Accounts Payable Advisory Services

  • Step-by-step action & implementation plans
  • Payback often within days and always within 3-6 months
  • Reduces costs, improves productivity, ensures compliance
  • Follow-up ensures success & benefits achieved

Leveraging a deep knowledge base gained from extensive research in the field, the Institute of Finance & Management offers a unique array of advisory services specific to the Accounts Payable function.

Whether your firm enjoys cutting-edge operations across the spectrum of AP workflow or struggles to manage a traditional AP organization, IOFM’s Accounts Payable Advisory Services can increase efficiencies, lower cost, and reduce risk.

The net result for our client companies: secure AP operations and savings that support the entire organization.

AP Process Review

The most requested service from IOFM is the AP Process Review. To find areas in your AP processes where expense reduction and control opportunities persist is difficult without objectivity – something you can’t achieve from within the organization.

This overall assessment and audit of your AP Processes and your department will lead to specific recommendations, process improvements and an evaluation of policies.

  • Reviews your entire operation and leads to changes in policies, procedures and automation, as well as enhancement of staff capabilities
  • Identifies the right technologies to streamline and speed up your operations 
  • Provides an action plan for short and long term cost cut reductions
  • Improves productivity, identifies deficient areas
  • Reviews areas such as AP management and organization, process flows, payment processes and controls, vendor set up and controls, compliance with regulatory and tax issues, metrics, document management, customer service, and more. 
  • Payback from process review is often within days and always within 3-6 months
  • Provides a step-by-step action plan for implementation of immediate recommendations, short-term items and long-term items
  • Includes follow-up on recommendations to ensure implementation and benefits

Short, intermediate and long term key goals may include:

  • Vendor leverage and contract compliance
  • Vendor file maintenance and standardization of information
  • Regulatory compliance with IRS, OFAC, FTO, SOX and State laws Accounts Payable l
  • Enhanced workflow
  • Reduction of manual transaction volume
  • Quality and timeliness standards and measurement
  • Electronic transaction capture, routing, approval and posting 
  • Electronic payment and remittances
  • And more!

Major consulting firms offer similar services but lack the “in the trenches” AP department experience. Don’t wait, over 50 firms have called to review their needs in just the last six months.

AP Regulatory Compliance Service

Find out if you have the policies and procedures in place for handling thelatest regulatory and tax taxes affecting accounts payable. These areas include: Information Reporting (Form 1099) and (1042-S), Employees vs. Independent Contractor, Unclaimed Property, Sales & Use Tax, Payment Cards, Records Retention and other Federal and State Regulations including OFAC/VAT/FTO/HIPAA. Let IOMA’s AP Advisory Services help you build the policies and procedures to protect your department and firm from embarrassing lawsuits and expensive litigation.

The Solution

IOFM’s Regulatory Service performs an assessment of your processes, procedures, controls and reporting in the following areas. We ensure that you are aware of the requirements for your company, provide detailed procedures to enhance your existing processes and controls and identify key resources so that you can keep up to date on changing requirements. 
 

  • IRS 1099 and 1042-S Reporting and Withholding
  • Escheatment of Abandoned Property Advisory Services
  • Sales and Use Tax
  • Blocked, Denies, Debarred and Excluded Parties
  • State Independent Contractor Reporting and Withholding
  • Records Retention
  • Other Federal and State Regulations
  • International Issues

Benefits

  • Improve reporting and compliance
  • Eliminate IRS B notices, penalties and interest for erroneous reporting 
  • Reduce the cost and effort associated with compliance
  • Minimize the impact of audits on your operations

As more US and international laws and regulations are passed that affect accounts payable, it has become increasingly important to make sure your firm is keeping up up to date on the changing requirements.

AP Automation Advisory Service

Companies have long realized that there are benefits of accounts payable automation yet wonder why they have not achieved the benefits for their own organization. Many technologies have been available but choosing the right ones for your organization, the right vendors and the right implementation strategy are key to achieving increased productivity, lower costs, improved quality and improved timeliness. Many companies can’t decide what to do or can’t decide what to do first. Others have made significant progress but want and need to do more.

