Table of Contents

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

The IRS Standard Mileage rate has been adjusted lower for 2017.





Due to the reduction in gasoline prices, the 2017 IRS Mileage rate will be 53.5¢ (Down from 54¢ per mile in 2016).

💰 53.5 cents per mile for business miles driven.
💰 17 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes.
💰 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations



For more information, please review the IRS announcement: 
IRS.GOV


Q:  Did you anticipate that the mileage rate would be lower? 






Robert Ruhno
Director and Blogger
Accounts Payable Professionals Group (APPG)



Friday, November 18, 2016

IOFM Chapters coming soon...

IOFM has announced the launch of IOFM Chapters in 2017.


Chapters will allow for greater in-person networking. Sometimes it's who you know (other times it's what you know) that helps you get things moving in your career. In this case, it sounds like the best of both worlds.


"IOFM's Chapters will host quarterly meetings designed to help you develop professionally with the support of the IOFM community behind you!


IOFM's goal is to give you a place to meet, collaborate, and share best practices with local financial operations professionals like yourself." - Victoria Ryder

Click this link for more info: Press release
_______________________________________________________________________ 
Q:  What do you think of about IOFM Chapters? Do you think your co-workers in AP would be interested in joining a local chapter?





Robert Ruhno
Director and Blogger
Accounts Payable Professionals Group (APPG)


Tuesday, October 25, 2016

CAPP and CAPA can now become APM and APS



An important message came out this week from IOFM regarding CAPP and CAPA certified Accounts Payable Professionals. See their message:
_______________________________________________________________________
Are you CAPP or CAPA certified through IFO? If so, you'll want to continue reading this message.
IOFM is now accepting transfer applications into the Accredited Payables Manager (APM) and Accredited Payables Specialist (APS) programs for those who hold an active CAPP or CAPA certification.

Here are the basics:
There is no cost for the transfer
No need to sit for our rigorous exam
You will need to provide proof of your active certification
Why are we doing this? Hear it directly from Brian Cuthbert, Executive Director of IOFM:
"Over the past 6 months, in particular, current CAPP/CAPA certified professionals have been reaching out to IOFM to express their deep concern over the future of their current certification designation," said Brian. "We've been asked time and again to step in and provide another option for those professionals who have invested so much of their time and money into their certification designation. IOFM has a responsibility to the financial operations community, which we take seriously, and now CAPP and CAPA certified practitioners can benefit from IOFM's certification programs and become part of most well-recognized certification programs for financial operations professionals in North America."
You can learn more about this opportunity here: CAPP/CAPA Transfer Opportunity 
_______________________________________________________________________ 
Q:  Are you CAPP or CAPA certified? What are your thoughts on this? Are you planning on transferring your certification? Although it seems like an obvious choice to me, is there some reason for not transferring?






Robert Ruhno
Director and Blogger
Accounts Payable Professionals Group (APPG)


Tuesday, October 18, 2016

What to do about petty cash?



Petty cash is money that a company keeps in the office for miscellaneous expenses (for example: to cover the cost of parking and tolls of an employee picking up emergency office supplies). While on the surface it may sound like a good idea to maintain a petty cash box, it may not be worth the trouble in this day and age. There are better ways to handle these miscellaneous expenses without resorting to petty cash.

Everyone has an ATM or credit card. An employee can simply take on the costs, temporarily, and get reimbursed through an expense report. This way there is no exchange of cash. In addition to that, many companies have T&E-cards or P-cards that allow their employees to make business purchases for the company without taking on the costs at all, so there is no real need for petty cash. There are other problems that should be considered too.

It takes too much time away from other more important A/P functions to maintain the petty cash records. A person dedicated to keeping the petty cash log, to keep track of the balance, and another person to sign-off on the log whenever there is an update. From time to time, there should be an unscheduled internal audit of the petty cash box. There are also concerns over securing the cash to prevent theft or fraud. The best practice is to keep the petty cash in a fireproof locked box with limited access and it should be kept within site.

If you log all the hours spent by each person that has to deal with maintaining the petty cash box and multiple that by their pay/hour, your company may decide to stop the practice of petty cash.

Q: Do you know of a company that still does petty cash? Is it a headache to manage? or is it easy and useful, or something in-between?





Robert Ruhno
Director and Blogger
Accounts Payable Professionals Group (APPG)



Monday, October 10, 2016

Happy AP Appreciation Week!


