I LOVE football, especially the NFL (and that catchy Monday Night Football theme song). I especially love my hometown team, The Washington Redskins - yes, I know it hasn’t been a good year for them, but that’s a blog for an entirely different site.

But, win or lose, they are my team and they do have three Super Bowl rings. Not as many as the Steelers, Patriots or Cowboys, but if you have even one Super Bowl ring, you did all the right things to get there. You know what it takes to be the best and how attention to detail yields results you can be proud of.

Most of us are now in the fourth quarter of our fiscal year, which means scoring points and defending against penalties are a must if we want to win the game. After all, who doesn’t want to win the game?

In accounts payable, winning the game can mean keeping up with federal and state compliance issues. Yellow penalty flags are like compliance violations. And the federal and state governments can throw the yellow flag at you for all kinds of infractions: escheatment non-compliance (hint: Nov. 1st is around the corner), OFAC non-compliance, 1099 non-compliance and more. Then, there is just poor play calling on your organization’s part, like having a bunch of missing TINs and W9 Forms, or failing to meet 1099 reporting requirements.

Having a game plan for your fiscal year, and certainly for each quarter, is a good way to ensure you are tackling problems at the line of scrimmage, and undoing the damage from previous years or apathetic predecessors. Take the ball back, go on the offensive and be in control of your department. If you make steady first downs quarter by quarter, there is no need to throw the Hail Mary pass at year end (most are simply not catchable).

There are a range of responses I hear from AP professionals trying to avoid yellow flags, and some are down-right scary. For instance, “Well, we really don’t have that much unclaimed property, so it’s not really an issue in our opinion.”

How much is not that much? It’s like the drawer full of un-cashed checks to the tune of $10 million that Enron had stuffed out of sight. Subjectivity like that can get you into a heap of trouble; like throwing a late fourth quarter interception can lose the game for your team.

You’ve got to know and play by the rules to avoid penalties surrounding escheatment, OFAC, 1099s, and a host of other issues. If you need help understanding all the rules, consider this: members of The AP Network have access to extremely helpful resources and tools in all compliance areas, from escheatment to 1099 reporting. For information on becoming a TAPN member, check out the Membership Benefits Page. Membership is a great addition to any department’s playbook.