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Dear Colleague
I am quite pleased that my publisher allowed me to
include real-life stories in my new book, Fraud in
Accounts Payable: How to Prevent It. There are
over 50 short vignettes, all actual events, all with the
identities of both the innocent and the guilty disguised.
My belief is these you-can't-make-this-stuff-up tales
make the book more interesting. We've included one
of the tales below, along with much more. Let's start
with the good old master vendor file.
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Master Vendor File |
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Rich Lanza just sent me his portion of the "Cleaning
Up Your Master Vendor File "Webinar material. What's
really nice is he included two Excel files-already
programmed-for attendees to use with their own
information. These are included at no additional cost
to those who purchase either the Webinar or the CD
(or both.) They will be delivered by e-mail.
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For information or to register for the Aug. 20 Master Vendor File Cleanup Webinar |
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USA Today Zooms in on Unclaimed Property |
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I've been writing about accounts payable and related
issues for well over a dozen years and I cannot recall
a time when unclaimed property ever made it into the
popular press-never mind the frequency of its recent
appearances. Once again, we have a story, which to
be honest, is a bit disconcerting. As some of you may
be aware, USA Today ran a story titled, "Cash-
strapped states quicker to seize unused
accounts."
What's disheartening is the number of states looking
for ways to boost the contents of their coffers through
unclaimed property-and the number of organizations
not complying. While the article focuses on the
consumer implications, the danger for those not
complying or not complying correctly is huge. Okay, I'll
stop my ranting with one last reminder. If you intend to
get in compliance do it quickly-before the states find
you.
We've got two seminars coming up on this (in
Cincinnati and Los Angeles). Whether you need to get
in compliance or want to make sure you are
complying completely, both Tracey Reid and I hope to
see you at one of them.
You can also check out our unclaimed property
products at
http://ap-
now.com/unclaimedproperty.html
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To register for or get more information about the Unclaimed Property seminars |
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Accounts Payable Appreciation Week |
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We had several e-mails this week asking about
accounts payable appreciation week. It is scheduled
for the week of October 20. We are still discussing
here the best way to celebrate with our readers. As
you may recall, last year we offered a series of free
puzzles to our readers and held a low-cost Webinar.
We're open to suggestions from you. The puzzles
were a lot of work-but if you liked them, we'll rev up
our puzzle engine and do it again. Or, if you have a
better idea, please send your thoughts to me at
[email protected]. To be honest, some of my best
ideas are a result of something someone else said or
combining two ideas from other people. So, please, if
you have any ideas, share them. We're not adverse to
mixing things up a little bit here-or repeating from a
previous year, if everyone liked it. The important factor
for us is to do something that will not cost our readers
a cent-and still keep it within our budget constraints
(which is why we can't do the following for free.)
As for the low-cost Webinar, we will do one; the only
question is when. Our October Webinar plate is rather
full, so again, we ask your input. With year end
approaching, we have to start getting the 1099
information out; same goes with unclaimed property
and its looming November 1 deadline. So, the
question is, given our duplicate payment series, do
we schedule our low-cost ($59.95) Webinar for
October or hold off until November. If you have an
opinion on this, please send your thoughts to
[email protected].
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Excerpt: Fraud Story |
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This is one of the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction stories
from Fraud in Accounts Payable: How to Prevent It.
The book will be published next month by John Wiley
& Sons and can be pre-ordered at a 15% discount
using the link below.
The employee responsible for timekeeping within the
department submitted accurate reports for the
manager to sign each week. Then she would go into
the system and reclassify the hours. Thus, a vacation
day might be changed to a sick day, or a travel day.
She adjusted not only adjusted her own time but also
that of her friends. At year end, when reviewing the
vacation time outstanding report, the manager
became suspicious. How could she have so much
vacation time remaining when she was out so much?
He had IT run a report showing all the changes made
to the employee records, and it quickly became
apparent what was going on. When confronted with
the evidence, the employee admitted what she had
done. The company let her go.
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Order John Wiley & Sons books at a 15% discount (Wiley link bottom of page) |
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AP Career Center |
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Career Tip: As I looked through the listings
this week, one qualification stood out-one that we
don't usually focus on: customer service. A growing
number of job listings for accounts payable positions
now state they want customer service skills.
This Week's Job Listings
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Top Clicks from Last Week |
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It will probably come as no surprise to most readers
to learn that the job listings were quite popular last
week. However, even we were surprised to see that
one of our Webinars beat out the job listing in
popularity. Here are the most popular clicks from last
week sans the job listings.
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In Closing |
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Don't you love the way Google and Yahoo have
chosen to honor the athletes at the Olympics? The
google doodle on its homepage (not the news page)
has been changing everyday. To see the Yahoo
tribute, run your mouse over the gold medal next to the
Y in Yahoo! Until next week, when I'll try and stay
focused on accounts payable stuff!
Thanks for listening.
Mary Schaeffer
Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow, a CRYSTALLUS
Inc. publication
CRYSTALLUS, Inc, publisher of Accounts Payable
Now & Tomorrow, is a woman-owned business and
is registered as a Federal Government CCR vendor.
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