Usually a small subset of payments is in exactly the same amount each month, and the payables department typically handles these payments by set­ting them up in the accounting software as recurring payments that require no three-way matching. Examples of such payments are rent, copier leases, and garnishments.
There are two problems with the automation of [...]

valuated receipt settlement is an alternative approach to the traditional ac­counts payable process. Under evaluated receipt settlement, a company pays its suppliers based on receipt data rather than the supplier invoice. By doing so, the supplier invoice is eliminated from the three-way matching process, while the receiving staff is allowed to match receipts against online [...]

There is a relatively small body of controls in use for electronic payments be­tween business partners, because these payments typically have been be­tween related parties or parties having done business with each other in significant volume over a long period of time. This familiarity has been sub­stituted for control points. Nonetheless, given the large amounts [...]

The central problem with the accounts payable system is that the primary control point-supervisory review of the purchase-occurs after the service or product has already been delivered, so a company typically is obligated to pay for whatever was purchased, even if it has no need for it or manage­ment did not initially authorize it. In [...]

The accounts payable process flow most familiar to readers is the one shown in Exhibit 1. This process flow takes advantage of the basic features of a computerized accounting system, including the minimum set of controls needed to ensure that it operates properly. The small black diamonds on the flowchart indicate the location of key [...]

Though it may seem unlikely that some companies still use entirely paper-based systems to conduct their accounts payable processes, this is still the case for some smaller businesses. The flowchart in Exhibit 1 shows the basic process flow for these organizations, with the minimum set of con­trols needed to ensure that it operates properly. The [...]