Policies & Procedures

Internal Controls System Access—Managed or Taken for Granted?

By Pam Miller, APMD Segregation of duties is an important consideration in determining what tasks should be done by whom in the AP department. Most organizations—especially those subject to SOX

AP Processes and Procedures: Creating an AP Procedures Manual

When AnnMarie Bartolini, APS, Senior AP Analyst, started her job at FuelCell Energy, Inc. (Torrington, CT), she noticed a problem the first day of her training program. The written manual for the AP… Read More

Setting Up an Internal AP Audit Process

The AP department at NYU Langone Medical Center, NYU School of Medicine (New York, NY) wanted to make sure their controls were in place and working properly. In 2012, they set out to establish an

16 Practices to Ensure Adequate Controls of Your Payments

One of the places that corporations are most vulnerable when it comes to stringent internal controls is the payment process. Before Sarbanes-Oxley, lack of adequate controls in this area only opened… Read More

Data Protection a Top Priority as Mobile Devices Proliferate

Are you developing new strategies to protect your data in the mobile environment? "Creative attackers are looking for chinks in your data armor," says Randall Gamby, information security officer for

Accounts Payable Case Studies

Case Study #1: Separate Utility Bills? Bundle Them into One Statement! Challenge: An AP manager at a large manufacturing company was receiving separate invoices for each branch's utility and

When Controls Monitoring Becomes a 24/7 Job

When guarding a building, would you rather have a night watchman patrolling each room one at a time or place cameras and motion detectors in sensitive areas? While both guard the building, the night

You Can't Legislate Ethical Behavior – An HR View of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act

David A. Brookmire, president Corporate Performance Strategies The implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley Act to date has been the primary responsibility of the finance function to implement and monitor.

Set Ground Rules When Undertaking a Post Audit

By Pam Miller, APMD Despite their best efforts to avoid or catch errors, AP departments still miss enough to keep an army of post auditors working steadily. Some AP managers opt to purchase and

Make Security Mission-Critical

Payroll and HR departments work behind closed doors with locked filing cabinets and exclusive printers and fax machines. AP, on the other hand, generally works in the open–with employees from other… Read More