The week of October 10th thru the 14th has been declared as AP Appreciation Week. So thank you for all the hard work you do! I know first hand that AP is more than, "just paying the bills". Sometimes it is like you are taking on several roles at the same time: accountant, police, economist, politician, teacher, and occasionally mental health therapist! lol.

Happy AP Appreciation Week!

During AP Appreciation Week, our friends at IOFM and the AP & P2P Network will treat one hardworking AP & P2P team each day by awarding their team a $200 gift card to go out to lunch. Submissions will be accepted until October 13th, 2016 (noon EST). Those who wish to recognize their own team or any Accounts Payable or Procure-to-Pay team who they believe goes above and beyond can submit entries on the AP & P2P Network website: http://www.app2p.com/contest





Robert Ruhno
Director of Socia Media
Accounts Payable Professionals Group (APPG)


Saturday, October 1, 2016

What does A/P know about Bitcoin?


Bitcoin is an electronic currency referred to as a cryptocurrency. Although the percentage of Bitcoin usage compared to all other electronic payment methods is small, as an AP Professionals you want to be aware of it. If the usage of Bitcoin continues to increase and becomes an important and significant payment method, what kind of policies would the head of an Accounts Payable department have to put in place?

According to the book: Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Cryptocurrencies By Andreas M. Antonopoulos, "Transactions can be created online or offline by anyone even if the person creating the transaction is not an authorized signer on the account. For example, an accounts payable clerk might process payable checks for Signature by the CEO. Similarly and accounts payable clerk can create Bitcoin transactions and then have the CEO apply digital signatures to make them ballot. Whereas they check references a specific account as the source of the funds a Bitcoin transaction references a specific previous transaction as its source rather than an account."
As AP Professionals we must have this kind of thing on our radar. Here is a video that gives you a good primer on Bitcoin. 


Q: What are your thoughts about Bitcoin? 
Q: Have you used Bitcoin personally? 
Q: Do you know of any businesses that use Bitcoin?

For more information on Bitcoin, I recommend reading the following:



Interested in using Bitcoin? I recommend using Coinbase. Click here to get $10 worth of Bitcoins when you open an account: Coinbase.





Robert Ruhno
Director of Socia Media
Accounts Payable Professionals Group (APPG)

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

The Fall A/P Conference & Expo


The Fall A/P Conference & Expo in Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada is coming up soon! From October 24th - 26th the expo will have tons of training sessions from our favorite and most knowledgeable speakers. This event is always exciting and you will leave with so many new ideas. It's almost like gaining "A/P superpowers"!

To my readers and members of the Accounts Payable Professional Group that are attending the conference: I hope to see you there! I am always happy to meet you in person. 

The hashtag for the event will be #fallapexpo, so you can follow along on Twitter.




Schedule:

Monday, October 24th - Opening Keynote at 4:15pm PDT!


Tuesday, October 25th - from 8:10am PDT until all day!


Wednesday, October 26th - from 8:10am PDT until 2:30pm PDT!


Thursday, October 27th - Post-conference certification classes and exams.

Click here for more details: http://www.iofm.com/conference-fall/eb-brochure/




Make sure to message me if you have any good questions to ask the vendors or speakers. I will get the answers for you and post them!







Robert Ruhno
Director of Socia Media
Accounts Payable Professionals Group (APPG)

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Same Day ACH Payments


Starting September 23rd, 2016 Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments will be able to get paid within the same day. ACH is the system for electronically transferring money between bank accounts.







   • Phase 1: Sept. 23, 2016 
ACH credits can be made on the same day they were processed.

   • Phase 2: Sept. 15, 2017 
Both ACH credits and debits will be able to get processed on the same day.














Robert Ruhno
Director of Social Media
Accounts Payable Professionals Group (APPG)
ap-professionals.com

Monday, August 15, 2016

Deadline Friday

This Friday is your last chance to register for the fall 2016 AP & P2P Conference & Expo at discounted pricing.

The conference will take place October 24-26, 2016 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Over 550 of the country’s top financial operations professionals will be in attendance.

