Chapter Meeting Highlights: Growing, Connecting, Learning Together

In this edition, The Pulse features the highlights and hot topics from the IOFM Chapter meetings that were held during the second quarter of 2025. Below, the chapter leaders provide overviews of their presentations this quarter and talk about the relevant and actionable strategies that were shared. 

Canada Chapter

Leslie Smeyers, BSc, AOCM 
President

For our second-quarter Canadian Chapter meeting, we were pleased to have Debra Richardson MBA, CFE, APM, APPM, CPRS as our guest speaker. Debra, who is a certified fraud expert, gave a very enlightening presentation on “Fraud Mitigation Best Practices to Avoid B2B Payment Fraud. It was thoroughly appreciated by all members of the chapter. 

Fraud is a topic that is always at the forefront of everyone’s minds—not only professionally but also personally. It is a subject that will surely be included in some manner in our future meetings!

Chapter website: https://www.iofm.com/community/chapters/canada 

California Chapter

Patty Dungo Morales, MPA, APM 
President

Q2 is the time when many teams are starting their mid-year performance reviews. To beat the mid-year slowdown, the California Chapter discussed how we can refocus, recharge and realign teams to keep meeting their goals to the end of the year. 

At our meeting, we looked at processes and procedures to see how AP leaders and their team members could best address the challenges of the next two quarters. We also examined the topic of “Intentional Leadership” and management, and addressed questions such as: 

• How do clear SOPs enhance workflows? 
• What are the best ways to conduct mid-year check-ins and provide meaningful feedback? 
• How can leaders and teams address the issues of burnout? 
• What kind of opportunities can you build into your operation to enable career development? 

By showing support for the development of their teams, AP managers can help their team members to achieve team goals and career goals, while furthering the success of their organizations. 

Chapter website: https://www.iofm.com/community/chapters/california  

Central Atlantic Region Chapter 

Debra Richardson, MBA, CFE, APM, APPM, CPRS 
President 

In past meetings, we have addressed topics such as payments, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and using AI to manage email. This quarter, our meeting was an “Excel Demo Day” in which we looked at practical tips on how to save time, reduce errors and work smarter. 

We used Excel instructional videos to learn how to work with formulas, artificial intelligence, reporting and more. We also tapped into our members’ expertise and demonstrated real Excel examples that could be used in day-to-day spreadsheet tasks. To cap it off we presented a 15-minute demo on Scribe, a program that makes it easier to document steps in a process. 

Our members agreed that Excel is a powerful tool with extensive functionality, but it is not always leveraged to its full capability!

Chapter website: https://www.iofm.com/community/chapters/central-atlantic

Midwestern Region Chapter

Patti Pomerenke, CTP, APM 
Chapter Leader

Our chapter leaders work democratically to make all decisions about our chapter activities and meetings. In addition to me, our team includes Jesse Norwood, APM, Vanessa Wais, APM, and Melissa Schmear, APM. 

Our Q2 meeting featured Wende Burgess from AppZen, who spoke about AI in AP. We learned how AI is being used to gain efficiencies and how those efficiencies can be put to use in our AP operations. 

Since our meetings are 1½ hours long, we always make sure we leave time for open discussions. For example, we have had discussions about job levels in AP, how to process invoices when they are sent via a link in an email (from the supplier), how members handle utility payments, and how to communicate with stakeholders about tariffs. 

Chapter website: https://www.iofm.com/community/chapters/midwestern-region 

Florida Chapter 

Paula Runyan 
President

Vice President Alan Paley and I work together closely with our membership to respond to the issues facing financial operations professionals. As the host state for the Florida Spring Conferences, we have a close connection with IOFM. 

We opened our Q2 meeting by sharing IOFM Spring Conference news. This year, the conference offered 48 sessions this Spring and 7 peer networking roundtables for attendees. Since seven of our Florida Chapter members attended the conference, we were able to share our experiences at the conference sessions and roundtables with chapter members who could not attend.  

After our discussion of the conference, we shifted gears with a cyber security ice breaker and followed it with a presentation by speaker Randy Romes of CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen) entitled “Modern Cyber Fraud and Mitigation Strategies,” which equipped our members with new knowledge and strategies on what to watch for and how to prevent fraud attacks.  

Chapter website: https://www.iofm.com/community/chapters/florida 

Southwestern Region Chapter

Candace Jaramillo, APPM
President

At our Q2 meeting, Vice President Jessica Connors facilitated a presentation by IOFM Executive Editor Jess Scheer entitled “Level Up by Leveraging KPIs.” According to the latest IOFM Benchmarking Report (and a brief poll taken at the meeting), many finance teams aren’t consistently tracking metrics or simply don’t know where to start. 

Jess shared statistics and actionable strategies and advised that AP professionals, if they are not already benchmarking, should start tracking KPIs. He advised that tracking the following five KPIs is a good place to start: Invoices Per FTE/Month, Cost Per Invoice, Invoice Exception Rate, On-Time Payment Rate, and Duplicate Payment Rate.  

Following the presentation, we held a dynamic roundtable discussion and shared members’ real-world experiences and perspectives about measuring performance with KPIs.  

Chapter website: https://www.iofm.com/community/chapters/southwestern-region  

Northeastern Region Chapter 

Tiffany Miller, APM 
President

Aside from fraud, Artificial Intelligence is probably one of the hottest topics in accounts payable today. AP professionals are looking for technical information, balanced viewpoints, tools, and strategies on how to deal with the implementation of AI technology that will soon be upon us (if it isn’t already).  

In planning our Q2 meeting, we wanted to provide our members with a balanced perspective about AI. So, in our program, “AI: the good, the bad, and the unknown,” we discussed how to stay excited and keep a positive outlook about AI while also taking a proactive approach to protect AP from some of the negative implications of this new tech that we don’t know everything about yet. It also provided our members with information to enable them to knowledgeably discuss the technology with management and advocate for having a seat at the table when the new technology is being implemented. 

Chapter website: https://www.iofm.com/community/chapters/northeast-region 

Accounts Receivable Chapter 

Cindy Clark, ARM 
President

Our chapter started out small, but we are seeing the IOFM AR community grow with new members who bring great insights and a passion for learning and sharing. It’s exciting to see everything come together. Our AR Chapter is finding its power and its voice! 

This year, we are hearing from our collections professionals in the chapter that they are facing increasing pressure to collect faster and more accurately. In addition, fraud and abuse are on the rise, compliance regulations are continually changing, and fines are increasing. 

Our Q2 meeting focused on strategies to address those concerns. Our speaker was Lisa Lansaw CICP / Director, NAHC / Nidec Motor Corporation (who is a chapter member). The topic was “Nidec Collections Playbook: Handling Calls & Overcoming the Top 5 Debtor Excuses,” and we had a lively discussion and idea exchange. 

Chapter website: https://www.iofm.com/community/chapters/accounts-receivable 

Note from The Pulse Editors: Our IOFM chapter meetings offer financial operations professionals an additional way to network, learn, and hear outstanding speakers outside of our annual Spring and Fall IOFM national conferences.  

We encourage you to attend the quarterly meetings to expand on the many offerings and resources that IOFM offers. There is no cost to attend, and since the meetings are held virtually, there are no geographical barriers to attending.  

Please check our IOFM Events Calendar (https://www.iofm.com/events/calendar) to find the meeting listings and descriptions of each of the chapter meetings.

The next quarterly meetings will be held in September 2025, and will start to appear on the calendar in July and August 2025. You can respond to and attend as many meetings as you choose.

Don’t miss the next round of meetings!