|
Let us help YOU stay informed...
07.02.09 Don't Skip Vacation The current economy is causing employees anxiety about taking a vacation at a time when they may need a break from the workplace more than ever, according to CareerBuilder.com.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

07.01.09 Preventing ACH Fraud About one in five companies have been hit with ACH fraud, according to the 2009 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey from the Association for Financial Professionals. The potential for ACH fraud is up due to the growing volume of ACH payments.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.30.09 Mini-Poll Results: Cash Flow Our most recent mini-poll on AccountsPayable360.com asked the following question: How much of an impact do your role and responsibilities have on your organization's cash flow?
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.29.09 IRS Eyes Executive Extras As the Internal Revenue Service seeks to close the tax gap, payments made to or on behalf of executives is one of the areas it is scrutinizing in particular, Michael O'Toole told attendees at a session on Executive Compensation AuditsWhat Is the IRS Looking At? at a recent conference of the American Payroll Association.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.26.09 Test Your AP IQ: Benefits of Outsourcing Which of the following is NOT a benefit of AP outsourcing (having an outside entity perform one or more AP processes)? more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.25.09 Workers Positive Despite Downturn Even though your AP staffers may be under stress because of workplace fallout from the current economic woes, you can safely assume that they still have mostly positive feelings about your company. Employees do say, however, that they would like to see clearer guidance from top management, according to the Workplace Watch survey for the first quarter of 2009, recently released by Towers Perrin, a global management consulting firm.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.24.09 Hospitals Expand Imaging Endorsement The use of imaging and document management in AP can bring huge benefits because it transforms mountains of paper invoices into a paperless, automated environment. There are lots of software vendors out there to choose from, but the choice has been made a little easier for hospitals. The American Hospital Association (AHA) has given its exclusive endorsement to a document management system from Hyland Software Inc., developer of the OnBase enterprise content management (ECM) software suite.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.23.09 Vendor Welcome Letter The use of a vendor welcome letter is a best practice in AP for several reasons. First of all, it gets the relationship between AP and the new vendor off on the right foot. Thats because it lays out exactly what is expected of the vendor, which helps eliminate confusion or problems down the road. It also helps keep your master vendor file clean, because it asks for certain information that you need, such as the vendors Taxpayer Identification Number for 1099 reporting purposes. This eliminates fines and penalties for incorrect 1099 reporting.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.22.09 Surprise IRS Audits Start November AP professionals should be aware that the Internal Revenue Service will do about 6,000 random employment tax audits over three years (up from 4,500 originally planned) and they will begin this November. more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.19.09 Test Your AP IQ: E-Payment Network What is the organization that oversees one of the largest electronic payment networks in the world? more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.18.09 Is Your AP Staff Burned Out? If so, they are not alone. A combination of downsizing and increased workload is causing a rise in stress levels around the workplace. According to a CareerBuilder.com survey of more than 4,400 workers nationwide, 30 percent of workers who have survived layoffs say theyre burned out.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.17.09 On-Demand Invoice App Wins Award Bill.com, Inc. has won a 2009 Tax & Accounting Technology Innovation Award from The CPA Technology Advisor, the leading independent multimedia technology resource for the accounting profession. The award honors new and enhanced technologies that benefit accounting and tax professionals. Nominated products must be less than two years old or have undergone a significant revision or addition during the past two years.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.16.09 Your Role in Cash Management Take our current poll: How much of an impact do your role and responsibilities have on your organization's cash flow? Youll find it in the Active Survey box on the AP360 home page. Well present the poll results in a future e-alert.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.15.09 IRS to Ease Tough Cell Phone Rules Under current rules, the value of employer-provided cell phones is taxable income to the employeeseven if the phones are used totally for business. However, if the employer keeps detailed records, the business usage can be excluded from income. These tough rules have been a thorn in the side of many companiesbut that will soon change.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.12.09 Test Your AP IQ: Special Type of Invoice The special type of invoice that is especially appropriate to request from vendors who provide freight and shipping services or office supplies is known as what? more... Comments (4) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.12.09 FULL AP EXPO PROGRAM AVAILABLE Schedules and descriptions of over 30 sessions and workshopsincluding many on AP automation--are now available for our upcoming 8th Annual AP Conference & Expo October 14-16 at the Loews Royal Pacific at Universal Orlando. more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.11.09 Be Flexible to Boost AP Productivity If your AP staff is stressed out and productivity is down, consider flexible work arrangements. These include flex-time, compressed work weeks, telecommuting, and job sharing. If your organization offers these setups, you may want to use them in your department. If they are not offered, consider lobbying your boss or HR for this type of arrangement.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.10.09 Hospital Aims for E-Payments Boston Medical Center expects to convert 67 percent of its paper checks to electronic payments in six months, according to Bank of America, which will work with the hospital on the project. more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.09.09 Big Trouble Over Delayed Payments If your company is in a cash crunch and is delaying payments to vendors, take note of this recent case: A federal jury found the Kmart Corporations former CEO, Charles C. Conaway, liable for misleading investors about the companys cash crisis in the months before its 2002 bankruptcy. The Securities and Exchange Commission contended that Conaway had failed to disclose a cash shortage at the company and its program to delay payments to vendors.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.08.09 Timber! IRS Fells 1099 Loophole Because the Internal Revenue Service felt that there was tax avoidance going on with respect to purchases of timber, final regulations have been issued for lump sum timber sales [T.D. 9450]. These transactions must now be reported on 1099 forms.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.05.09 Test Your AP IQ: T&E Receipt Threshold Most organizations require employees to submit receipts for reimbursable T&E expenses that exceed what amount? more... Comments (8) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.04.09 How to Become IndispensablePart 1 The old saying Nobody's indispensable is especially true in todays environment. However, during a downsizing, smart companies will keep their best or key people. Here are a few ways AP professionals can make themselves indispensable in the eyes of their companies. Well present more ideas in future AP360 e-Alerts. more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.03.09 Eliminate Invoices Before Automating AP departments that seek to automate their invoice processing should first step back and determine which invoices can be eliminated altogether. Why automate something that doesnt need to be there in the first place?
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.02.09 Farm Out Check Printing Many AP departments outsource check printing because the production and distribution of paper checks is expensive and is subject to fraud. Outsourcing this function also provides access to best practice payment processes, thereby reducing overall processing costs. It also eases the transition from checks to ACH payments by reducing number of bank accounts and creating one common payment process. more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

