On Demand Webinar

Creating an Efficient Accounts Payable Policy & Procedures Manual

Webinar Details $219

  • Rated:
  • Webinar Length: 100 Minutes
  • Guest Speaker:   Mary Schaeffer
  • Topic:   Taxation and Accounting, Accounts Payable
  • Credit:   CPE 2.0, ATATX 1.5
All Access Membership

A good policy and procedures manual should provide a roadmap for how any accounts payable function is run. It will help your staff avoid making duplicate or erroneous payments. It can provide assistance in shortening audits and help with training.

In this webinar, you'll learn how to create and update your accounts payable policy and improve the efficiency of your accounts payable function. 

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

  • Create an accounts payable policy from scratch without sidelining a staffer
  • Update an existing policy that hasn't been changed in years
  • Utilize your policy to run a more efficient accounts payable function
  • Avoid errors and fraud by correctly setting up the policy
  • Explain how to make the policy more user-friendly

Added Bonus Value: Each attendee will receive a three-page outline they can use to create a policy and procedures manual for their own organization.

Learning Objectives:

  • You will learn to create an accounts payable policy from scratch
  • You will learn to avoid errors and fraud
  • You will learn to make the policy more user-friendly
  1. Introduction
  2. Agenda 00:02:58
  3. Introductory Remarks 00:03:56
  4. AP Manuals and Remote Work 00:03:59
  5. What is a Policy and Procedures Manual? 00:07:47
  6. The State of AP Policy and Procedures Manual 00:10:06
  7. What It Is Not 00:11:28
  8. Crisis Management 00:12:16
  9. Problem #1 00:12:32
  10. The Remote Work Dilemma 00:15:25
  11. Remote Working Expenses  - Having A Policy 00:16:46
  12. Remote Working -  Expectations Of Problems And Issues 00:17:54
  13. Remote Work: Reimbursement Policy -  Update The Policy 00:19:06
  14. Remote Work: Reimbursement Policy - Employees And Unions 00:19:33
  15. Remote Work: Reimbursement Policy - Last Considerations 00:20:02
  16. The $15 hour Minimum Wage 00:20:58
  17. More on Minimum Wage As Of January 1, 2023 00:21:42
  18. Getting the Most Out of Your Manual 00:22:27
  19. What the Manual Represents 00:22:35
  20. Let’s Get the Most Out of It 00:23:39
  21. Documentation 00:24:22
  22. Training Guide 00:27:52
  23. Reference Guide 00:29:01
  24. Help with Auditors 00:31:47
  25. Other Ways 00:34:33
  26. What to Include/Not Include 00:37:36
  27. A Manual That Works 00:37:41
  28. Instructions 00:40:13
  29. Shareable Pages 00:43:11
  30. Just AP Processes or More 00:44:49
  31. Addendums 00:46:16
  32. Getting Started 00:48:51
  33. When You Have Nothing 00:48:53
  34. Borrow 00:49:31
  35. Using Someone Else’s Policy 00:51:19
  36. Creating From Scratch 00:54:14
  37. After the Outline 00:56:29
  38. When the First Draft is Completed 00:58:55
  39. Reviewing Accuracy Comments 01:00:24
  40. Creating the Final Document 01:01:31
  41. The Final Manual 01:03:42
  42. Tips on Creating a User-Friendly Manual 01:04:59
  43. Don’t Be Overwhelmed 01:05:03
  44. Where to Start 01:06:49
  45. Making the Policy Readable 01:09:34
  46. Making the Policy User-Friendly 01:10:56
  47. Things to Avoid 01:01:11:51
  48. The Importance of a Table of Contents 01:14:04
  49. Sample Information for Each Section 01:15:47
  50. Should the Manual Be Printed? 01:17:09
  51. Using AI 01:18:46
  52. AI Tools 01:18:53
  53. How to Use AI 01:19:39
  54. How You Can Use AI 01:21:36
  55. Some Caveats 01:25:54
  56. Can I Use It For Updates? 01:26:56
  57. Updating the Policy 01:28:20
  58. Frequency 01:28:25
  59. The Annual Review 01:31:24
  60. Reality Check: Frequency of Updates 01:34:09
  61. Timing of Review 01:35:00
  62. Best/Worst Practices 01:36:33
  63. Best Practices 01:38:38
  64. Worst Practices 01:38:04
  65. Worst Practices (Cont’d) 01:39:27
  66. Concluding Thoughts 01:39:56
  67. Don’t’ Forget 01:39:59
  68. Thank You/Questions/Comments 01:41:33
  69. Presentation Closing 01:42:31
  • Accounts Payable (AP) 00:00:07, 00:04:53, 00:08:32, 00:21:25, 00:22:56, 00:31:10, 00:45:04, 00:55:14
  • Addendum 00:46:29
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) 00:03:44, 01:18:50
  • Audit 00:31:58, 01:36:10
  • Bard 01:19:14
  • ChatGPT 01:19:11
  • Expense Reimbursement 00:07:09, 00:16:56, 00:18:23
  • Expense Report 00:35:03, 00:42:46
  • Form 1099-MISC 00:05:45 
  • Form 1099-NEC 00:05:49
  • Form W-9 00:44:07, 01:11:46
  • Invoice 01:33:22
  • Minimum Wage 00:20:20, 00:21:10
  • PDF 00:44:16, 01:17:16
  • Policy and Procedures Manual 00:00:08, 00:03:50, 00:08:00, 00:12:19, 00:24:20, 00:31:10, 00:34:42, 00:38:40, 00:48:27, 00:50:59
  • Purchase Order 00:39:24
  • Vendor 00:44:07, 01:11:51
  • Wage 00:20:34

