I originally started this particular blog entry back in January with little more than a title and some rough ideas. Unsurprisingly, it got bumped to the back of the bus thanks to a very busy first quarter and also helping to get the 2011 TAPN AP Leadership Conference ready for the curtain to go up April 11th!

If you haven't already registered to come, please take a serious look at the brochure and register! The speakers are top-drawer with decades of experience to share and the session tracks are jam packed with the latest on all areas of AP. Bring a colleague so you can cover it all!

OK, back to the blog.

At The Accounts Payable Network, we've been talking with our members and prospective members from all over the world for more than eight years. What I've found is that, regardless of whether they're in the U.S., Australia, Costa Rica, Europe, Canada, India, Barbados, Bermuda, Argentina or China, AP is AP is AP.

No matter where you call home or do business, AP is basically the same. Eighty percent of AP fundamentals are core processes that all departments do, including paying on time, capturing discounts whenever possible, and finding new or unnoticed savings opportunities to improve your company's profitability and bottom line.

There are some unfortunate but familiar phrases that I have heard over the years while chatting with AP professionals that sound something like this:

• "Our department runs well enough and has for years…"
• "We've never had an incidence of fraud on my watch… I think."
• "We didn't pay that much in fines last year to the IRS"
• "I'm pretty sure someone is checking the OFAC/SDN list every time a new vendor is added to the vendor master file…um, what's OFAC again?"
• "We're lucky if we can get the invoice paid in 30 days, let alone capture an early payment discount!"

These quotes represent a very real problem among AP professionals: apathy in AP. Or, as I like to call it, APathy.

Understanding that, the catalyst to finish this blog showed up about a week ago in an email from a TAPN member in Los Angeles who earned her APM Certification two years ago.

Apathy certainly has not set in for Linda Zusmer Morgan even after hanging her APM plaque on her office wall. Instead, Linda has a TAPN membership now, continues to earn CEUs, and took time recently to tell us about a few of her own AP best practices; practices that have helped her company preserve capital and increase revenue.

For example, her company dropped each employee's individual mobile phone account and signed them up for a companywide plan. Her company negotiated excellent monthly rates and huge discounts on equipment. They now save time by processing fewer invoices.

As an added bonus, all of their company employees can take advantage of these savings on their personal mobile phones! Another benefit of a companywide plan for your field employees and executives is that you can retain the equipment and business contacts if the employee leaves the company.

This is just one of the several clever cost-cutting methods that Linda has shared with her fellow TAPN members. The full feature, entitled "AP Staff can Preserve Capital and Increase Revenue" is available to TAPN members only.

Click the link to learn more about TAPN membership. If you become a member, you too could learn great tips and eschew APathy in your department!