Accounts Payable Best Practices

1. Introduction
2. About Mary Schaeffer 00:01:06
3. Agenda 00:01:10
4. The Reality of 2025 and Beyond 00:02:20
5. AI Tools: The Wave of the Future 00:06:12
6. The AI Game Changer 00:07:44
7. Business Landscape 00:08:28
8. Why Are Best Practices Changing So Much 00:08:35
9. When Best Practices Are Ignored 00:10:13
10. Best Practices –NOT! 00:1
11. Invoice Handling 00:11:39
12. A Word about Invoices 00:12:09
13. Receiving Invoices 00:13:57
14. How Companies Receive Invoices 00:16:16
15. Today’s Invoice Reality 00:18:18
16. Invoice Handling Today 00:19:44
17. Too Much Manual Data Entry: Automation Issues 00:20:36
18. Invoices with Early Payment Discounts 00:22:08
19. Invoice Handling: Problems 00:23:19
20. Invoice Handling: Process Solutions 00:24:06
21. Duplicate Invoice Identification Best Practices 00:25:31
22. Invoice Handling: Best Practice 00:29:04
23. Invoice Processing: Staff 00:29:32
24. Invoice Handling: Technology Solutions 00:30:49
25. Invoice Automation Today 00:31:20
26. Invoice Handling in the Future 00:32:45
27. Payment Processes 00:33:21
28. Move away from Paper: Part 1 00:33:29
29. Check Processing Problems 00:34:15
30. Paper Checks: Best Practices 00:36:25
31. Paper Checks: Almost Best Practices 00:36:44
32. Check Processing Best Practices 00:38:13
33. What about Voided Checks 00:39:16
34. Check Processing Best Practices 00:40:58
35. Explosion of Check Fraud 00:41:37
36. Paper Checks: Worst Practices -1 00:44:47
37. Paper Checks: Worst Practices -2 00:46:30
38. Paper Checks: Worst Practices -3 00:47:06
39. Electronic Payment Best Practices 00:47:40
40. Electronic Payments outside AP 00:49:27
41. ACH 00:49:17
42. Lots of Change Coming 00:50:07
43. Electronic Payments 00:51:39
44. Best Fraud Prevention Practices 00:53:25
45. Online Banking Best Practice 00:53:06
46. P-Card Best Practice 00:56:37
47. Methods to Increase P-Card Usage 00:57:33
48. Wire Transfer Best Practice 00:58:06
49. A Word about Instant Payments 00:59:26
50. Regulatory Issues 01:01:03
51. Cliff Notes: Speed Dating Version 01:01:06
52. Information Reporting Best Practices 01:02:01
53. New Information Reporting Best Practices 01:03:10
54. What Is IRS TIN Matching 01:04:13
55. Why TIN Matching Matters 01:04:33
56. Unclaimed Property - Widows and Orphans 01:05:03
57. Unclaimed Property - Due Diligence 01:06:01
58. Avoiding Unclaimed Property 01:06:35
59. Unclaimed Property Best Practices 01:07:44
60. Sales Tax 01:08:32
61. Sales Tax Complication 01:09:19
62. When Invoices Don’t Show Sales Tax 01:09:42
63. Use Tax 01:10:22
64. Other Issues: Don’t Ignore 01:11:51
65. Regulatory Best Practices 01:14:40
66. Travel and Entertainment 01:16:16
67. Best Practice T&E Policy 01:16:17
68. IRS Guidelines 01:16:52
69. Substantiating Travel 01:17:43
70. Substantiating Entertainment 01:18:27
71. Per Diems 01:19:16
72. Use of Per Diems 01:20:03
73. Impact of Uniform Enforcement 01:20:20
74. Receipts 01:20:43
75. In Real Life: A Changing Palate 01:21:16
76. Receipt Checking Best Practices 01:21:59
77. Cash Advances Best Practices 01:23:02
78. Minimize Cash 01:23:556
79. Expense Reporting Fraud 01:25:03
80. AP Now Perpetrators 01:25:37
81. How They Did It: Chrome River Survey 01:26:21
82. Best Expense Reimbursement Fraud Prevention/Detection Practices 01:28:13
83. The Heartbreaking Reality 01:28:48
84. Staffing 01:29:24
85. Staffing - Customer Service, Training, and Reviews 01:29:36
86. Invoice Processing Best Practices: Staff 01:31:11
87. Internal Fraud Prevention 01:32:06
88. Preparing the Staff for Tomorrow 01:33:04
89. Addressing the Issue 01:33:54
90. Bottom Line 01:35:29
91. Don’t Forget: Regular Staff Training 01:36:26
92. Vendors and Vendor Files 01:36:35
93. What is the Master Vendor File? 01:36:38
94. What Should Be Included 01:37:09
95. Best Practices: Why We Use Them 01:37:48
96. Best Practices: Data 01:38:19
97. Issues to Consider when Creating Your Standard 01:38:39
98. Best Practices: Other 01:39:29
99. Master Vendor File: Problems 01:39:59
100. Master Vendor File: Solutions 01:40:36
101. Reality Check 01:41:26
102. Master Vendor File: Newest Problem 01:41:38
103. How to Verify 01:42:10
104. Thank You/Questions?Comments 01:2:234
105. Presentation Closing 01:42:59

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  Mary Schaeffer

  Mary S. Schaeffer is the founder of AP Now, a B2B organization focused on creating business intelligence around the accounts payable and payment functions. She has written 18 business books and is a frequent and popular speaker at both online and live events. Schaeffer has created a number of CPE se [...]

