Many organizations take their accounts payable function (along with most others) for granted until suddenly, they can’t get an invoice to a critical vendor paid. Or, as many are finding out the hard way, their accounts payable team can’t get into the office to pick up all the paper invoices that need to be processed. This has happened for a few days in the past, mainly due to weather-related incidents. But they pass fairly quickly and it’s easy to play catch up. This time is different and it has highlighted the areas where the current process is not sufficient.
This brand-new session was created by AP Now’s founder, Mary Schaeffer and is based on the real-life experiences of many of her readers, who are accounting and accounts payable professionals as well as interviews with experts. They shared practices that are working, those that are not and lessons learned.
Publication Date: April 2020
Designed For
Accountants, controllers, accounting managers, auditors (internal and external), Treasurers, CFOs, CEOs, accounts payable professionals, procure-to-pay professionals, and travel managers.
Topics Covered
- Manage staff and a management team working remotely
- Convert many of your vendors to receiving electronic payments instead of paper checks
- Create processes for those who must go into the office
- Deal with potentially fraudulent "change of bank account requests."
- Keep up morale of staff not used to working remotely
- Plan for future crisis
Learning Objectives
- Identify areas where your current accounts payable function might need adjustment to deal with a crisis, like the Coronavirus (COVID-19)
- Recognize and develop practices that will help handle the masses of paper invoices that many are still receiving
- Identify the best long-term solution for paper invoicing handling issues currently facing AP departments
- Identify a consideration with respect to fraud
- Recognize what you should do if a vendor requests a bank change account
- Describe components based on the AP Now survey
Level
Basic
Instructional Method
Self-Study
NASBA Field of Study
Accounting (1 hour)
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.