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Dear Colleague
We've got lots of changes going on at Accounts
Payable Now & Tomorrow-and I'm pleased to tell our
readers they're all be good. For years, I've thought that
I write books and articles but apparently that's not true,
I'm told what I write is "content." I was given a set of
criteria and asked to select a group of articles that will
be added to our Web site.
That work has started and the content is being
sprinkled throughout the site. And, before anyone
asks, it is not all our articles but a selection to
demonstrate what's in our print newsletter. Before we
get started, a quick apology of the broken link for our
Simple Ways to
Improve AP Productivity on June 19th last week.
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Fuzzy Logic/Duplicate Payments |
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Oh my goodness, did we get questions regarding the
introduction of our new Top 100 Most Wanted
Duplicates products. They broke down into two
groups: the auditors wanted to know why we offer
such a product and deprive them of some of the
cream of their income while their potential customers
wanted to know why the auditors wouldn't cap their
recoveries at, say $10,000 per item. I'll address all
these concerns on the AP Now blog for those who are
interested; otherwise we could take up this entire e-
zine. And, please, feel free to jump in on the blog and
add your two cents.
There was a slightly different question that may be of
interest to many of our readers. The questioner
thought that our use of the term "fuzzy logic" meant we
were not using accepted analytical strategies. So I did
a little research to try to provide a clearer description of
what fuzzy logic is.
The concept of fuzzy logic was conceived by University
of California at Berkley professor, Lotfi Zadeh. It is a
problem-solving control system methodology that
lends itself to implementation in systems ranging
from simple, small, embedded micro-controllers to
large, networked, multi-channel PC or workstation-
based data acquisition and control systems. The
mathematicians would tell you that it is a way of
processing data by allowing partial set membership
rather than crisp set membership or non-
membership.
To put it in simple English, it is a complicated
analytical tool used by those who know what they are
doing (not me) to analyze data.
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For information about AP Now's Top 100 Most Wanted Duplicates |
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Excerpt: AP Segmentation: All Invoices Are Not Created Equal |
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Recently we mentioned the Spring marketing
issue
we mailed-which is different than our Spring Journal.
We've got an excerpt from that issue for those who
may not have received a copy. It was written by
Anybill's Peter Bepler.
Successful businesses understand the Pareto
Principle, also known as the "80/20 rule" or the "law of
the vital few." Yet when it comes to business
operations in finance and accounting, most
companies give little, if any, thought to this rule.
In the case of accounts payable (AP), most
businesses don't handle high-value invoices
differently than routine payables-mainly because
they don't recognize what invoices are high value or
don't have a process to treat them with
priority.
Background
Instead, the conventional thinking in payables
processing is that an invoice is just an invoice,
regardless of its possible impact on the bottom line.
As a result, many organizations miss an important
opportunity to minimize cost and maximize revenue.
They don't focus on invoices that matter most,
resulting in higher costs due to pricing errors, fraud,
late penalties, and the inability to identify maverick
spending. Handling all AP the same-the "big bucket"
approach-creates a cascading effect that leads
to:
� Inadequate operational control,
� Inefficient business processes,
� And perhaps most critical, excessive
transaction costs.
There is a better way. AP Segmentation is an
approach that involves separating and prioritizing
invoices based on their type, characteristics and level
of importance. AP Segmentation is also the process
by which companies consistently identify "Critical
AP" - the 20 percent of payables that are most
strategic or problematic to the operation of the
business.
The rest of this fine article can be had by sending an
email to publisher@ap-now.com with the words AP
Segmentation in the subject line.
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Subscribe to Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow |
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More Reader Questions |
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1) We have a reader who is looking for some data that
documents the entire process a company must go
through to perform sales tax from beginning to
remittance of returns. If anyone has this and is willing
to share it, please send to publisher@ap-now.com. If
we get several I'll combine them into a
comprehensive document and share it with all who
contribute.
2) Three-way match questions and answers arising
from a post on the AP-Now blog can be sent directly to
marys@ap-now.com or posted on the blog. Again, all
responses will be shared with all respondents. A
reader in the healthcare industry whose company is
considering the purchase of a new computer system
asks, "According to the demos I have attended most of
the work and verification is done in purchasing. This is
going to be a big change for that department and for
accounts payable.
"I am wondering," she continues, "how other
companies divide job duties and how they went about
implementing procedures/systems the first time
around. Right now in our company, purchasing places
the order and receives the shipment. AP gets a copy
of the PO and when the packing slip comes in
purchasing verifies and codes what they know then
passes it along to AP. I then verify what they have
done and key it into the system. I correct any errors
and hold items that are questionable until a manager
can verify them."
I responded that typically - and I use that word
loosely - there are three parties involved. The
receiving is not done in purchasing but in a separate
receiving unit. I hope that the person purchasing is not
the one receiving the goods and verifying the packing
slip. If so that would be a serious slip in internal
controls. The verification and matching of the three
documents is almost always done in accounts
payable. I also said I'd ask readers how they handled
this issue.
We're happy to try and get answers to reader
questions. If you are reading someone else's copy of
this publication and would like to receive your own,
either send a note to publisher@ap-now.com or use
the link below to register.
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Sign up for the AP Now ezine |
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Two More Things |
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I've really yammered on quite a bit this week. I just
wanted to let you know that we've added a Special
Offers page to ap-now.com, which we will use for -
special offers. Typically these are offers that will run
until we sell out. Right now we've put three of our
special issue newsletters on there and are offering
them for $9.95 each. Our Future of Accounts Payable
publication is there also.
On a totally different note, I'm quite excited because
my daughter is coming tonight to visit and for the first
time in our lives she is going to help me with a work
project. I've been tasked with setting up Accounts
Payable Now & Tomorrow on Facebook. I've done that
but now have to get some friends. Right now, the only
friend AP Now has on Facebook is Kathie Fitzgerald,
our managing editor, and to be perfectly honest, I am
not sure how that happened (and neither is she!).
So, if you know what you're doing on Facebook,
please friend us. My daughter tells me that's the right
terminology. She also told me she's a pro at this and
we will NOT be looking at her page-just what every
mother wants to hear. I'll have more about both these
ventures next week
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See AP Now's Special Offers |
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Top Clicks from Last Week's ezine |
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In Closing |
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Thanks for listening-really, if you stayed this long, a
big thanks for listening to me blather on.
Mary Schaeffer
Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow, a CRYSTALLUS,
Inc. publication
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