Wow, the color! I especially love those fiery Maples this time of year and the breathtaking show nature puts on for its last gasp before we settle in for those cozy long winter naps.
While driving around your neighborhood, I’m sure you have neighbors who diligently rake their leaves on a sunny weekend day, open the windows, and engage in a little fall home detailing. They also do the same thing for their prized (or not so prized) automobiles.
Gazing around the AP department this time of year, it’s easy to spot those areas that could use some raking. Like the leaves on the steps of our office building after a heavy rainstorm, fallen leaves in AP become a hazardous mess.
The Vendor Master File is often avoided in conversations I have with some AP shop owners, although I’m not sure why. Like your lawn, your pet, or your automobile, the VMF requires annual or quarterly maintenance and cleansing. A neglected Master File opens any company up to fraud and risk, exposes missing W9’s and TIN’s, and allows duplicate vendors to hide for years.
The best companies use their Master File as a strategic resource or asset for their company and take great care in making sure they have, among other things:
- eliminated fraud opportunities,
- reduced vendor or compliance risk,
- leveraged parent child vendor linkages for strategic spend opportunities,
- studied minority spend.
Duplicate vendor entries are, of course, unwanted like crabgrass, fleas, or bald tires. Dupes make AP look bad, and are a corporate nuisance/embarrassment for any AP shop.
One solution for avoiding what lurks deep within your leaf-covered, spider-webbed, vendor master file is found at TAPN’s Master File Solutions Suite, powered by Equifax. Call me. I’d love to show you how it works. This comprehensive solution provides fixes for all the aforementioned problems and more. Your CFO, Controller, Director of Purchasing and Internal Audit Director will love it, too.
My parting shot: Annual and quarterly Master File cleansing and updating is a global AP Best Practice, so put it on your Fall cleaning list and fear not. We’re here to help you find solutions to outdated, expensive, manual processes (like trying to clean a Vendor Master File that is larger than 10,000 records). You may even enjoy a well-deserved kudos from your boss and peers for getting those leaves in a bag.