06.01.09 Wisconsin Jumps Onto SST Bandwagon The Streamlined Sales Tax (SST) Project, which has been gaining steam, seeks to radically simplify the now complex rules for state sales and use taxes. Wisconsin has become the 23rd member state of the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Governing Board, according to a press release issued by the state's revenue department.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

05.29.09 Test Your AP IQ: Escheatable Items Which of the following is NOT considered to be escheatable unclaimed property? more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

05.28.09 Dealing with Negative AP Staff Especially in todays tough times, youre likely to have an employee who is down on everything. Always a complaint about something---always disgruntled over what they have to doalways finding fault with whats going on. And whats worse, they try to infect their co-workers with their discontent. This is enough to make any AP manager angry, frustrated, and helpless. You feel like confronting this constant griper and yelling: Look, if youre so unhappy here, why dont you just LEAVE! Of course, you cant actually do that, so here's what you can do.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

05.27.09 AP Confabbers Offer Tech Tips At the recent IOMA/RECAP Accounts Payable Operations Conference in San Antonio, we heard many valuable ideas and pieces of advice from attendees during the various networking breaks. Plus, the exhibitorssolution providers set up at the conference to demonstrate their products or serviceshad their own ideas based on their experiences with their various clients. Here are a few of the more notable pieces of advice that can help you avoid some needless headaches.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

05.26.09 Put Your AP Dept. on the Map Before you can improve any AP process, you must first map it. That is, create a picturea visual storyof how the work flows and who does what. Only then can you analyze the process and discover its true potential. Used properly, an AP process map can be a powerful tool to help you increase efficiency, eliminate non-value-added activities, reduce cycle time, and simplify work flow. more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

05.22.09 AP IQ: Certain Employee T&E on a 1099? Your CEO goes on a business trip and his spouse tags along. You reimburse the CEO for his and his spouses travel. Should you report the spouses reimbursement on a 1099-MISC? more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

05.21.09 Good Time to Stretch Your AP Staff Leading edge AP departments are moving away from low-value tasks and becoming more involved in strategic activities. The current economic downturn could actually help this transformation process. Thats because the recession has given employees in general the opportunity to stretch beyond their typical job constraints, according to a survey recently released by staffing firm Accountemps.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

05.20.09 Why Automating AP Can Stall In our research, one of the biggest reasons companies do not move forward with AP automation is lack of knowledge and the confusion about all of the choices out there. So anything you can do to increase your knowledge and sort things out, such as listening to webinars, reading white papers, or attending an AP conference, will help.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

05.19.09 Uncovering Duplicate Vendors You should run a series of regular reports to keep tabs on the master vendor file. Regular reporting, checking, and cleanup efforts will help to avoid larger, more expensive clean-up efforts that may be required when the accuracy of the file has been allowed to deteriorate over time. To reveal potential duplicate vendors, three basic reports can be used. more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

