The IOFM Podcast IOFM

When Arecka Mather, APM, had to manage her team through a system conversion, she was particularly challenged. As a person who herself struggles with change, her leadership was essential to the success of the project, but she needed to overcome her own anxiety while getting everyone else on board as well.
In this podcast, Arecka talks about her experiences with IOFM Managing Editor Royce Grayson Morse, discussing the obstacles and day-to-day setbacks she and her team encountered during the process, and offering tips for others in similar situations. Maintaining her composure, being brave enough to ask lots of questions, working closely with her crew and being honest about her own challenges were key. Ultimately, teamwork and the ability to laugh throughout the journey brought her organization through a successful transition.
Listen to the podcast now to find out more about managing change when it’s not only tough for the team, but for you as well.

With a team as important and hard-working as Accounts Payable, it is easy for members to feel overworked, overwhelmed, and unmotivated to come to work. As leaders, it’s important to build our teams up, help them utilize unique communication strategies, and think outside the box in order to be efficient.
In this episode, we speak to Katie Noto, a Senior Manager of P2P at BDO USA, and delve into the intricacies of revitalizing team morale, optimizing efficiency without solely relying on automation, and appreciating the true value of your role in Accounts Payable.
Whether you’re a team leader seeking to transform your workplace culture, a professional eager to streamline operations through a more holistic approach to efficiency, or simply someone who believes in the power of recognizing each individual’s unique contributions, this episode is a must-listen.
Katie Noto is a Senior Manager of P2P at BDO USA and a busy working mom. Her passions are leadership, people, and numbers. She works daily to make P2P a profit center while inspiring her team to be the best versions of themselves.

IOFM receives a lot of questions about the process for correcting 1099 filings, and even whether a correction is necessary in the first place. In this podcast, we speak to Jason Dinesen about the circumstances under which it might be necessary to issue one. What if the recipient’s name was spelled wrong? What if the dollar amount or a TIN number was incorrect? What if a check was never cashed? And what should your approach be for correcting a 1099 if the recipient simply requests it?
Jason also explains the importance of filing a correction by the deadline, and the method by which it must be filed, whether electronically or in paper form. He adds that the consequences of failing to correct errors or for issuing too many incorrect 1099s in the first place can result in fines for each mistake, an amount which can become consequential for a large organization that produces a lot of these forms.
Listen now to discover must-know information about how to meet your filing obligations and avoid the financial impact and IRS scrutiny that comes from non-compliance.

It’s February, and romance is in the air! However, what you don’t want is for a scammer to woo you into doing something you shouldn’t. Unfortunately, fraudsters are always upping their game and developing new techniques to rip off unsuspecting AP professionals. Some of their latest gambits involve getting close to you on a personal level in order to get you to let your guard down.
In this fascinating podcast with Debra R. Richardson, vendor master file expert and certified fraud examiner, and Royce Grayson Morse, IOFM’s managing editor, we explore sneaky new ways those looking to steal from your company attempt to lure you in. One of those techniques involves a form of social engineering called malicious elicitation. Here, the scammer gets information from you in what appears to be a completely innocent manner — but is instead a well-crafted ploy to get you to reveal company information that should be kept confidential.
Listen to the podcast to find out how one major company almost fell victim — and learn how to spot these scams.
Find out more about the latest “romance” scams:
Debra Richardson’s Romance Scam Resources (Debra’s website, Putting the AP in hAPpy) Online Romance Scams Toolkit Elicitation — A Conversation With Intent The hottest new dating site: LinkedIn (Business Insider) Love Is in the Air And It’s Full of Scammed Money (Kubikle series, YouTube video) A Lesson Learned From a 2020 Tesla Insider Threat (Debra R. Richardson podcast) Russian National Pleads Guilty After Trying to Hack a Human at Tesla (SecureWorld)

While the terms leadership and management are sometimes used interchangeably, there are important differences. IOFM recently spoke with Tracy Zurcher, District Manager at FedEx Ground, to get her thoughts on how to advance both within your organization.
She notes that while management tends to focus on process handling, leadership involves relationship building. Each practice requires different skills, but mastering both is the key to success. Focusing exclusively on management skills won’t inspire optimal results — staff members may lack engagement and their performance may suffer as a result. And because people are the heart of an organization, understanding their needs and working to help them improve will ultimately result in greater employee motivation — which will also impact process improvement.
Zurcher discusses useful tools and techniques she’s discovered during her years in management, offering a fun exercise to help others define their leadership styles. She also notes the useful philosophy put forth by the legendary Mr. Rogers and how that may be applied within the workplace.
Listen to this fascinating podcast to find out more.

When COVID hit, many Accounts Payable teams were unprepared, particularly if they relied on paper invoices and checks. Lynn Tate, APM, Accounts Payable & Expense Report Analyst for Urban Science Applications Inc., found herself in a situation that required a significant degree of creativity: In order to get her invoices approved and paid in a timely fashion, she needed to quickly find a way to manage them remotely. 
What she settled on was a cloud-based file sharing service that enabled her to notify her teammates when there were invoices that needed review. She was able to alert them automatically, obtain the approvals and get the payments queued up for processing with minimal delay. 
In this podcast, we’ll not only discuss how she made this decision and got things set up — we’ll explore the lessons she learned along the way and how the challenges of the pandemic actually ended up benefitting her process long-term.