To view the full conference brochure, go to: http://bit.ly/2b8PUJs

Register directly at: http://www.iofm.com/conference-fall/

******************************************************
AP & P2P Conference & Expo
October 24-26, 2016 | Caesars Palace, Las Vegas
http://www.iofm.com/conference-fall
+1 207 842 5557
customerservice@iofm.com
******************************************************

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Reminder: make your nominations for the IOFM Spotlight Awards



Don’t forget to make your nominations for IOFM’s annual AP & P2P Spotlight Awards. Recognize important achievements in AP and P2P by nominating yourself, your supervisor, your department, or your colleague for an award in one or more of the following categories:


• AP Manager of the Year
• P2P Manager of the Year
• AP Department of the Year
• P2P Department of the Year

The nomination deadline is Friday, August 12, 2016 (just extended!). Find out more about award qualifications or submit your nomination at www.iofm.com/spotlight-awards

Winners will be recognized at the fall 2016 Accounts Payable & Procure-to-Pay Conference & Expo, October 24-26 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Complimentary conference registration will be provided to the winner in each category.

******************************************************
IOFM Spotlight Awards
Nomination Deadline: August 12, 2016
http://www.iofm.com/spotlight-awards
******************************************************

Friday, July 29, 2016

What is the strangest thing you've seen on an expense report?



I've worked in A/P for a long time and have seen some weird things, especially in employee expense reports! Two such weird expenses come to mind:
* On an expense report, an employee tried to get reimbursed for a pair of $200 pants purchased at Macy's in NYC. In the description, they wrote that they ripped their pants while getting out of a taxi, right before a client meeting.

* I was reviewing an expense report when I noticed two airline seats for the one employee. When I investigated to find out why, it turned out that the employee did not fit in one seat, and the airline charged for the addition seat! Awkward.

Well according to Robert Half Management Resource these are the 20 unusual expense report items highlighted in their survey of 2,200 CFO's:

1. Ski trips
2. Lottery tickets
3. Rental homes
4. Spa day
5. Cruise
6. Cosmetic surgery
7. Scuba diving
8. Half a cow
9. Flowers for spouse
10. A dog
11. Taxidermy services
12. 10-cent parking meter charge
13. Toilet paper
14. Bubble bath
15. Somebody else's salary
16. Flat-screen TV
17. Haircut
18. Home remodel
19. Driving lessons
20. Car payment

What is the strangest thing you or your coworkers have seen on an expense report? Working in A/P we see mountains of expenses, so there must be some really odd and funny stories out there!






Robert Ruhno
Director of Social Media
Accounts Payable Professionals Group (APPG)
ap-professionals.com

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Looking to be a part of something bigger than yourself?

Join the growing community of 20,000+ financial operations professionals who have earned certification with IOFM. This is a community of intelligent, dedicated, and accomplished AP professionals who have earned their APM or APS designation and work at leading Fortune 500 companies, non-profit organizations, colleges and universities, and institutions around the world. They value accuracy, efficiency, clarity and transparency in the accounting function.

Why did they choose IOFM's AP certification program? Flexibility. Credibility. Rigor. The entire program can be completed online - all you need is an internet connection and you can work your way through the program at a pace that works for you. The program includes a comprehensive study guide, 6-hour training video, practice exam, and up to 3 attempts at the final exam. With two tiers, you can decide what makes the most sense for your career goals - study to become an Accredited AP Manager or an Accredited AP Specialist.

Want to learn more? Download the brochure here: http://bit.ly/29qXmk2
Or visit www.app2p.com

Thursday, June 23, 2016

49,000 members strong (and counting)


Join Today.

Accounts Payable Professionals is now over 49,000 members strong! The group is free to join and is available on:

LinkedIn  | * Google+  | * Twitter | * Facebook  | * Blogger

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Keeping your AP Automation project out of the ditch

Presenters list from the IOFM Conference appDescription from the IOFM Conference app
















Last week was IOFM's Spring AP Conference & Expo. One of the many fantastic workshops was a panel discussion on Keeping your A/P Automation project out of the ditch. Here are a few notes that I tweeted at the time, just to give you a sneak peek!


There's no better source of information on how to keep yourself out of a proverbial ditch than your peers! - Mark Brousseau

Twitter:
© 2016 Robert Ruhno
STP: straight through processing rate

Be honest with AP Automation vendor: how many invoices do you really process, what is your real budget.

"First we cut the fat, then we cut the muscle". -Rock Persuad,APM

Don't  automate bad processes. Garbage in garbage out -Ed Bilkerdyk, APM

Using Kofax we now have 85 - 90% of invoices coming in as emails. -Mary Courtright, APM







Robert Ruhno
Director of Social Media
Accounts Payable Professionals Group (APPG)
ap-professionals.com