Abstract: A method for tracking spend includes receiving a plurality of accounts payable items, each accounts payable item being associated with one of a plurality of general ledger codes. More than one of the plurality of general ledger codes are associated with an associated one of a plurality of purchasing categories. At least one of the plurality of general ledger codes which does not include an associated one of the plurality of purchasing categories is identified. Unallocated spend items associated with the at least one of the general ledger codes are displayed to a user. In accordance with one embodiment, information regarding a proper correlation of the spend items within the plurality of purchasing categories is received from the user.

Abstract: The invention concerns methods for use in a multiparty accounts receivable and accounts payable system that allow business trading partners to use a single, shared system for both accounts receivable and accounts payable management. A system implementing the methods of the invention forms an electronic “bridge” between a plurality of business trading partners for purposes of invoicing, dispute resolution, financing, and settlement of single and multiple currency debts. As the invoicing and settlement activities of the participants in the methods of the invention are funneled through a common system, the methods allows a participant to aggregate all debts owed to other participants, aggregate all debts owed by the other participants, and net debts owed to other participants with debts owed by these participants. After aggregation and netting steps, the methods of the present invention allow a participant to issue a single payment to settle numerous accounts payable items, and to receive a single payment that settles numerous accounts receivable items. The methods allow participants to use the substantial amount of financial and cash flow information captured by a system implementing the methods of the invention to borrow more efficiently by permitting lenders to view this information. Furthermore, the methods provide a confirmation process to convert existing debt obligations into a new, independent payment obligation due on a date certain and free of any defenses to the underlying contract. The confirmed debt obligations provide a better source of working capital for the participants, or can be converted into electronic promissory notes. The invention further provides methods for electronic exchange of electronic promissory notes, allowing participants to raise working capital in various ways, for example, by selling them.

Abstract: It is typically less profitable for an opportunistic borrower to divert inputs than to divert cash. Suppliers, therefore, may lend more liberally than banks. This simple argument is at the core of our contract theoretic model of trade credit in competitive markets. The model implies that trade credit and bank credit can be either complements or substitutes depending on, amongst other things, the borrower’s wealth. The model also explains why firms both take and give costly trade credit even when the borrowing rate exceeds the lending rate. Finally, the model suggests reasons for why trade credit is more prevalent in less developed credit markets and for why accounts payable of large unrated firms are more countercyclical than those of small firms.

Abstract: North America offers lessons about policies that help sustain low unemployment. This article examines the effects of ‘supply-side’ policies, which boost the skills of the workforce and improve microeconomic incentives facing workers and employers. Two supply-side policies were expanded after the mid-1980s. First, the United States increased earnings supplements, payable to low-income workers, to encourage adults to find and keep jobs. Second, social assistance programs limited the duration of transfer payments and linked support benefits to workers' participation in job search, occupational training, and community work experience programs. These measures increased job holding among economically disadvantaged adults. In the 1980s and 1990s the United States also maintained strong incentives for employers to create jobs for the hard-to-employ. Payroll tax and regulatory burdens on employers were kept low, and the modest legal minimum wage was allowed to fall in real terms. US experience suggests that selective supply-side policies can boost the employment rates of the hard-to-employ and help maintain a low rate of structural unemployment.

Abstract: North America offers lessons about policies that help sustain low unemployment. This article examines the effects of supply-side policies, which boost the skills of the workforce and improve microeconomic incentives facing workers and employers. Two supply-side policies were expanded after the mid-1980s. First, the United States increased earnings supplements, payable to low-income workers, to encourage adults to find and keep jobs. Second, social assistance programs limited the duration of transfer payments and linked support benefits to workers participation in job search, occupational training, and community work experience programs. These measures increased job holding among economically disadvantaged adults. In the 1980s and 1990s the United States also maintained strong incentives for employers to create jobs for the hard-to-employ. Payroll tax and regulatory burdens on employers were kept low, and the modest legal minimum wage was allowed to fall in real terms. US experience suggests that selective supply-side policies can boost the employment rates of the hard-to-employ and help maintain a low rate of structural unemployment.

Abstract: Pointing out that globalization is a continuous process of adaptation and standardization affecting all aspects of social life in all societies, the author argues that higher education is essential for the facilitation of globalization. In the Eastern and Central European transition countries, higher education has been a main engine of transition, but it too must adapt to change, particularly to the rigors of a market economy that, among other things, requires that it be available to all and that it be financed from various sources, including tuition fees payable by all students. Also, governments must promote excellence to the extent of offering special funding to recognized centers of excellence. Higher education must be the engine that stimulates change and development throughout society.

