From the February issue of our print newsletter,Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow

An employment tax audit by the IRS now can have even greater consequences for organizations found not to be in compliance. Officials from the Internal Revenue Service and more than two-dozen state workforce agencies recently announced they have entered into agreements to share the results of employment tax examinations. The agreements, part of the Questionable Employment Tax Practice (QETP) initiative, provide a centralized, uniform means for the IRS and state employment officials to exchange data, thereby leveraging resources and encouraging businesses to comply with federal and state employment tax requirements.

Which states have signed partnership agreements with the IRS so far? Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin-and we're guessing there will be more!

A reader dropped us a note this week asking, "How do you deal with payments made to multiple accounts/invoices from the same vendor? This issue arose regarding our cell phone bills, which are a large expense for us. We use a large national provider and, in this case, have three separate accounts which generate three invoices, all of which are due for payment at the same time. Since all have the same remittance address, we enter all three to the same Vendor ID. When it comes time to perform the check run, one check is printed and the check stub outlines the payment application. We even send in the stubs from each invoice indicating how much we are paying on each account (which is always the full amount due)."

And readers who have dealt with multiple accounts at utilities know exactly what happens then. The entire payment is credited to one account and the others end up showing a past-due balance. The reader wants to know if anyone has come up with a solution other than cutting an individual check for each invoice. The only other solution I can come up with is to make individual ACH payments to the vendor. If any reader has solved this problem we would love to hear from you. Please send your solution to publisher@ap-now.com and we'll share it with everyone.

With your 1099s just about out the door, are you now turning your attention to your 1042-Ss? Are you wondering where to start? There's still time to sign up to hear Cyrus Daftary, an international tax expert, talk about Forms 1042 and 1042-S. Daftary will share his expertise on February 11 at a Webinar sponsored by Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow. If you make payments to foreign persons, this is one session you cannot afford to miss.

Have you ever come up with a book title that would be great for an AP book, but had no one to share it with? If so, this is your opportunity to double your chances of winning this month's contest. If not, no worries. You can still enter.

Pretend you are in a bookstore that only contains AP books (No, this is not a nightmare.) You can buy only one from the list below. Based on the titles, send a note to publisher@ap-now.com with the name or number of your choice. That will be your entry into this month's contest. Please only select one book-and should you wish to have your entry count twice, when you send your e-mail, enter that great title. It can be as silly as the one suggested by my colleague Bob Cohen, "High School Musical 3 - How AP Saved the Day" or something more serious. The beauty, at least for you, is you can come up with the title but not have to worry about filling the pages!

• 1 Accounts Payable & Sarbanes-Oxley: Strengthening Your Internal Controls
• 2 New Payment World
• 3 Travel & Entertainment Best Practices
• 4 Fraud in Accounts Payable: How to Prevent It
• 5 Controllers & CFO's Guide to Accounts Payable
• 6 Future of Accounts Payable
• 7 Accounts Payable: A Guide to Running an Efficient Department
• 8 Accounts Payable Best Practices
• 9 The Essentials of Accounts Payable

Does your organization let professionals in other departments initiate payments when checks are not used? Many firms do, especially when it comes to wire transfers, p-cards, and ACH credits and debits. To avoid duplicate payments when others make payments, it is crucial that they remember to extinguish the PO.

Using this tip, if the invoice should end up in accounts payable, as it does too often, the processor will not issue a check to pay the invoice as the PO will no longer be open. Make sure your paying colleagues in other departments realize this.

I have a call scheduled for later today with my co- presenters for the Preventing T&E Fraud webinar. We will update our website with all that information later today or tomorrow. Until next week- when January will be thankfully over-thanks for listening.

Mary Schaeffer
Editorial Director
Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow
e-AP News