Tuesday, March 4, 2008

7:00

Late Conference Registration and Continental Breakfast
Network with attendees and meet with our sponsors and exhibitors.

7:50

Welcome and Opening Remarks

8:00

(GS) New Roles and Responsibilities for Accounts Payable
Jon Casher, APM, President
Casher Associates, Inc.
Accounts Payable is changing. You must prepare to meet the new challenges and adapt to new requirements. New skills are needed by your team. Learn strategies that you can use to become an organization with significant value added responsibilities.

8:15

(GS) Converting "Change Resistors" to "Change Champions"
Rudy Noll, Accounts PayableSupervisor
TECO/Peoples Gas System
Are efforts to implement change in your organization being hindered by those difficult people we refer to as "Change Resistors"? Rudy will help you identify why these people are more resistant to change than others and what specific actions you can take as leaders to convert them to champions of change. You will leave with some unique tools to present ideas regarding change in your organization to obtain buy-in at all levels.

9:00

(GS) Accounts Payable - A Changing Environment
Tom Nichols, President
Process Management Improvement
The changes affecting accounts payable are ever increasing. The changes that accounts payable must make to adapt and meet these challenges are great. Find out how to manage and meet the diverse needs and pressures from the former head of A/P and Payroll at AT&T and a leader in the professionalism of Accounts Payable.

9:45

(GS) Meet the Sponsors and Exhibitors - Part 1
Brief introductions that will enable you to learn about the products and services provided by our sponsors and exhibitors.

10:00

(GS) Refreshment Break
Network with attendees and meet with our sponsors and exhibitors.

10:30

Concurrent Sessions - please choose one

(APP) Effective Communication of Accounts Payable Practices
Charles B. "Brad" Gerritsen, Senior Accounting Clerk
Midwest Express Group, Inc.
With the roles and responsibilities for A/P professionals changing it has become more important to maintain strong communication skills. Find out about current risks and actions to reduce them. Learn how Midwest Express addresses obstacles and the steps taken to improve communication with internal and external customers.

(API) What Your Need to Know About Sales & Use Tax and the SSTP
Speaker to be announced
42 States and the District of Columbia have been working together on the Streamlined Sales Tax Project (SSTP) to simplify and modernize sales and use tax collection and administration. Learn how SSTP changes your daily sales and use tax compliance procedures, get an update on what has recently changed, as well as what to expect in the future.

(APS) Presentation by Bottomline Technologies

11:15

Concurrent Sessions - please choose one

(APP) Lessons Learned with AP Consolidation
Jennifer M. Willis, Southern Accounts Payable Manager
Southern Company
Southern Company consolidated its AP departments for Alabama Power, Mississippi Power, Gulf Power, Southern Company Services, Georgia Power and Southern Nuclear into Southern Accounts Payable. We relocated all to Birmingham, AL. The session will cover the centralization, consolidation, best practices, and lessons learned.

(API) Maintaining Internal Controls: Fighting AP Fraud
Nat Goodman, President
Goodman & Associates, Inc.
The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) indicates 6% of revenues are lost to fraud. Examine four vulnerable areas and how various AP controls can combat these viruses. Look at some universal ways that AP can enhance the control environment.

(APS) Presentation by BasWare

(APS) Presentation by ReadSoft

12:00

Luncheon

1:00

(GS) Pitching Your AP Project to the Top Brass: Building a Nuts and Bolts Business Case
Pam Miller, APM, Manager of Corporate Disbursements
BMHC
You've watched and waited long enough. You see other AP Managers moving forward with projects that you know would be a perfect fit for your AP Department. How did they manage to go from idea to implementation? How do you sell your project? How do you get the approvals? The funding? The buy in from executives, other departments, and even your own people?

1:45

(GS) Meet the Sponsors and Exhibitors - Part 2
Brief introductions that will enable you to learn about the products and services provided by our sponsors and exhibitors.

2:15

(GS) Refreshment Break
Network with attendees and meet with our sponsors and exhibitors.

2:45

Concurrent Sessions - please choose one

(APP) Automating Data Capture for Accounts Payable
David Bailey,Controller
Exel Transportation
David Bailey's AP team was keying invoice data manually, until they installed an OCR-driven AP capture solution and now the same volume of invoices is processed in half the time by half the people. Dave will discuss the decision to automate, the research he did, the solution he selected and the results his company has experienced.

(API) AP and Non-Resident Aliens - Forms 1042S and W8s
Marianne Couch, Principal
COKALA Tax Information Reporting Solutions, LLC
If you make payments to non-US vendors, you need to know: how to identify foreign vendors; when reporting and withholding is required, and when it's not; what documentation is required: W-8BEN, ECI, IMY, EXP, 8233 or Form W-9; and how to report on the Form 1042-S. This session will get you up to speed on how to address these issues.

(APS) Presentation by Concur

(APS) Presentation by 170 Systems

3:30

Concurrent Sessions - please choose one

(APP) Implementing SAP - An Air Products Success Story
Seth Flanders, Transactions Process Improvement Lead
Air Products
Air Products has been working for the past 5 years to implement SAP. This session will focus on our metrics and how we used them to drive improvement in processes, communication, and our organization.

(API) World-Class Purchase-to-Pay Performance and Creating Enterprise Value
Kurt Albertson, Director of Advisory Services
The Hackett Group
World-class purchase-to-pay organizations did not achieve success overnight. The journey was a well planned evolution across the purchase-to-pay maturity model focusing on strategic alignment, process optimization, enabling technology, and business process globalization. Learn about the gaps in performance between world-class organizations and their peers and best practices that serve as differentiators and help world-class organizations create enterprise value.

(APS) Presentation by AvidXchange

4:15

Concurrent Sessions - please choose one

(APP) Payables and Purchasing - Working Together Successfully
Bev Meyerhoff, Director, Global Financial Operations
Franklin Templeton Investments
Historically, purchasing and accounts payable have been in different organizations reporting to different people. Find our how Franklin Templeton combined the purchasing and payables organizations and how they work together to identify and solve problems and meet the needs of the overall organization.

(API) OFAC Compliance and Other Prohibited Payments
Speaker to be announced
The Office of Foreign Assetts Control within the US Department of Treasury is one of several Federal organizations that restrict who you are allowed to do business with. Penalties for failure to comply are significant and can include criminal prosecution. Find out what AP must do to comply with OFAC and other lists of restricted and prohibited entities.

(APS) Presentation by GE Money - Corporate Payment Services

5:00

(GS) End of Day Recap

6:00

Dinner