e-AP News
a short update on payment issues, news and products August 12, 2008

in this issue

Master Vendor File

USA Today Zooms in on Unclaimed Property

Accounts Payable Appreciation Week

Excerpt: Fraud Story

AP Career Center

Top Clicks from Last Week

In Closing


 


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 Webinars and CDs
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.


  • Master Vendor File
  • 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.

    For information or to register for the Aug. 20 Master Vendor File Cleanup Webinar
  • USA Today Zooms in on Unclaimed Property
  • 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

    To register for or get more information about the Unclaimed Property seminars
  • Accounts Payable Appreciation Week
  • 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].

  • Excerpt: Fraud Story
  • 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.

    Order John Wiley & Sons books at a 15% discount (Wiley link bottom of page)
  • AP Career Center
  • 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

  • Top Clicks from Last Week
  • 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.

  • In Closing
  • 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.

    :: 302 836 0540

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