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AP Control Checklist

How strong is your control at every stage?

The AP Control Checklist asks 25 questions across the nine stages of the supplier lifecycle. Tick Yes, Partly or No here, or download the PDF to keep and share.

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Cover of the AP Control Checklist
Robert Hickey, Chief Knowledge Officer at SoftCo

A control that is not re-tested is not really a control. It is a record that something was once true.

Robert Hickey, Chief Knowledge Officer, SoftCo
The Supplier Control Framework

The AP control checklist

Tick Yes, Partly or No for the way your team works today, not the way the policy reads. Ticks stay on this page and are not saved, so download the PDF to keep a copy.

There is no score. Where the honest answer is partly, that is the signal: control there is assumed rather than validated.

Commit

Money is committed before any invoice exists.

1

Contracting

Is there a valid, current contract for this supplier and this spend, and are its terms structured well enough to be used downstream?

  1. 1.1Is there a valid, current contract in place before a supplier is activated?

  2. 1.2Are contract terms held as structured data that later stages can check against, rather than only filed as a PDF?

  3. 1.3Are amendments and renewals tracked, and is each contract linked to the supplier and the spend it governs?

2

Supplier onboarding

Is this supplier a verified, legitimate entity, set up by the right people, with bank details confirmed to belong to them?

  1. 2.1Is the supplier's identity confirmed against an external registry and screened against sanctions before it is activated?

  2. 2.2Are bank details verified to belong to the supplier, rather than accepted as supplied?

  3. 2.3Is every supplier record created under segregation of duties, with each change approved and reasoned?

3

Purchasing

Was this purchase authorised, made through an approved process, and placed with an approved supplier and contract?

  1. 3.1Is spend directed to approved suppliers at the point of purchase?

  2. 3.2Is authority checked before the commitment is made, rather than ratified afterwards?

Process

Work arrives and is checked against what was set upstream.

4

Receipt

Were the goods or services actually received, and recorded by someone authorised to confirm them, before the invoice was approved?

  1. 4.1Is receipt confirmed before an invoice is approved for payment?

  2. 4.2Is the person confirming receipt authorised to do so, and does the confirmation reflect real delivery?

5

Invoice capture and validation

Is this a valid, original invoice from a verified supplier, consistent with what was ordered, received and agreed?

  1. 5.1Is every invoice checked for duplication?

  2. 5.2Is each invoice checked against the supplier, purchase order, receipt and contract together?

  3. 5.3Are tax and compliance validated at entry, before anything reaches the ledger?

6

Matching and approval

Can this invoice be approved on a basis that can be explained and replayed for an auditor, by someone with the authority to approve it?

  1. 6.1Could you explain, and replay for an auditor, why a given invoice was approved?

  2. 6.2When a match fails, can the process tell a rounding difference from a real discrepancy?

  3. 6.3Is the person who processes an invoice kept separate from the person who releases the payment, in practice and not only in policy?

Settle

Cash leaves and the books are closed.

7

Payment release

Is this payment going to the right supplier, at the right account, for a validated and approved invoice, with nothing changed since it was approved?

  1. 7.1Is payment release separate from approval, with its own control?

  2. 7.2Are bank details re-checked against the verified record at the point of release?

  3. 7.3Are unusual payment patterns surfaced before a payment executes?

8

Post-payment and reconciliation

Did we pay the right amount, once, for everything we owed, and do our records reconcile against what suppliers say we owe them?

  1. 8.1Are payments reconciled against an independent source, such as supplier statements?

  2. 8.2Do recurring problems feed back upstream to strengthen the control that should have caught them?

Sustain

Control continues as suppliers change.

9

Supplier lifecycle management

Is this supplier still valid, compliant and behaving as expected today, not only on the day it was first approved?

  1. 9.1Are suppliers re-validated on a cadence and in response to risk, not only at entry?

  2. 9.2Does a change of ownership, sanctions status or bank details trigger re-verification rather than being absorbed silently?

  3. 9.3Is offboarding a controlled act, so a dormant supplier cannot be used as a route to transact?

Across the lifecycle

The test that sits behind every stage.

  1. 25Could you trace any payment end to end if asked to today?

Cover of The Supplier Control Framework by Robert Hickey

Go deeper with the framework.

The checklist follows the nine stages of The Supplier Control Framework, written by Robert Hickey, SoftCo's Chief Knowledge Officer. It sets out the control types, failure patterns and principles behind each question. It is a standard, not a product description.

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FAQ

Frequently askedquestions

Finance leaders responsible for how suppliers are onboarded, approved, paid and monitored, including CFOs, Financial Controllers, and heads of accounts payable and shared services.