Internal Controls Practices for Accounts Payable: Design to Assess and Control Risk

Why Should You Attend:

Accounts payable is the front line for controlling money sent out by your organization. From detecting duplicate payments, spotting fictitious vendors and identifying potential compliance issues such as FCPA violations, accounts payable staff can improve the effectiveness of the control environment or bring it to its knees.

Learn how to empower your accounts payable department to prevent overpayments and minimize fraud risk while enriching the work experience of your team. This webinar will focus on:

• Identifying risks associated with all key activities of the accounts payable function
• Learning the advantages of effective compliance training for the accounts payable team
• Exploring accounts payable controls needed to enhance control environment and mitigate opportunities for fraud
• Motivating critical personnel to enhance your control environment

Areas Covered in the Webinar:

• Understand key risks and opportunities the accounts payable team impacts. Such risks to include fraud risk, specific AP level risk, and control risk based on tone and overall philosophy in accounts payable.
• Explore the advantages and challenges of empowering your team through:
1. Improved use of automated tools and reporting
2. Advantages of effective compliance training for the accounts payable team
3. Making the accounts payable team an integral part of fraud mitigation
• Learn how motivating these critical and often overlooked personnel can drastically enhance your control environment.
• Explore accounts payable controls needed to enhance control environment and mitigate opportunities for fraud.
• Risks associated with all key activities of the accounts payable function including new vendor set-up, changes to vendor profiles, problems with arising conflicts of interest, accelerated payments, payment requests from various sources, segregation of duties, etc.
• Explore the dangers of special projects with the accounts payable function and how to close up any exposures when projects are completed.

Who Will Benefit:

• Accounts Payable Supervisors
• Financial Controllers
• Auditors
• Fraud Examiners
• Risk Management
• Audit Executives

Instructor Profile:

Denise Cicchella, CIA, CFE, CCA, is executive director at Auspicium. Ms. Cicchella has lectured and taught on various audit topics in the past. She has lead and participated in construction audits of major private and infrastructure projects resulting in large recoveries for her clients. She is the founding president of the New York/New Jersey Chapter of the National Association of Construction Auditors.

Ms. Cicchella is a certified internal auditor, certified fraud professional, certified construction auditor, and holds her Series 7 Securities License. She frequently lectures on audit, fraud, project management and construction audit. She is the author of many topics on audit including IIA Handbook: Construction Audit Guide: Overview, Monitoring and Auditing, Q Finance: Auditing for Corporates, IIA Gaming: The Importance of Auditing Project Management Initiatives, and IIA Gaming: Auditing Third Party Contracts.

Topic Background:

Most non-staff costs associated with your organization will pass through the accounts payable function. Many frauds can be perpetrated if weak controls are present or are in operation by the accounts payable team. In addition, the accounts payable team is ideally placed to detect and prevent frauds perpetrated by staff in other parts of the organization. Vendor fraud is a high risk, having accounts payable armed to look for and act upon these frauds can be an invaluable resource. Some vendor fraud may be perpetrated against the organization without the help of internal staff, so accounts payable needs to be armed to defend the organization. They can compensate for the complacency of others and act as a second chance to prevent fraud - but they must be empowered to act.

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