As I said, one of the issues that has confounded me for a long time is the question of the contingency fees for duplicate payment auditors. I really like the idea that a company can have them in and if they find nothing, there is no charge. That is great for the company but not so wonderful for the auditor. Alas the coin is flipped when the recovery is for a large payment, say a million dollars. This might be what causes many companies not to hire a recovery firm. They flat out refuse to pay the standard contingency, say 25%. And who can blame them? I certainly wouldn't want to be put in the position of explaining 1) why the staff had made a large dollar payment twice and 2) why we were paying $250,000 for the recovery.

Now, the simple answer is that for large recoveries of this sort, some firms will lower the contingency. But even paying a 10% contingency on a large recovery might require a bit of explaining. Rich Lanza, who does a lot of our analytical work, and I were discussing this very issue. He pointed out that most firms did not make many duplicate payments of this size as they were usually careful in this arena. The bulk of the duplicate payments that do the most damage to the bottom line come from payments in the $1,000 to $10,000 range.

Yet, the fear of paying for a large recovery keeps many from pursuing an audit. We then tossed around the idea of looking for ways to eliminate this concern. And from that we came up with our Top 100 list. For a very modest fee, we will run your data and give you a list of your 100 largest potential duplicates. These are generated by the same software used by many duplicate payment auditors. We provide the data; you provide the staff to then research the information.

Most organizations will determine there are no duplicates in this list-but will discover a newfound respect for the amount of work that auditors go through to identify duplicates.

Editor's Note: If you are looking for duplicates yourself, focus on that $1,000 - $10,000 range.

In yesterday's newspaper was a story about how the state of Delaware, in New Castle County anyway (where I reside) is now offering live Internet broadcasts of weddings. For a $30 fee family and friends who cannot attend the ceremony can watch it over the Internet. This is just one of the innovative ways the state is taking to make up the ever widening shortfall in its budget. At this rate, they are going to have to broadcast an awful lot of weddings.

Am I the only rational person who doesn't expect the state to take a closer look at its unclaimed property program and hire more contingency auditors to help close the deficit? It is the third largest source of revenue for the state and many believe compliance is extremely low. This is just one of the reasons Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow has created several new unclaimed property Webinars and products.

The first, a Webinar on How to Get in Compliance If You've Never Filed is schedule for July 22. CDs of this event are also available.

The second, for those currently complying but wondering if they really have all their ducks in a row is scheduled for September 24 and is entitled Avoiding the Ten Unclaimed Property 'Gotchas.'

And of course we have our Toolkit items-the due diligence chart, policy and procedures manual and our best practice CD.

We have confirmed hotels for our two Unclaimed Property Intensive Best Practice seminars. The informative while entertaining Tracey Reid will instruct on both. We'll be at the Residence Inn by Marriott Beverly Hills in Los Angeles on September 26 and the Cincinnati Marriott at RiverCenter on October 3.

I also had an interesting conversation with Mark Evans who has agreed to speak on our June 26 Webinar. He's got a number of hair raising tales related to telecom bills that he intends to share on that occasion. He also told me that in addition to the Excel worksheet he will provide to attendees so they can track their own efforts, he will look at the telecom bills for one month for each attending organization-and let them know what, if any, billing errors he sees. As anyone who has used a telecom auditor knows, their services are not cheap-although when you compare those costs against the money they save you in the future, they are a real bargain.

Anyway, he has agreed to look at one month of billings as part of the attendance price of any attendee who wishes. Those who have already signed up will be included on the list of those offered this service as well as those who purchase the CD.

• The AP Now Blog
• Toolkits
• How to Create an Effective TIN Solicitation Program CD

I'm starting to put together my presentation on categoryId=3&productId=154">simple ways to improve AP productivity. Although it is aimed at Controllers and CFOs who might not realize the full impact of certain less-than-stellar practices, there will also be a lot there for accounts payable professionals as well. I hope you'll join me on June 19th.

Until next week, thanks for listening and visiting our blog

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