Resource Library - Accounts Payable
Managing your processes for payments of goods and services can be challenging. These guides, best practices and checklists can help you improve your government’s internal controls over accounts payable, travel expenditures, credit card programs, wire transfers and ACH payments.
Guide: Segregation of duties
Segregation of duties, or separating conflicting duty assignments, can help you protect your government’s assets. This guide can help local governments understand how to separate job duties when it’s feasible. It covers all types of financial processes from cash receipting to payroll and banking. The guide also includes additional control options for small governments or small operations within larger governments.
Last updated: September 2019
Checklist: Segregation of duties
This customizable checklist can help governments analyze their own internal controls and identify risky areas in need of possible improvement.
Last updated: September 2019
Guide: Accounts payable
This guide offers tips and best practices to help local governments strengthen internal controls for accounts payable. It includes a suite of short, one-to-two-page resources for leaders, managers, supervisors and accounts payable clerks. It can be printed in sections and distributed to whomever is in charge of certain responsibilities.
Last updated: November 2021
Checklist: Accounts payable
This customizable checklist can help governments analyze their accounts payable processes to identify areas in need of possible improvement.
Last updated: October 2021
Best Practices: Best practices when fueling government-owned vehicles
Fuel is a valuable commodity, one that can be easily abused without the right internal controls to protect it. SAO’s exclusive resource includes best practices to consider as you evaluate your policies, and help you implement improvements where needed.
Last updated: November 2023
Best Practices: ACH electronic payments
These best practices can help governments improve their ACH payment process policies and employee training, establish a verification process, and monitor for unauthorized payee account changes.
Last updated: August 2022
Best Practices: Sending wire transfers
These best practices can help governments develop strong internal controls to prevent and detect wire transfer fraud. It includes key areas to address in employee training as well as advice to help you establish a verification process to confirm the authenticity of wiring instructions.
Last updated: August 2022
Best Practices: Credit card programs
Credit card programs vary in their nature and size, as does how governments use them—all of which affect the risk of misuse. These best practices can help local governments evaluate their credit card program and related internal controls.
Last updated: July 2019
Best Practices: Travel expenditures
These best practices can help governments manage their internal controls over travel expenditures. It includes a list of questions in the appendix for economical travel cost considerations to help reduce misuse of travel reimbursements.
Last updated: January 2024