05.18.09 AP Says KO P-Card/1099 Reporting Back in February, the Internal Revenue Service, in Notice 2009-19, asked for comments from the public on the new law (Section 6050W of the Internal Revenue Code) that requires credit card organizations to do Form 1099 reporting of the payments made to merchants through the cards. The way the rules were written, there was the possibility of double reporting of payments made via payment cardsonce by the bank and again by cardholders. Luckily, many groups wrote to the IRS, urging it to shape the rules to make sure this double reporting was eliminatedand take AP out of the picture.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

05.15.09 Test Your AP IQ: What is SaaS? What does the term SaaS mean? more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

05.14.09 Preventing Overwork in Lean Times Asked how current economic conditions have affected their individual employees, nearly half (48 percent) of corporate finance and accounting departments in the U.S. surveyed cited increased stress, compared to 39 percent globally. In response, the majority of managers surveyed (62 percent in the United States and 70 percent globally) said they have taken some form of action to better support their teams. more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

05.13.09 Tech Issues in Outsourcing To cut costs, AP can outsource some of its processesfrom basic functions, such as check printing, to more complex operations, such as invoice imaging or data input. When you get into outsourcing tasks that require the use of advanced technology, there are a couple of important considerations.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

05.12.09 Talk to Treasury The financial pros who handle the treasury functions in your organization can be APs biggest ally. Treasury and AP want the same thingto make the payment process as efficient and effective as possible. So they will help youand you will be able to help them.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

05.11.09 IRS Nixes 1099s for COBRA Subsidy Employers or health plan sponsors subsidizing health care premiums for laid-off workers will not be required to file separate information returns on subsidy amounts for individuals, John Tuzynski, chief, employment tax operations, Internal Revenue Service, announced April 23 during a teleconference.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

05.08.09 Test Your AP IQ: First Step in Streamlining AP What is generally the first step in streamlining an AP process? more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

05.07.09 Staff Snacking Up in Down Economy While in the current recession many things at work are shrinkingjobs, pay, benefitsat least one thing is expanding: employee waistlines. Forty-three percent of U.S. employees have gained weight in their current jobs, and the economy may be part of the problem, according to a recent survey from online job site CareerBuilder.com.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

05.06.09 Shun Checks to Sidestep Fraud One of the main reasons to move away from paper checks in favor of alternative payment mechanisms, such as ACH and corporate credit cards, is to reduce the risk of fraud. And a recent survey backs this up.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

05.05.09 Look at New Bank Services Traditional AP-related bank servicescheck payment administration, wire transfers, positive pay, ACH paymentshave been expanded to now include outsourcing (e.g., check printing) and electronic invoicing and payment tools. Some banks have staked major claims in the AP automation space by acquiring e-invoice and e-payment solution providers more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

05.04.09 IRS Starts Audits of Backup Withholding If youre not doing the proper backup withholding on payments to independent contractors, nows the time to get your house in order. The Internal Revenue Service has started audits of a slew of companies over backup withholding on these payments.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

05.01.09 AP IQ Test: 1099 Reporting of Legal Damages Someone falls in your companys parking lot and breaks his ankle. His lawyer sues your company, which settles the claim for $100,000 payable jointly to the individual and the lawyer. What is the 1099 reporting for this payment? more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

04.30.09 Web Breaks Can Help Productivity Rather than serving as a distraction, workplace Internet leisure browsing (WILB) can actually increase concentration levels and productivity, according to a new study. more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

04.29.09 Break Down a Big Tech Project At the recent IOMA/RECAP 9th Annual Accounts Payable Operations Conference in San Antonio, several speakers talked about implementing a new system. But we also heard many valuable ideas and pieces of advice from attendees and exhibitors during the various networking breaks.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

04.28.09 Audit Trouble Over Unrecorded Invoices A county recently got into hot water because invoices totaling more than $95,000 were not recorded in AP at year-end, which skewed a true picture of the countys financial statements for fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2008, reports the Clare (Mich.) Sentinal.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

04.27.09 MD Targets Ersatz 1099ers Maryland is the latest state to announce plans to penalize companies over mislabeling workers as 1099 freelancers. Employers in the construction and landscape service sectors that knowingly misclassify employees as independent contractors would be subject to civil penalties under legislation (S.B. 909) that cleared the Maryland General Assembly just hours before the close of the 2009 regular legislative session.
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

04.24.09 Test Your AP IQ: Corporate Card Rebates Banks offer rebates (e.g., cash back) as part of their corporate charge card programs. What is the most common factor used in determining rebates?
more... Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Email to a Colleague | Add to Favorites

|
|