Our Solution

IOFM offers a range of AP Automation Advisory Services (ie., invoice automation, e-workflow Process development and ACH and e-payments Development) to help set the appropriate strategy for you and help take your automation to the next level. We can assess your existing automation strategy, review current and planned projects and identify technologies appropriate for your procure to pay process. We can provide a comprehensive approach for selecting the right solutions that meet your needs and budget. We can provide guidelines to shorten the time frame and reduce the risks and effort associated with deployment. We can identify key resources so that you can keep up to date on solutions appropriate for your organization.

We tailor our engagement to best address your current situation, whether you are just starting to look at automation or you are trying to enhance what you already have in place. We address your key concerns and provide verbal and written recommendations.

We provide solutions appropriate for your organization including estimates of one-time and ongoing costs, risks and effort. Advisory Services Some of the activities that are done as part of a typical engagements are: 

  • Assess your current situation
  • Provide a short and long term automation plan with the appropriate automation sequence
  • Identify functionality you should be looking for and alternatives to be considered
  • Identify suppliers to be considered and criteria for selecting the right suppliers 
  • Identify key questions to ask suppliers, their references and third parties
  • Assist in the development of a Request for Information and/or Request for Proposal 
  • Assist in the evaluation of supplier proposals
  • Assist in developing the business case for your automation projects including cost justification and return on investment
  • Assist in developing a project plan and metrics to help you manage your automation projects
  • Provide ongoing assistance during implementation and cutover 
  • Identify metrics to measure the impact of changes on your AP department’s performance

Benefits

  • An AP Automation strategy that will work in your company
  • Reduce the risk of selecting the wrong vendor or wrong solution for your firm
  • Reduce new and ongoing AP costs by expert automation selection and implementation
  • Ensure achieving your goals, without extra costs
  • A clear understanding of the one-time and ongoing impact of each technology
  • Metrics and benchmarks to prioritize activities and to ensure that you are on track to achieve the intended results

Purchasing Card Implementation

In most organizations 80% of the invoices account for only 20% of your spend. If reducing this needless expense and/or going paperless is your goal, a p-Card program will reduce your invoice processing by consolidating transactions with a single payment to a p-Card provider.

IOFM’s P-Card experts can evaluate your program’s needs or expand your current program to maximize its benefit. You’ll save money, save time, and gain greater visibility and control through spend analysis.

Vendor File Clean-Up and Management

Cleaning and managing your Master Vendor File is the first step to streamlining your Accounts Payable department. IOFM can help with a unique audit process combined with best practices in on-going file management.

This highly effective service takes a poorly constructed or maintained Master Vendor file and creates controls that avoid IRS penalties, eliminates duplicate payments and unclaimed property, controls employee and vendor fraud risk, and finds lost profits. Advisory Services

Invoice Automation

Every organization is somewhere on the “paperless continuum” that goes from 100% manual paper processing to a 100% automated workflow, using e-Invoicing and/or imaging. IOFM can help you identify the proper path, and resolve the challenges along the way. Invoice automation is not as difficult as you may think, especially with this expert help.

By going “paperless” you’ll save considerable resources and time, take more discounts, and earn hefty returns. Invoice automation is a cost effective first step.

e-Workflow Process Development

Moving to a completely electronic workflow has innumerable benefits, and IOMA can advise on the best course of action for your organization. Whether you look to capture approvals in a timely way, eliminate the archaic manual matching of P.O.’s to invoices, reduce the impact of non-P.O. invoices, or modernize your document retention policy, IOFM’s AP Advisory Services can help you realize your goals.

ACH and e-Payments Development

Eliminate the lack of security and related risk with mailing checks, and reduce those “where is my check” telephone calls with an ACH and E-Payment process. Whether you’re looking for a payment solution to facilitate both domestic or overseas payments, IOFM can advise you on the best practices and processes to implement right now. We’ll help you eliminate the worry about mailed checks; create a payment tracking mechanism; save money and time; and ensure peace of mind for the long-term. Accounts Payable

Call today for a conference call with a senior consultant to review your needs and IOMA/IOFM’s services in more detail.

For additional information, contact David Beck at 203-930-9797, email david.beck@iofm.com

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