As mentioned above, I was invited to give a talk based on my New Payment World book. There was a good deal of interaction between me and the audience, many of whom shared some great insights. You can see some of the discussion we had on petty cash boxes (one-third the audience still uses them) along with a GREAT suggestion on the AP Now blog.

One of the attendees asked how she could change management's mind when the top executive insists on following a bad practice. In her case he was tardy in approving invoices resulting in frequent late fees. Here's a solution that will work with many executives. Add up how much is being spent on those late fees over the course of a month or year. Sometimes when presented with the dollar cost of bad behavior, money that comes right off the bottom line, the executive sees the light.

If the dollar figure doesn't get the reaction you wanted, take your analysis one step further. Let's say the cost of this bad behavior (in this case late fees) totaled $3,000 a year. Now, take your company's net profit margin and divide it into the late fees. For most organizations, the net profit margin will be under 10%. If it were 10%, the company would have to increase sales $30,000 just to offset the cost of those late fees.

To generalize, take the cost and convert it into an annual sales figure and often if the first number doesn't get the reaction you want, the second one will. Much of the information discussed is covered in the New Payment World book as well as our CD on the "Quiet Payment Revolution." This book, like any other book published by John Wiley & Sons, can be ordered at a 15% by clicking on the Wiley link on the bottom of the AP Resource page.

I had several e-mails along with a phone conversation with one of our readers before I realized we've created some confusion with the way we named several of our offerings. Unfortunately, we used the word "spring" in the titles of two publications. I am going to attempt to set the record straight here.

Our Spring Journal is one we've talked about here. It has the words Spring Journal in the bottom right hand corner and contains five newsletter articles, five book excerpts and five short tips. It also serves as our May issue. The only way to get it is to be a paid subscriber to the Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow print newsletter or to purchase it. Use the link below to download an Order Form if you wish to pay by check.

As you may realize, we periodically produce bonus issues, which are sent to many potential subscribers, which includes articles from past newsletters as well as several fine contributed pieces. This says Spring Bonus Issue in the bottom right hand corner. We'll bring you some excerpts from those pieces in the coming weeks. There is no charge for this. We apologize if we confused any of our readers.

When we got around to discussing p-cards during my talk at the APA, an attendee shared a gut-wrenching story-one that will probably not surprise most of our readers. Her organization had undergone a sales and use tax audit by one of the states. The auditors wanted proof that all the appropriate sales and use taxes had been paid. As you probably realize, this information is not readily available on the statements sent by the card issuer.

The organization had to round up all the credit card receipts to prove it had paid what it was supposed to pay. We remind readers using p-card programs of the importance of making sure they have access to those receipts or keep some kind of accurate records to ensure you don't get caught without the needed backup should you be audited.

P-cards are wonderful-but only if you have all your ducks in a row when it comes to the controls and regulatory issues. That is one of the reasons we have planned a p-card Webinar for next week. Any reader who wants to review some of the sales and use tax basics might look into our Sales and Use Tax Basics CD.

We've noticed several other publications highlighting their Top Clicks from the prior week so we thought we'd try it for a few weeks to see if our readers like it. (If not, we'll stop it in short order.) I can tell you I was surprised when I saw the numbers from last week. Our readers were more interested in our AP Now stuff than in the Good Morning America story. Last week's "Top Clicks" are:

• Information about our New Toolkits
• Controller & CFO Crash Course webinar
• Cash Leakage online seminar

Toning Up Purchase to Pay to Attain Touchless Processing The Millennium Knightsbridge - 18th -20 June 2007 Contact enquire@sharedserviceslink.com or call +44 207 359 5355

If you missed the story about Good Morning America featuring unclaimed property experts on their morning talk show, please refer to last week's issue delivered by emailed on the 14th. Thanks for listening.

Mary Schaeffer
Editorial Director
Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow, a CRYSTALLUS, Inc. publication