Upwardly mobile finance and accounting professionals realize that improvements are possible in the accounts payable space, beyond those that result from using best practices. Yes, they protect against fraud and result in fewer duplicate payments and enable regulatory compliance. But, what about those organizations and professionals who are looking for more, those who want to squeeze every last drop of efficiency and profitability out of their accounts payable operation? In this course we’ll identify eight strategic opportunities, for those professionals willing to push the envelope and go the extra mile.
Publication Date: February 2024
Topics Covered
- Best Practices
- Analyze the Outliers
- Deep Dive into Vendor Credits
- Potential Early Payment Discounts
- Become an Analytics Champ
- Cross Functional Collaboration
- Relentlessly Pursue the Elimination of Paper Invoices from AP
- Slay the Paper Check Dragon
- Take a Page form Mr. Beast
- Regular and Timely Fraud Updates
- Emphasize Employees' Continuous Learning
- Take Advantage of AI
- Scrutinize Often-Overlooked Process Improvement Clues
- Make Audit A Standard Par of AP
- Stay Current: Regulatory Compliance Knowledge
Learning Objectives
- Identify reasonable expectations around AI enabling you to get the most out of it
- Recognize how to create a continuous user-friendly learning platform
- Identify investigative skills to help weed out AP errors
- Identify additional productivity shortcuts from common Office tools
- Identify the Excel feature that can be used when looking for duplicates
Level
Basic
Instructional Method
Self-Study
NASBA Field of Study
Accounting (2 hours)
Program Prerequisites
None
Advance Preparation
None
Instructor
Mary Schaeffer
Mary Schaeffer, founder of AP Now, is a nationally recognized accounts payable and payments expert. She is the author of 20 business books, including 127 Best Practices for Accounts Payable, the host of the AP Now podcast and YouTube channel and recipient of the 2021 Accounts Payable Association’s Wellbeing for Others Award.
Before starting AP Now, a B2B media firm focused on sharing the latest business intelligence on the accounts payable and payment functions, she worked in the corporate trenches of several large finance and treasury departments. She was a Corporate Cash Manager at Continental Grain, a Financial Risk Manager at O&Y, and an Assistant Treasurer at Equitable Life (now part of AXA). She also held the position of Executive Editor for several business publications. Ms. Schaeffer has a BS in Mathematics from York College (CUNY) and an MBA in Finance from New York University.