Accounts Payable (AP): The amount of money a company owes creditors (suppliers, etc.) in return for goods and/or services they have delivered.

Addendum: An addendum or appendix, in general, is an addition required to be made to a document by its author subsequent to its printing or publication.

Artificial Intelligence (AI): Artificial intelligence is intelligence demonstrated by machines, as opposed to the natural intelligence displayed by humans or animals.

Audit: A formal examination of an organization's or individual's accounts or financial situation

Bard: Bard is a conversational generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Google, based initially on the LaMDA family of large language models and later PaLM.

ChatGPT: ChatGPT, which stands for Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer, is a large language model-based chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched on November 30, 2022, notable for enabling users to refine and steer a conversation towards a desired length, format, style, level of detail, and language used.

Expense Reimbursement: Expense reimbursement is a method for paying employees back when they spend their own money on business-related expenses. These expenses generally occur when an employee is traveling for business but can occur in other work-related situations. (www.thebalancecareers.com)

Expense Report: A report that tracks expenses incurred during the course of performing necessary job functions. Examples include charges for gas, meals, parking or lodging. If your employees spend a lot of money in cash, you need to make sure you have them list these expenditures on an expense report form.

Form 1099-MISC: The Form 1099-MISC is an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax return document used to report miscellaneous payments made to nonemployee individuals, such as independent contractors, during the calendar year. (www.shrm.org)

Form 1099-NEC: In the context of 1099 tax filing, NEC stands for “Nonemployee Compensation” (the first letters of the three words None, Employee and Compensation). Most tax payers recognize NEC as box 7 on Form 1099-MISC. NEC is used to report income paid to independent-contractors / the-self-employed (referred to as 1099 employees for simplification purposes). So, while employers report income that gets paid to employees on Box 1 (Wages, tips, other compensation) of the W2 form, payers report income that gets paid to none-employees on Box 7 (NEC) of the 1099-MISC form. As an individual, if you received form 1099-MISC instead of Form W-2 then the payer did not consider you an employee and did not withhold income tax or social security and Medicare tax.

Form W-9: Form W-9 (officially, the "Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification") is used in the United States income tax system by a third party who must file an information return with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). It requests the name, address, and taxpayer identification information of a taxpayer (in the form of a Social Security Number or Employer Identification Number). - Wikipedia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/)

Invoice: An invoice, bill or tab is a commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer, relating to a sale transaction and indicating the products, quantities, and agreed prices for products or services the seller had provided the buyer. Payment terms are usually stated on the invoice.

Minimum Wage: The lowest wage paid or permitted to be paid specifically fixed by a legal authority or by contract as the least that may be paid either to employed persons generally or to a particular category of employed persons.

PDF: Portable Document Format, a universal document format created by Adobe that allows cross-platform compatibility of documents.

Policy and Procedures Manual: A policies and procedures manual is a comprehensive text that details every aspect of company policy, the procedures for following those policies and the forms needed to complete each process. A policies and procedures manual is a reference tool for managers and supervisors.

Purchase Order: A legal contract between a buyer and a vendor. It lists the materials or services to be purchased on specified terms and conditions (quantity, price / pricing conditions, delivery date).

Vendor: A vendor is a person or business that supplies goods or services to a company. Another term for the vendor is the supplier. In many situations, a company presents the vendor with a purchase order stating the goods or services needed, the price, delivery date, and other terms.

Wage: A fixed regular payment, typically paid on a daily or weekly basis, made by an employer to an employee, especially to a manual or unskilled worker.


Guest Speaker

  • Mary Schaeffer

CPE Credit

Continuing Professional Education

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For more information regarding administrative policies such as complaint and refund, and cancellation please contact our offices at 407-542-4317 or training@auroratrainingadvantage.com.

You must answer all questions during the webinar, view the recording completely and pass the test at the end with 70% correct answers to receive CPE credit.

ATATX Credit

Aurora Training Advantage is offering continuing education points designed to recognize dedication to training and excellence in accounting.