Accounts Payable Ledger Checklist

Sweep the AP inbox, Bill.com inbox, and Dext receipt capture for any bills received since the last cycle. Forwarded vendor PDFs and emailed statements often hide in the shared inbox — pull everything before coding so you don't miss invoices that already accrued in the period.

Apply the GL account, class, location, and project tag per the chart of accounts. Avoid dumping into Ask My Accountant or Uncategorized Expense — every bill should land in a real account or get flagged for the controller, not parked in suspense.

Tie invoice quantity, unit price, and terms to the PO and the receiving document. Flag any line where the variance exceeds the firm's tolerance threshold (commonly 5% or $250) for buyer approval before the bill posts.

Loop in the buyer and warehouse to resolve quantity or pricing differences. Document the resolution in the bill memo and attach the corrected PO or receiving doc; do not release for payment until the variance clears or the controller signs off on the override.

Send each bill to the approver tier defined in the AP policy — typically department head under $5K, controller $5K–$25K, CFO over $25K. Bill.com and Ramp can enforce this automatically; verify the rules match the current signed policy.

No W-9, no first payment. Capture TIN, legal name, entity type, and 1099 status before releasing the initial bill — chasing W-9s in January for 1099-NEC prep is the most common reason firms miss the Jan 31 filing deadline.

Request Form W-9 via the vendor portal or DocuSign. Verify the TIN with the IRS TIN matching service before saving to the vendor record so a typo doesn't surface as a B-notice next year.

Run the aging by due date with a column for early-pay terms (2/10 net 30, etc.). Prioritize bills inside the discount window first — the annualized return on a 2/10 discount is roughly 36%, which beats almost any other use of cash.

Stage bills for ACH, check, or wire based on vendor-record default. Reconcile the batch total to the cash forecast before submitting; if the run exceeds the forecasted disbursement, escalate to the controller before release rather than overdrawing the operating account.

Segregation of duties: the AP specialist preparing the batch cannot also release it. The controller (or CFO for batches over policy threshold) reviews the payment register against supporting bills and approves release in Bill.com or the bank's positive-pay portal.

Address the controller's notes — pull the disputed bill, swap a check for a wire, or split the batch by funding source. Resubmit for release; do not transmit any payments until a clean approval is recorded.

Submit the ACH file to the bank, initiate wires through dual-control, and print checks on positive-pay stock. Upload the positive-pay file to the bank the same day to prevent forged-check fraud — banks reject mismatched items only when the issued list is on file.

Pull statements for the top 20 vendors by spend and tie open items to the AP aging in QBO or Sage Intacct. Unrecorded bills, duplicate postings, and credits applied to the wrong invoice are the typical findings; document each in the recon workpaper.

Open a ticket per disputed item with the vendor's AR contact, log the agreed resolution, and post the credit memo or correcting entry. Do not release future payments to a vendor with a stale dispute over $1,000 — escalate to the controller for hold instructions.

The AP aging total must equal the GL accounts payable balance at period-end. Differences usually trace to journal entries posted directly to the AP control account — a red flag for both audit prep and reconciliation hygiene.

Pull the open-receipts report — items received before period-end without a matched invoice need an accrual to the GR/IR account. Reverse in the next period when the bill posts; missing this is the most common cause of expense lag at month-end.

DPO = (AP / COGS) × days in period; AP turnover = COGS / average AP. Compare against the trailing six months and the industry benchmark; a sudden DPO jump usually means a payment run was skipped or a large vendor moved to net 60.

Bundle the aging, vendor recon workpapers, payment register, accrual JE, and DPO commentary. Highlight any vendor over 90 days, any bill over $10K not yet approved, and any dispute aged over 30 days so the controller can address them on the close call.