The Accounts Payable Network Delivers Industry's First AP Tools Suite

Business Wire, Dec 12, 2005

ATLANTA -- The Accounts Payable Network (TAPN), the leading accounts payable resource for financial professionals, today announced the debut of the industry's first Accounts Payable (AP) Tools Suite. With as much as 60 percent of an organization's revenue paid out through accounts payables, there is an ever-increasing demand from financial professionals nationwide for AP tools and resources that are available on demand, around the clock. AP Tools Suite is a package of more than 200 downloadable policy manuals, forms, checklists and templates available to TAPN members.

"Accounts payable is the final control point before cash leaves an organization," said Phil Binkow, CEO, TAPN. "In addition to disbursements, today's AP professionals also must evaluate technologies, guard against fraud, manage staff and comply with increasingly complex government regulations. AP Tools Suite provides broad, deep resources that help accounts payables staffs efficiently manage all of these responsibilities."

The advent of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002, which requires stringent financial reporting and record-keeping by public companies doing business in the United States, makes AP Tools Suite an indispensable timesaver. SOX management reports, an accounts payable code of conduct, flowcharts and risk assessment checklists provide AP professionals vital resources for keeping their organizations SOX compliant -- without getting bogged down in creating processes from scratch.

About AP Tools Suite

Resources in AP Tools Suite include hundreds of templates, forms and checklists to meet a wide range of accounts payable needs, whether conducting unclaimed property due diligence, preparing requests for proposals for outsource services and evaluating proposals, evaluating software solutions, planning for disaster recovery and business continuity, collecting vendor debit balances, interviewing job candidates or calculating charge-back pricing for shared services. All of the Suite tools are easy to use, easy to customize -- and are regularly updated.

Highlights of the AP Tools Suite include:

Accounts Payable Internal Control Manual and Checklists -- includes specific internal control policies for more than a dozen processes, along with templates for creating a Code of Ethics and Sarbanes-Oxley Management Report, an internal controls check list and risk assessment checklist.

Travel and Entertainment Expense Control Manual -- includes the T&E policy manual, Code of Conduct Policy, agreements, logs, report forms, and key IRS publications.

Accounts Payable Policies and Procedures Manual -- includes a development and implementation guide, policy manual introduction, table-of-contents template, acknowledgment form, generic policy template and 27 specific AP policy templates.

About The Accounts Payable Network

TAPN is the leading accounts payable resource for financial professionals. In one convenient online location, TAPN provides compliance guidelines and tools, best practices, benchmarking studies, real world solutions, exclusive industry news, interviews with industry leaders, case studies, tax and regulatory guidelines, Q&A networking forums and hundreds of downloadable, customizable tools, policies, flowcharts, templates and internal control checklists. TAPN's more than 3,000 members include 70 percent of the Fortune 1000, as well as other companies both large and small.

To learn more about AP Tools Suite, TAPN and the many resources it offers to accounts payable professionals, visit www.TAPN.com.

TAPN is a division of Financial Operations Networks, which provides online analysis, interpretation, guidance and advice to executives and managers responsible for operating and improving financial and administrative functions.