Abstract: Some Accounting and Bookkeeping Basics. Invoice Handling: The Three-Way Match and More. Checks: The Traditional Payment Mechanism. Exception Handling and Those Dreaded Rush Checks. Preventing Duplicate Payments and Other Common Errors. Paying Lost or Missing Invoices without Creating Additional Problems. Improving the Relationship with Purchasing. Master Vendor Files: An Often-Overlooked Function. Discounts, Deductions, and the Problems They Cause. Travel and Entertainment: The Traditional Functions. Travel and Entertainment in the Twenty-First Century. Electronic Data Interchange: The Key to a Paperless Accounts Payable World. Using the Internet in Accounts Payable. Extensible Markup Language: What Account Payable Pros Need to Know. Procurement Cards and Their Impact on the Accounts Payable Function. Fraud: Vendor, Employee, and Check. How Companies Are Now Using Technology in Accounts Payable. High-Level Accounts Payable Concepts. Managing Your First Accounts Payable Department. Accounts Payable in the Twenty-First Century. Additional Resources. Index.

Abstract: I analyse the response of inventories and short-term debts to monetary policy using disaggregated data on Japanese manufacturing firms classified by firm size. I find that monetary contraction decreases the inventories of large firms; however, inventories of small and medium firms increase considerably for the first several quarters. This implies that in a subcontracting system small and medium subcontractors serve as a buffer and alleviate the monetary shocks felt by their large parent firms. Moreover, inventory build-ups are financed by increases in accounts payable. I also find that for small firms land asset is important in easing credit conditions and increasing inventories. JEL Classification Numbers: E22, E32, E44, E51.

Abstract: The credit paying process includes at least the following steps: the user inputs payable conditions to a credit paying system; screening corresponding payable items by the system; the user selects the items to be paid from the payable items; summarizing the contents of at least one payable voucher by the system; the user orders the system to produce one paying batch number corresponding to all the payable vouchers; the user inputs charge off amount of any payable voucher; calculating by the system the payable amount of the paying batch; and the user orders the system to print all the corresponding payable vouchers for the decision maker to look through

Abstract: PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To pay a price anywhere without imposing a burden on a user SOLUTION: A cellular phone 1 is mounting a memory (unillustrated) storing a payable amount, and when a holder of this cellular phone 1 does shopping at a store, a selling device 2 confirms the payable amount in the cellular phone 1, and demands payment of a price to a designated bank 3 of this cellular phone 1 when this amount is larger than the paying price Thus, this designated bank 3 subtracts this paying price from an account of the cellular phone 1, transfers the price to an account of a designated bank 4 of the selling device 2, simultaneously informs this paying price to the cellular phone 1, and renews the payable amount by subtracting this paying price The payable amount of the memory of the cellular phone 1 can be increased by subtracting from an account of the designated bank 3

Abstract: PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an accounts receivable factoring method and its system, by which a factor company rapidly buys accounts receivable generated in an inter-company electronic commerce market while relieving business burden, the transferor of the accounts receivable timely makes the accounts receivable into a fund and the debtor of the accounts receivable utilizes bills payable for the payment of the accounts receivable. SOLUTION: The purchaser of a business negotiation object merchandise in an electronic commerce market is registered and a transaction limit amount is set (S1). An EC(Electronic Commerce) market operator requests the purchase of the accounts receivable owned by the operator himself or herself to the factor company by a negotiation established in the electronic commerce market via a network 600 (S2). The factor company receiving the purchase request performs the purchase when the money amount of the account receivable to be the object of the purchase request is within the range of the transaction limit amount (S3), performs collection till a due date (S3) and also performs adjustment concerning the EC market operator (S4).

Abstract: A method that automatically calculates supplier/vendor scores and payable due dates by material delivery inspection is a system that combines material delivery and quality inspection. It utilizes a pre-determined formula through the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) server to calculate supplier/vendor scores and automatically announces the inspection score of supplier/vendor material delivery to further generate payable due dates uploaded to the enterprise end as the basis of the accommodation check period. It can synchronize respective facilities, reduce obstacles to communications, decrease a glut in the inventory of facilities, diminish the risk of purchasing materials from the enterprise end and increase the enterprise profits.

Abstract: It is typically less profitable for an opportunistic borrower to divert inputs than to divert cash Suppliers, therefore, may lend more liberally than banks This simple argument is at the core of our contract theoretic model of trade credit in competitive markets The model implies that trade credit and bank credit can be either complements or substitutes depending on, amongst other things, the borrower's wealth The model also explains why firms both take and give costly trade credit even when the borrowing rate exceeds the lending rate Finally, the model suggests reasons for why trade credit is more prevalent in less developed credit markets and for why accounts payable of large unrated firms are more countercyclical than those of small firms

Abstract: Executive Summary/Abstract: Poor accounts payable data quality has a direct negative impact on an organization’s cash flow. Even so, many organizations still experience data quality problems in their accounts payable process. We have seen a variety of approaches used to assess and address this problem. However, these approaches tend to be applied in a “one off” manner and not in an integrated and sustained manner. The integrated use of business process mapping, data quality control assessments, and data analysis can identify data quality problems in the accounts payable area and be used to drive corrective actions resulting in cash flow savings. When combined with data quality continuous monitoring and improvement techniques, cash flow savings are sustained.