Accounts Payable Best Practices for Long-Term Resilience FLEXCAST

Overview

If you don’t have strong practices and controls around your accounts payable process, you are apt to find the organization paying invoices twice, paying incorrect invoices, falling victim to frauds, not being able to comply with IRS reporting requirements and running afoul of other regulatory requirements. What’s more, suppliers will be unhappy, turnover will be high and you’ll spend more on inefficient processes; not a good situation for any organization. In the last few years, fraud, technology and regulatory change have been impacting the accounts payable function at a speed that’s hard to believe. Unfortunately, what worked yesterday may not work today. Best practices for the accounts payable function are critical for those organizations concerned about their bottom line. Poor practices result in excess cost, duplicate payments, increased processing expenses, potential fraud, and frayed vendor relationships. We learned this the hard way during the COVID crisis. The presentation includes a number of new best practices that reflect today’s reality of remote working. Additionally, some best practices have changed as the pandemic revealed weak practices that should have been changed a long time ago. And of course, today, many workers work remotely some or all of the time. Alas, keeping up to speed these days can be like herding cats. While some best practices remain steadfast, others simply no longer work and are being replaced by new practices just now appearing. The truth is that companies ignore accounts payable best practices at their peril and the impact is felt on your bottom line. It’s that simple-yet some organizations continue to turn a blind eye to the leakage that occurs due to poor or inefficient process in their AP operations. Don’t be one of them!

Highlights

Invoice delivery and processing. Payment technologies. Regulatory issues affecting the payment process. Travel and entertainment. Master vendor file and the raft of new frauds focused on it. Staffing.

Prerequisites

None.

Designed For

CPAs and other accounting professionals.

Objectives

Identify best practices. Weed out worst practices. Create an efficient, effective and fraud resistant Accounts Payable process.

Preparation

None.

Notice

This is a FlexCast (no exam required) and may be viewed only Monday - Saturday, 5am - 5pm PT. You may take up to one year from the date of purchase to complete the course. Pause your FlexCast and resume at a convenient day during the hours above. Partial credit for 2+ credit courses: If you are unable to complete the course in one sitting, partial credit can be awarded (minimum of one credit). To earn the remaining credits, you must return later and start the course from the beginning. Use chat to ask questions of a subject matter expert during the program.