From: Industry Week
By: Doug Bartholomew

Except for making products that keep customers happy, there are few processes in manufacturing that are more important than accounts receivable and accounts payable.

Making sure customers pay on time and, in turn, making sure vendors and suppliers get paid, are among the most critical functions of any company. Surprisingly, while accounting management software has been around for a couple of decades, many companies are still working to more fully automate, as well as fine-tune, these processes.

Payables can be especially time-consuming. There are as many different formats for invoices out there as there are models and colors of automobiles. What's more, some vendors submit invoices electronically, while some do so via facsimile machine, and others use the Postal Service.

Document capture and imaging systems can help.

Automating Accounting

From: Outsourcing Center
By: Paul Nowacki, Engagement Director and Sonal Singla, Senior Research Analyst

The ever-tightening regulatory environment is an old story now. But in the first couple of years after the US passed the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) act into law, there was complete chaos in the market for finance and accounting outsourcing services. No one knew what the new regulations were or how to deal with them. Now companies do understand what SOX is and how to achieve compliance. Yet understanding the relationship between SOX and finance and accounting outsourcing (FAO) is still not widely known.

Increasing Regulatory Requirements Create a Stronger Case for F&A Outsourcing

DataServ, the leading hosted service provider of document management, workflow and outsourcing solutions, announces that Lisa Shields has accepted a newly created position of Inside Account Manager. An experienced business development professional, Shields will be involved in the acquisition of new business for the company. Prior to joining DataServ, Shields was an Account Manager for Commerce Bank where she managed commercial purchasing card accounts.