The need to quickly and easily research invoices, as well as route, pull vouchers with special attachments, and handle remittance stubs, all build off a process that can make or break your department. Ultimately, how you handle the process boils down to essentially whether you want to use a batch or alpha filing system. To get a perspective on which is better, MAP turned to the discussion raging on its chat group at www.ioma.com.
When accounts payable folks go to a conference, their bosses often expect them to come back with information they can use to improve their productivity immediately. Recognizing this fact, Recap’s Jon Casher included a number of Quick Tips in his talk at recent IOMA/IMI Managing Accounts Payable conferences. He also reviewed best practices in 10 key accounts payable areas.
Do many of the executives in your company think that the accounts payable function is a no-brainer and could easily be outsourced? If so, they might be interested in the experiences of another company who thought exactly the same way. Consultants often advise companies to outsource their “nonstrategic or noncore” functions. While those who work in accounts payable can foresee the potential problems with this approach, management often does not and goes ahead with the outsourcing. Speaking at an IOMA/IMI Managing Accounts Payable conference, Mary N. Birmingham shared Equiva Services’ experiences on the outsourcing roller coaster.
Productivity increases in accounts payable over the next few years are likely to come not necessarily as a result of process improvements but thanks, in large part, to innovations made possible by technology. Most accounts payable departments are looking for ways to decrease the number of paper invoices coming through the department. In Managing Accounts Payable’s most recent reader survey, respondents shared their productivity improving techniques.
The potential for employee fraud is great as most studies show and is especially acute in large companies. Moreover, accounts payable is often in a position to uncover the fraud, if the staff is alert. The case discussed in this article takes an after-the-fact look at a real life fraud and identifies the steps that the accounts payable department could have taken to uncover the fraud.
Most accounts payable professionals work very hard. Yet often at the end of the day some feel they have accomplished nothing. More to the point, they’ve usually completed a lot—just not what they had planned. To help accounts payable professionals alleviate this problem Jerry Teplitz, principal of Jerry Teplitz Enterprises, Inc. (Virginia Beach, Va.), has identified the following “timewasters” that can swallow the best-planned days.
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