Finance, Accounting and Audit
Treasury and Cash
Accounts Payable: Accounting and Management Best Practices
Paying the right supplier the right amount once, and knowing what is owed before the invoice arrives.
- Duration
- 5 days
- Contact hours
- 30
- Level
- Intermediate
- Fee from
- US$1,500
Overview
Accounts payable is where a weak control environment turns into a cash loss. Duplicate payments, invoices paid without a receipt, a supplier master file nobody maintains, and a year end accrual built from guesswork are all the same underlying problem: the three way match has become a formality rather than a control. This week treats payables as a control function and as a cash lever, from master data and the match through to accruals, disputes, and the supplier relationship that depends on being paid predictably.
Who should attend
Accounts payable supervisors and staff, financial accountants responsible for payables and accruals, shared service centre staff, and internal auditors reviewing the function.
What you will be able to do
- Operate a three way match that would actually stop an incorrect payment.
- Maintain a supplier master file that cannot be changed by whoever raises payments.
- Detect duplicate and fraudulent invoices before the payment run.
- Build an accrual from open commitments rather than from an estimate.
- Manage payment terms as a cash decision without damaging supply.
How it is taught
Short input, then work, across 5 days of roughly 6 teaching hours each. Exercises run on situations delegates bring rather than on a case study written for a different organisation. Cohorts are capped so that everybody is asked something.
Available as classroom, live online, in house.
Programme outline
Day 1
The function and its exposure
- Where payables loses money, and in what order of size
- Segregation between requisition, receipt, approval and payment
- Delegated authority, and the limits nobody checks
- Payables as the last control before cash leaves
Day 2
Master data
- Creating and amending a supplier, and who may do it
- Bank detail changes, and the fraud that targets them
- Duplicates, dormant accounts and related parties
- Reviewing the master file as a routine
Day 3
Invoice to payment
- The three way match, and the exceptions that bypass it
- Invoices arriving without a purchase order
- Approval workflow, against approval that is acknowledgement
- The payment run, and the checks immediately before it
Day 4
Month end and year end
- Accruals from open commitments
- Goods received not invoiced, and the reverse
- Reconciling the ledger to supplier statements
- Debit balances, credit notes and unclaimed amounts
Day 5
Terms, disputes and relationships
- Payment terms as a working capital lever
- Early settlement discount, costed as an interest rate
- Disputes, resolved before they stop supply
- What a supplier needs from you to keep pricing keen
What you leave with
- A control map of the delegate's payables process, with the gaps named.
- A duplicate and anomaly routine they can run on their own data.
- A month end accrual method based on commitments rather than estimation.
Dates and fees
| Dates | Location | Format | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 to 27 November 2026 | Nairobi, Kenya | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 30 November 2026 to 4 December 2026 | Port Louis, Mauritius | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 7 to 11 December 2026 | Accra, Ghana | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 14 to 18 December 2026 | Dubai, United Arab Emirates | Classroom | US$1,500 |
Fees are per delegate and cover tuition, all programme materials and the certificate. Travel, accommodation and visas are arranged by the delegate. Registration closes two weeks before a programme starts.
Certificate
A GATI certificate recording what was attended, issued after the programme has run and attendance has been taken. Attending at least 80 per cent of the days earns a certificate of completion; attending less earns a certificate of attendance stating exactly what was attended. Every certificate carries a code that anybody can check against GATI's own record.
It records participation. and GATI does not claim one it does not hold.