At AT&T, the Accounts Payable (A/P) team entered vendor invoices into the ERP system, and routed invoices to the requester for approval. If invoice items or tax lines did not match the order, I reported discrepancies and assisted in reconcilation of these discrepancies.
When comparing ordered items with invoiced items, it was difficult to identify tax related errors. For invoices with an error flagged, A/P team routes the invoice to a tax manager for further investigation. It usually takes one or two workdays to get feedback. This procedure is critical. If any invoice was paid with mistakes, it causes extra effort to notify A/P team and the vendor for correction. Sometimes this clean-up process takes more than two weeks or even a month. Delays in payment could result in contract breaches. With this lengthy process, Internal Control raises concerns as records or important information may be lost.
What I learned from the team was that the tax managers are not normally involved in the invoice approval cycle. Invoices are randomly checked for tax details. They would wait until a flag is raised for inspection.
Therefore, I suggested for any new project (new PO), the first invoice must be routed to the tax manager for review. This helps set up
traceable references for project's invoices and thus mitigate potential mistakes. For monthly recurring invoices that have fixed
regular charges, this initial invoice review ensures that all subsequent invoices are processed efficiently and within audit requirements.
