Use imaging to improve the approval process and get the paper out of the process. Improve departmental productivity by eliminating non-value added work.
People, process and technology were the three keys to accounts payable transformation at Merck—a large company that had been using the same process and technology since 1983. Jim Hinrichs found himself facing this situation in 2000 when he was selected to head Merck’s accounts payable group. Speaking at IOMA’s recent Accounts Payable conference, he explained to attendees the problems the department had when he took over and the techniques he used to address those issues.
Here’s the problem: you get numerous invoices from the same supplier and end up sending out many small dollar checks to the same organization. Wouldn’t it be simpler just to aggregate all the invoices into one larger payment instead of issuing all those costly small dollar checks? The answer, as many accounts payable professionals are all-too-painfully aware, is the ever-evasive “it depends.”
Complicating the 1099 issue even further is the fact that individuals or partnerships own certain hotels even though the hotel may carry a brand name. Thus, a payment for a stay at a Marriott or Holiday Inn made by credit card may necessitate the issuance of a 1099. But how is the accounts payable professional making the credit card payments supposed to divine this information? We raised this issue with our readers and there were several Managing Accounts Payable subscribers who had devised solutions.
Keeping a lid on the number of accounts in the general ledger is always a challenge. Too many accounts make the ledger unwieldy, but limiting the number can diminish the usefulness of the information and almost guarantee that the allocations will be done incorrectly. T&E is one of those nebulous areas where accounts are often combined. Is this smart? Does this make it difficult, if not impossible, to get needed information from the ledger? To help unravel this question Managing Accounts Payable asked several accounting experts.
At first glance, accounts payable professionals may assume that they will not be affected by the recent regulatory changes brought about by the numerous accounting scandals. Taking such a Pollyanna attitude is likely to cause the credit professional some surprise when the auditors come visiting. Already, several accounts payable managers have told Managing Accounts Payable that they are now required to certify the veracity of their records. Here’s what’s going on in the accounting community and what you can expect as the year-end audit begins.
“Managing your vendor file is a process,” says Recap’s Jon Casher, “not a project.” Speaking at a recent IOMA Managing Accounts Payable Conference, he pointed out the benefits of effectively managing the master vendor file as well as providing the audience with guidance on how to get the most out of the information in their master vendor files.
Use imaging to improve the approval process and get the paper out of the process. Improve departmental productivity by eliminating non-value added work.
2009
