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.
When an organization goes global, AP has to go global right along with it. But you’ll fare just fine no matter what country your organization lands in if you follow the advice of Cherry Donnelly, APM, accounting operations manager at Aegon Direct Marketing Services Inc. For the last six of her 19 years at the company, Donnelly has been responsible for the AP, treasury, and cash control areas.
In a survey we recently conducted, almost 75 percent of AP departments will have some form of automated invoice processing in place by the end of this year. The success of these efforts will depend on upfront planning. The trouble is, many AP managers are unsure about the best way to lay the groundwork for an invoice automation project. Fortunately, many AP departments have gone through this already—producing some best practices for invoice automation planning.
Does this sound familiar? You read in the pages of MAP about all of the impressive things that other AP departments are doing. Or you go to a conference and see all of the exciting new solutions designed to make your AP department run at peak efficiency. You get all pumped up to tackle a new project and shake things up, and then reality hits you smack in the face. You’re back at work, bogged down by day-to-day tasks, and you begin to think, "What’s the point of making new plans? AP never gets any money, anyway." So your dream fades away. But it doesn’t have to be that way, says one AP pro.
There are a number of good reasons why it makes sense to purchase a ready-made system for processing employee expense reimbursements for travel and entertainment (T&E). For Iowa State University (ISU), however, it made sense to develop its own Web-based system a few years ago. ISU had certain requirements that most off-the-shelf systems could not address. Fortunately, ISU also had the IT resources to tailor a program to its particular needs.
IOMA AP TRAINING
The IOMA AP Training Seminar: The Best Training Program Available for Accounts Payable Professionals
Ft. Lauderdale, June 4; Chicago, June 19; San Jose, CA, July 16; Nashville, July 23; Portland, OR, Aug. 13; Toronto, ON, Aug. 20; Atlanta, Sept. 10; Boston, Sept. 17; Las Vegas, Oct. 15.
Go to: www.ioma.com/certification/aptraining.html …
P-CARDS MAKE INROADS
On average, p-cards are handling almost half of "p-card eligible" spend, according to a survey we recently conducted. Respondents said that actual p-card spending is 48 percent of what they have earmarked as total spending that is eligible for p-card usage (see Figure 1 below). While the largest p-card programs (over 1,000 cardholders) do the best (58 percent of their eligible spend is handled by the p-card), organizations with smaller programs also do…
Newest Update on Best Practices for Every Area of AP Latest Research Reveals Best Ways to Improve T&E Processing How One AP Department Combined an ERP Conversion With an AP Makeover Creating a Touchless Procure-to-Pay Process Effective Communication of AP Policies & Procedures Using "Intelligent" Scanning to Automate Invoice Processing New Survey Reveals Plans to Expand P-Card Programs…
Problem: Employee travel costs often get neglected, but they represent an enormous opportunity for cost cutting. One organization, a large consumer products firm, aggressively manages employee travel with a paperless system, a corporate travel card, and online travel booking. Even so, the need for ongoing process improvements is great.
Managing Accounts Payable is part of...
Accounts Payable
