It’s been about 8 months since a federal court ordered California to stop collecting unclaimed property. During the past few months State Controller John Chiang has made several improvements to California’s unclaimed property process, including a new Web service that helps property owners track down their assets, all in an attempt to rebuild the controller’s office’s damaged image.

Purchasing cards are an excellent option for businesses wanting to streamline payment processes and reduce paper volumes. However, as with all AP tools, they can be misused by employees. The key is to have strong controls in place.

While browsing The Accounts Payable Channel and our sister site The Accounts Payable Network, you’ve probably noticed we have more than a few articles on AP fraud. Between fraud prevention tips, discussions of fraud trends, and stories of individual fraud cases, it’s apparent that AP fraud is something we take very seriously.

When I hear the phrase "open source software," I usually imagine massive underground server farms or basement-dwelling computer programmers creating software to bypass DVD copyright protection.

What I don’t usually picture is businesses using inexpensive software to manage their finances. According to a recent article published on internetnews.com, open source enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are gaining in popularity.

Have you ever asked an ERP or accounting system vendor for a quote and been met with the response "it depends"?

While such an answer can be aggravating when you are looking at several software choices and want to narrow your choices, it is actually a fair and accurate response. A number of factors, such as company size, complexity, and number of employees interacting with the software, all have a bearing on an accounting system's final price.

If you needed any proof that accounting system prices can vary widely, take a look at the following examples: