Five Steps to Prepare the Accounts Payable Department and Yourself for the Future

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Managing Accounts Payable

May, 2003

The role of the accounts payable professional is changing at lightning speed. We’ve all heard the rallying cry that the field will start to reward those who become more analytical instead of those who can process the most paper the fastest. How can forward-thinking accounts payable professionals make that transformation? explained to the audience exactly how they could make such a change in their own careers.
they could take in five areas that would transform their department while giving them the tools to move up the
corporate ladder.

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May, 2003 Table of Contents [ toggle snippets ]

Five Steps to Prepare the Accounts Payable Department and Yourself for the Future
The role of the accounts payable professional is changing at lightning speed. We’ve all heard the rallying cry that the field will start to reward those who become more analytical instead of those who can process the most paper the fastest. How can forward-thinking accounts payable professionals make that transformation? explained to the audience exactly how they could make such a change in their own careers.
they could take in five areas that would transform their department while giving them the tools to move up the
corporate ladder.

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Solutions for the Four Biggest e-Invoicing Launch Challenges
While e-invoicing is the answer to many of the problems that plague accounts payable departments, few are so naïve that they believe new installations will be without difficulties. But what are the most common problems,and how are they best addressed? To help understand the problems that accounts payable might encounter when planning an e-invoicing initiative, we asked several Web invoicing vendors to delineate the most common problems encountered when starting with Web invoicing. Education, global issues with international clients,
critical mass of users, and technical implementation issues were high on the list of most of those questioned.

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Petty Cash Box Best Practices�if Your Company Insists on Having One!
Petty cash is one of those insidious practices that are a really bad idea—yet the practice persists at some companies. What follows is a discussion of the correct way to handle a petty cash box and account for the transactions that run through it and a list of practices that, if at all possible, accounts payable professionals should discourage.

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How Most Duplicate Payments Slip Past Conventional Controls
Look quickly at the invoice number following the arrow below and write it on a scrap of paper. Did you pick up the three alpha characters in the invoice number? The invoice number contains the capital letter S and O and small letter l. This simple example demonstrates just one of the reasons rekeying errors occur in accounts payable and why duplicate payments happen. In his excellent white paper, Are You Paying Your Bills Twice?
Simon Conroy of conroyautomation.com examined the issue of exactly how, even when there are good controls
in place, duplicate payments occur. He also offers solutions on how accounts payable professionals can avoid
the mistakes that lead to these erroneous payments.

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Five Proven Strategies to Manage Conflict in the A/P Department
Managing the stress associated with getting W-9s and 1099s, not to mention dealing with purchasing and other “high-maintenance” personnel, is a daunting task for even the most skilled accounts payable manager. Add the pressure of overworked employees (due to cutbacks) or under-appreciated ones (if year-end raises were less than they hoped for) and the picture becomes even uglier than before. The result could be more stress, strain, and conflict than even the most experienced accounts payable managers are used to. Recognizing
this growing problem, MAP presents advice from psychotherapist Philip Chard, president and CEO of NEAS Inc., an employee assistance program and work/life services firm.

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Accounts Payable Manager�s Forum (May 2003)
Speed up reporting by automating expense forms.

Reduce errors on purchase orders, while improving relations with purchasing.

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