  View Full Profile

• Accounts Payable (AP) 00:00:07, 00:01:19, 00:03:07, 00:08:40, 00:12:26, 00:20:46, 00:22:18, 00:39:23, 00:41:09, 00:49:12, 01:01:14, 01:03:55, 01:29:42
• ACH Credit 00:33:29, 00:49:24
• ACH Debit 00:33:29, 00:49:24
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) 00:03:03, 00:06:19, 00:32:57
• Audit 00:10:43, 00:40:52, 01:04:50, 01:09:10
• B-Notice 01:04:33
• ChatGPT 00:03:21
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) 00:32:23, 00:32:45
• Expense Report 00:02:16, 01:22:04, 01:22:40, 01:27:18
• FCPA - Foreign Corrupt Practices Act 01:01:57, 01:14:16
• Form W-9 01:02:08, 01:04:06
• Invoice 00:01:32, 00:12:15, 00:18:23, 00:29:13, 01:09:45
• IRS Publication 463 01:16:58
• Microsoft Copilot 00:03:21
• Nexus 01:10:32
• OFAC 01:01:56, 01:12:03
• P-Card 00:13:26, 00:33:29, 00:52:08, 00:56:40
• Per Diems 01:19:25
• Purchase Order 00:25:17
• SDN - Specially Designated Nationals 01:12:53
• SOX -Sarbanes Oxley Act 00:10:43
• Supplier 00:11:49, 00:21:31, 00:25:07, 00:52:17, 01:03:42, 01:42:08
• Tax Gap 00:09:09
• TIN Match Program 01:02:43, 01:03:26, 01:04:16
• Transaction 00:56:49
• Unclaimed Property 00:40:47, 01:01:54, 01:05:14
• Vendor 00:02:19, 00:11:21, 00:25:05, 01:06:22, 01:36:48, 01:39:43
• Wire Transfer 00:13:24, 00:33:29, 00:58:07

ACH Credit : An ACH credit is a type of ACH transfer where funds are pushed into a bank account. That is, the payer (e.g. customer) triggers the funds to be sent to the payee (e.g. merchant). For example, when an individual sets up a payment through their bank or credit union to pay a bill, this would be processed as an ACH credit.

ACH Debit : An ACH debit transaction occurs when the originator of a transaction authorizes the recipient to “pull” funds from his or her account. For example, say a customer wants to pay an electric bill via ACH debit.

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

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

B-Notice: A notice from the IRS stating that one or more tax ID numbers were missing from a 1099 or do not match the IRS records.

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.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): Refers to a type of software that organizations use to manage day-to-day business activities such as accounting, procurement, project management, risk management and compliance, and supply chain operations.

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.

FCPA - Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 is a United States federal law that prohibits U.S. citizens and entities from bribing foreign government officials to benefit their business interests.

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/)

IRS Publication 463: Publication 463 explains what expenses are deductible, how to report them on your return, what records you need to prove your expenses, and how to treat any expense reimbursements you may receive.

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.

Microsoft Copilot: Microsoft Copilot is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Microsoft. Based on a large language model, it was launched in February 2023 as Microsoft's primary replacement for the discontinued Cortana.

Nexus: The term nexus is used in tax law to describe a situation in which a business has a "nexus" or tax presence in a particular state or states. A nexus is basically a connection between a taxing jurisdiction, like a state, and an entity like a business that must collect or pay the tax.

OFAC - Office of Foreign Assets Control: The Office of Foreign Assets Control is a financial intelligence and enforcement agency of the U.S. Treasury Department. It administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions in support of U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives.

P-Card: A PURCHASING CARD (also abbreviated as PCard or P-Card) is a form of company charge card that allows goods and services to be procured without using a traditional purchasing process. In the UK, purchasing cards are usually referred to as procurement cards

Per Diem: (Latin for "per day" or "for each day") or daily allowance is a specific amount of money an organization gives an individual, often an employee, per day to cover living expenses when traveling for work. - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org)

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).

SDN - Specially Designated Nationals: The Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, also known as the SDN List, is a United States government sanctions/embargo measure targeting U.S.-designated terrorists, officials and beneficiaries of certain authoritarian regimes, and international criminals

SOX -Sarbanes Oxley Act: The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is a federal law that established sweeping auditing and financial regulations for public companies. Lawmakers created the legislation to help protect shareholders, employees, and the public from accounting errors and fraudulent financial practices.

Supplier: A supplier is an entity that supplies goods and services to another organization. A supplier is usually a manufacturer or a distributor. A distributor buys goods from multiple manufacturers and sells them to its customers. Similar Terms. A supplier is also known as a vendor.

TIN Match Program: TIN Matching is part of a suite of Internet-based pre-filing e-services that allows “authorized payers” the opportunity to match 1099 payee information against IRS records prior to filing information returns.

Tax Gap: The gross tax gap is the difference between true tax liability for a given tax year and the amount that is paid on time. It is comprised of the nonfiling gap, the underreporting gap, and the underpayment (or remittance) gap.

Transaction: In QuickBooks, a transaction type identifies what kind of transaction occurred, such as a customer transaction, bill payment or a bank transfer. When you submit a transaction, you type in a transaction code to represent it.

Unclaimed Property: Unclaimed property (sometimes referred to as abandoned) refers to accounts in financial institutions and companies that have had no activity generated or contact with the owner for one year or a longer period. Common forms of unclaimed property include savings or checking accounts, stocks, uncashed dividends or payroll checks, refunds, traveler's checks, trust distributions, unredeemed money orders or gift certificates (in some states), insurance payments or refunds and life insurance policies, annuities, certificates of deposit, customer overpayments, utility security deposits, mineral royalty payments, and contents of safe deposit boxes.

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.

Wire Transfer: Wire transfer, bank transfer or credit transfer, is a method of electronic funds transfer from one person or entity to another. A wire transfer can be made from one bank account to another bank account or through a transfer of cash at a cash office.