Accounts Payable Filing System

First what does it mean to reconcile accounts payable.

Accounts payable filing system.

Organize the invoices in folders that represent each day of the month. Implementing a filing system in the accounting office poses certain challenges but it can be done successfully and increase the department s efficiency. File accounts payable documents by payment date. The following steps can be used to set up such a system.

Filing system accounts receivable accounts payable friendly by cory on september 22 2011 in filing system record keeping so in previous posts we covered the importance of having a good filing system. The accounts payable process might be carried out by an accounts payable department in a large corporation by a small staff in a medium sized company or by a bookkeeper or perhaps the owner in a small business. An accounts payable system pays the bills of a business in an organized manner. For example if the unpaid bills add up to 5 000 your accounts payable account must show 5 000.

Each invoice should be stored with relevant account information and contain the date of arrival the due date and any pertinent comments. A business will have different types of tax to take care of the main ones being payroll tax sales tax and income tax. If your company incorporates employee expenses into your accounts payable system you might insist that employees use a business credit card one per employee for paying and filing expenses. This just means you are double checking that your bookkeeping system contains all the unpaid bills that you have received and that the combined total owing is accurate in the system.

Assign a filing cabinet or a drawer in the filing cabinet for each of the following. While most bills these days can handled electronically any paper bills should be kept as well along with their stub. Some bookkeepers enter them into the bookkeeping system as a bank account and reconcile them like a bank account so therefore you can treat them in the business filing system the same way you would a normal bank statement. The goals of this system are to make payments in a timely manner and to pay the correct amounts to the correct suppliers.

Set up two kinds of files. These files include most of your expense and income items. Regardless of the company s size the mission of accounts payable is to pay only the company s bills and invoices that are legitimate. When you determine the payment date for the invoice file it under that day.

Keep a dedicated digital and analog filing system for your accounts payable department.