Biggest Year End Nightmare Constest

(Our Readers Decided)

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We recently asked readers to submit the biggest year end nightmare they've ever lived through. We selected a few and have posted them for your entertainment. Our readers voted and they selected Manual 1099s: Not on My Watch as the biggest year end nightmare. AP Now sends a special thanks to all our readers who both submitted stories and voted.

• Manual 1099s: Not on My Watch

 

I worked 9 years at a company who had been sold to another company who was based across the US, so our corporate office had closed.  Since I’d also gone through a painful divorce at the same time, I went ahead and took the 6 month severance off.  I spent some quality time with my 3 year old son, and got my head screwed back on straight!  It was December 1st and I had just gotten a new job with the biggest employer in town.  They used Oracle, but everything about that was Greek to me since I came from a mainframe environment and, furthermore, all my experience was in payables for resale, so I’d never issued a single 1099 nor did I have a clue what earned a vendor one or not. 

 

To say the conditions were in a shambles at my new post, would be a gross understatement.  There wasn’t a single tax ID number in the Oracle vendor file, regardless if a W-9 was actually on file somewhere or not, there was no system for managing any control whatsoever over the vendor file, in fact, and the rules previously implemented by my predecessor, came from a custom program that was GL code driven (of all things!) and was completely managed manually by her and some IT guy every year.  On top of everything, every single AP Analyst in my new department had at least a 3+ week backlog of invoices heaping in piles on their desks and shelves.  Internal department customers called and called to complain, as did vendors .  it was difficult to get anything accomplished with all the fire-fighting.

 

I had no choice on the 1099 front.  I got myself up to speed fast!  I took a one-day 1099 seminar, got my boss to support me in a new “no-TIN-no-pay” policy for vendor set up, forced my employees to work several mandatory Saturdays to catch up their invoice entry, then got them to all pitch in to collect a form W-9 from all of our vendors.  I worked closely with our Oracle Systems Administrator and he got me on track with what and how to utilize the software to produce the 1099’s and how to manage it so future 1099 processing wouldn’t be this same kind of nightmare.

 

I dragged four of my staff with me to the Post Office at the end of the day on January 31st to help manually stuff 1099’s in envelopes and manually stick stamps on them that year so they would get out on time, but I told them all that I’d look for a new job before I ever went through this again!  Thanks to this most “memorable” nightmare, I’ve made sure I haven’t had to!!

• The Purchase Order Nightmare

   

  We usually have over 400 open/blanket purchases for various departments to use throughout the year to order supplies, at the end of the year Accounts Payable has to make sure all of the purchase orders are closed out.  Here is the nightmare, two months before our year-end an email is sent out to all of the departments informing them of the last day to order items against their open purchase orders which is a month before year end close this is so that will can receive the invoices in time to pay and get them expensed in the current year.  A second reminder is sent out three weeks later, some departments abide by this request about a third.  We then have to contact the individual departments to find out if they have received all of the invoices for their open purchase orders and they will usually reply yes. 

   

  We close out the purchase orders only to find out that we have not received all of the invoices.  When we do receive the invoices the purchase orders have to be reopened and the invoices are paid after the year end close for Accounts Payable.  We have to make copies of these invoices and give them to Accounting so that a journal entry can be made to accrue the expenses to the correct fiscal year.

   

• Wally World and French Fries

 

Our system is highly automated; 70 percent of the invoices go through the three way match process with little or no human intervention. However, in large part due to the volume, some items fall through the cracks and need manual approval. Issues involving the ware house used to go to what we affectionately called “Wally World”. Going to Wally was always an adventure; you would go down to get your issue approved and he would give you 3 more to bring back to the floor. One day I went down to clean up some old matters before year end and found that he been on vacation for a few weeks He gave me a box!  I brought the box back to AP and found 7 paybacks, loose French fries, and a two uncashed pay checks!  No postcard though.

• Invoices:  Right under the Wire

"We hired a new guy in purchasing over the summer," wrote one accounts payable director. "He was a little lax about approving and sending invoices to AP. However, since invoices in our shop go to the purchaser first, we never really knew if he had an invoice unless a vendor called looking for payment. The one time I went to his office I did notice his desk was covered with papers but I really didn't focus on it. He also had the bad habit of approving invoices once every few weeks and sending big batches in. But, those batches were nothing compared to what showed up a few days after Christmas

"Yup, you got it. He had several hundred invoices and he gave them to us about 15 minutes before our final cutoff. He was very proud of himself because he had just cleaned up his desk. He actually told us that. This final cutoff was for those last few stragglers that inevitably show up. Our official cutoff date was a week earlier. I was livid. But, here's the real kicker. When I asked him about the three reminder emails I had sent to everyone who approves invoices early in December, he said, 'oh, I never read your emails.' I cannot repeat my response but I am sure you can imagine what I said," she concluded.

So which one of these do you think deserves the title, Biggest Year End Nightmare? To place your vote, go to http://yearendnightmare.surveyconsole.com

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