With articles on "Averting an Unclaimed Property Audit Disaster," "Employees Sharing P-cards," "Fraud When AP Best Practices Are Ignored," "More ACH 'Gotchas'," and "Implications of the Taxpayer Assistance and Simplification Act" (try to say that five times quickly), the June issue is packed with information every accounts payable operation can use.

Here's a short excerpt from the lead article, "How Any AP Department (Including Yours) Can Become a Customer-Service Star":

Customer service isn't something that every accounts payable department considers part of its daily routine. In fact, because the company is the customer in relation to vendors, some point out that since they represent the customer they should be accorded a certain level of deference. Although technically correct, this approach has gotten more than one accounts payable department into hot water. While most accounts payable staffs are not blatantly belligerent, a few could certainly fine tune their customer-service outlook.

Importance

Even though accounts payable does represent the customer in a sense, it also has customers. For starters, there are the internal customers, the employees on whose behalf accounts payable toils. It is accounts payables' responsibility to do its job competently and avoid adversely impacting others within the company. A very simple example is that of accounts payable not processing invoices in a timely manner and the purchasing manager thereby receives vendor complaint calls or worse yet, the company is put on credit hold. (Of course, if the invoice was not processed on time because the purchasing manager sat on it for six weeks, that is another story.)

The second group of AP customers is those employees who turn in travel and entertainment expense reports. So whether they drive you crazy or not just remember this: without their expense reports your department might need fewer employees.

And, finally, your vendors are to some extent customers too. Even if they technically don't fall into that category, they should be handled with a customer- service approach. This can certainly work in your favor when you need something from them-like extended payment terms, help figuring out line items details, etc.

The rest of this article is in the June issue of Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow

Less than a month ago, in this very publication, Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow predicted The Internal Revenue Service would take action on this issue- and it now has. It is raising the mileage reimbursement rate effective July 1, 2008. The IRS will raise the optional standard rates to calculate deductible operating costs for vehicles from 50.5 cents to 58.5 cents a mile.

Have you ever sent in for a rebate on something you bought? Chances are good that if you did you sent it off to Young America Corp. It will probably come as no surprise to you to learn that not all those rebate checks issued by Young America get cashed-and the states now want the value of those uncashed checks, as they deem them as unclaimed property. The lawsuit was originated by Iowa but most of the other states (43 at last count) have joined the suit.

So, what's this got to do with your business, you may be wondering. If you issue rebate checks yourself, the answer, alas is "plenty." The suit has been extended to include three of Young America's rebate partners. They are all instantly recognizable household names. If your organization issues rebate checks, it wouldn't be a bad idea to check if and how unclaimed property reporting associated with those checks is handled.

We continue to see the states expand their pursuit of unclaimed property. With the use of third party auditors it is possible for them to stretch their reach without spending a red cent, something that is attractive to legislators everywhere-and why wouldn't it be?

That's why we've developed our Unclaimed Property Toolkit and planned several unclaimed property Webinars and seminars in the next few months. The first, our webinar on "Unclaimed Property: How to Get in Compliance If You've Never Filed" will be held on July 22. This will be followed by our Webinar entitled "Avoiding the Ten Most Common Unclaimed Property 'Gotchas'" on September 24.

Information about our upcoming one-day seminars in Los Angeles and Cincinnati can be accessed at http://ap- now.com/UPseminar.html

Several of our readers wondered about the math behind 2/10 net 30 that makes it equivalent to a 36% rate of return. I know this because I've gotten the questions. When I realized it would be a factor in last week's Webinar, we decided to post a brief explanation about the math for all to review. For those that are not particularly fond of math, let me spare you any math anxiety: The explanation is brief and the only math used are the four basic functions (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division).

I just got off the phone with Mark Evans, Thursday's webinar speaker. He's got a ton of useful information for anyone spending more than $20,000 a month on Telecom bills - and some of his stories will make your hair stand up - and what's worse, they could happen at your organization.

There's less than 72 hours left to sign up for Mark Evan's "Think You're Being Overcharged on Your Telecom Bills? Make Sure You're Not!" Webinar. I think you will find it more than worth the money.

1. Top 100 Most Wanted Duplicates
2. The AP Now blog
3. Simple Ways to Maximize AP Productivity CD

A special thanks to those who recommended our ezine to their peers. Your kind words are appreciated. Until next week when we'll have additional details about our August 20th Clean Up Your Master Vendor File: A Step-By-Step Approach webinar, thanks for listening.

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