Several weeks ago I mentioned that we had just sent the March issue of Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow to the printer. As you may remember, we refer to this as the March Madness issue as it deals entirely with paper checks and related issues. As much as we advocate the use of electronic payments, we realize that paper checks will probably remain with us for a long time to come. We received several calls from readers who aren't annual subscribers to our print newsletter, Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow, asking if they could purchase this issue alone.

The answer to this question is a resounding YES. We sell single issues of every issue of our newsletter for $29.95.

Do your eyes glaze over when you look at your telecom bills? I have to make a confession. I want to cry when the telecom bills come in and I have to figure out if they are correct. What's so frustrating is that I often find a mistake-and I know I am not finding them all.

Do you suspect your organization is being overcharged but haven't a clue how to uncover those excess and sometimes fraudulent charges? Then welcome to my world, you've got a lot of company- and we've got expert help! Bottaboom's Mark Evans, a master in uncovering telecom overcharges, has agreed to share his considerable knowledge and experience with our audience. He'll be speaking at an Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow webinar on June 26. This is one event you may want to bring your Controller and CFO to.

As mentioned above, I blogged a little from the US Bank conference. Additionally, one of our readers had some pretty interesting things to say about the way her organization handles those very annoying invoices addressed to no one. And, now that I have the blog platform, I couldn't resist taking another pot shot at paper checks. There's a lot more there so we hope you'll visit and join the discussion. To participate you have to register. We require the minimum of information-just enough to keep out those trying to post advertisements for mortgage refinancing, pharmaceuticals of questionable origin and purpose and, well, you get the picture.

To register go to the blog and click on the register link at the bottom right. It's small so if you're "of a certain age" you may need to look closely. It is in the section labeled Meta.

Small-dollar invoices are the bane of many a accounts payable department. They take time away from more value-added tasks, time that could be spent reviewing those large-dollar invoices more closely. But there are things you can do to get rid of these pesky bills.

1) Pay with a p-card. Many organizations started their p-card programs simply to get rid of those annoying, productivity-sucking, small-dollar invoices.
2) Have the employee pay for the item out of his or her pocket and put in for reimbursement on their T & E expense report.
3) If you receive many small-dollar invoices from the same vendor, pay from statements rather than invoices. To make this work effectively, the vendor must be marked in the master vendor file as a statement pay only and no invoices from the vendor can ever be paid.

And if you haven't managed to get rid of it, reimburse out of the petty cash box. But as helpful as the petty cash box may be in getting rid of small-dollar invoices, it really is a poor practice. Organizations are urged to do everything they can to eliminate the use of a petty cash box.

The registrations are rolling in for the Chicago Unclaimed Property seminar and time for the lower room rate is running out. With all the press the unclaimed property issue has received in the last few months, I can't wait to hear what Brooke, Tracey, and Will have to say on these late breaking issues. If you need an invoice, just send a note to publisher@ap- now.com

If you send a check, we will send a confirmation notice when we receive it. If you drop us an email (publisher@ap-now.com) to let us know it is coming, we will go ahead and reserve your spot.

Are you either running a shared service or interested in finding out exactly how to make one work? If so, IQPC's Shared Service week, just might be the answer.

Thanks for listening.

Mary Schaeffer
Editorial Director
Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow