problem: It seemed to the AP manager at a manufacturer (3 full-time in AP) that she spent too much time getting invoices approved for payment.
Managing Accounts Payable is part of...
Accounts Payable
