e-AP News
a short update on payment issues, news and products September 12, 2007

in this issue

AP Recognition Week Celebration Questions Answered

Two Last Chances

P-cards or ACH?

Newsletter Excerpt

Yancey & Unclaimed Property

Directions: One-Day 1099 Event

In Closing


 

Dear Colleague

We'd like to offer a special thank you to all the readers who wrote last week. When we asked about your policy regarding stays with family last week, we expected to hear from a handful of readers. Boy, were we surprised - both by the quantity and diversity of the responses. We're still compiling the responses and will share the best with everyone who sends their policies, opinions, and thoughts.


  • AP Recognition Week Celebration Questions Answered
  • A few readers wrote to ask if they could share news of our AP Recognition Week celebration at local meetings. The answer is absolutely! This is a celebration for everyone in AP, not just our readers. As mentioned last week, we have developed a series of puzzles and a contest (along with our "Accounts Payable Best Practices" low-cost Webinar) to be delivered each morning the week of October 15. To be included, simply send a note to publisher@ap- now.com with the words "Recognize AP" in the subject line and your company name and mailing address in the body of the message.

    What kind of puzzles? We've got another Payment Sudoku, a Payment Jeopardy game to be played alone or in a group, an Accounts Payable Maze and more.

  • Two Last Chances
  • This week there are two "last chances." The first is for our Sales and Use Tax Basics Webinar to be held this Thursday.

    And, then there is our Forwarding Contest mentioned last month. The deadline for that is the 15th. Believe it or not, we think there are a number of AP folks out there we haven't met yet and we'd like our readers to recommend our newsletters to others who might be interested. You can do this in one of three ways-and we'll give you one entry into the contest for each referral. The grand prize is an iPod Shuffle, basically a really cute iPod that holds approximately 240 songs. You can either mail the names, titles, company names, and mailing addresses, if available to Mary Schaeffer, Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow, 560 Peoples Plaza #197, Newark DE 19702; fax them to 302 836 0541 or email the same information to [email protected] or use the forward e-mail link below the end of this e-zine.

    Register for Sales and Use Tax Basics: A Best Practice Approach
  • P-cards or ACH?
  • Both p-cards and ACH provide efficiencies in the payment process. Deciding which to use requires more planning than might meet the eye. For example, if your organization intends to roll out p-cards in a big way to take advantage of the rebate it can earn, you might want to think twice about who you try to recruit for your electronic payment program. Why? Because vendors who sign up for your program may be less than thrilled to find you want to switch them to p-cards, given the discount fee they are required to pay. The larger the payment the more likely you are to run into this obstacle.

    This is just one of the issues that will be addressed in the Quiet Payment Revolution Webinar scheduled for September 25.

    Get information about or Register for the Quiet Payment Revolution
  • Newsletter Excerpt
  • What's in Your Warehouse--Are You Reporting All Your Unclaimed Property?

    By J. Brooke Spotswood, Esq. and Dr Will Yancey, CPA

    Accounts payable professionals understand that uncashed checks to vendors and employees are treated as unclaimed property. If the checks are not cashed or properly voided, the amount of the check should be reported and remitted to the states according to each state's specific reporting procedures. But some accounts payable professionals may be overlooking their exposure for open receivers.

    Open receivers are items on inventory receiving reports that are not cleared by payments to the vendor. Open receivers are also known as unclaimed receivers or inventory over-counts. Inventory accounts payable procedures require a three-way match with three kinds of documents: receiving reports, purchase orders, and vendor invoices. These documents may be on paper or in electronic form. For high-volume warehouses and distribution centers, the open receivers file may consist of thousands of rows of data. In some enterprise accounting systems, the open receivers file is part of the Good Received/Invoice Received ("GR/IR") sub- system.

    Open receivers can result in unclaimed property when there are items remaining in the open receivers file that are not cleared after several months. Let's look at some examples of how open receivers can result in what appear to be goods received but not paid for.

    The rest of this fine article can be found in the September issue of Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow.

    Subscribe to Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow
  • Yancey & Unclaimed Property
  • As you can see from the excerpt above, Dr. Yancey certainly analyzes the issues with an exceptional aptitude. That's why we are especially pleased that he has agreed to join us for two unprecedented events. He'll join Tracey Reid on the 20th for a look at what's going on in California regarding unclaimed property. The implications of those decisions are far reaching-not only for those organizations doing business in California but everyone. The other states are watching closely and we expect the ramifications to be wide.

    The event on the 20th should be a real treat. As those who joined us last week for the Unclaimed Property Basics can attest, Tracey Reid knows her stuff and knows how to make it interesting. In all the years I've been running Webinars and conferences, I don't think I ever saw ratings for a speaker that high-and we've had some pretty good speakers!

    Reid and Yancey will be joined by Brooke Spotswood next April for a one-day intensive unclaimed property seminar addressing both best practices for those currently complying as well as the touchy issue of getting in compliance if you are not. Click here for information about this event.

    Register for the Sept 20th What the California Supreme Court Unclaimed Property Suit Means for Your Organization
  • Directions: One-Day 1099 Event
  • We've gotten a numbers of calls asking for directions to our October 22 event in Boston. You can access them by clicking here.We'll also be in San Francisco at Fisherman's Wharf on October 25th and Chicago on November 5th with the staff from IRSCompliance.org

    Register for the One Day Information Reporting Intensive One-Day Seminar
  • In Closing
  • Thanks for listening.
    Mary Schaeffer
    Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow

    :: 302 836 0540

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