EXPLANATION HAVE REGULARLY SCHEDULED CHECK-SIGNING MEETINGS

If company management insists on signing all checks, as opposed to the use of signature stamps, then your accounts payable staff must either track down these folks and loom threateningly over them while they sign the checks, otherwise meekly leave piles of checks on the desks and hope to get the completed checks back within very few weeks. Either approach is unacceptable, since the very first puts the accounting staff in the uncomfortable position of forcing managers to interrupt their workdays to be able to sign checks, as the latter approach disrupts the timely distribution of checks to suppliers and employees. A great way to resolve this difficulty is to arrange for regularly scheduled check-signing meetings, preferably right after scheduled check runs. By doing so, managers can have already blocked out time because of this work and will feel less compelled to drop other work to perform their signing duties. Also, this means that the accountant delivering the checks can sit and amicably discuss problems with the check signer, such as for instance queries about the cause of some payments, while also presenting issues on behalf of the accounting department. Due to the increased amount of communication available under this process, it’s not unusual for an assistant controller to deliver the checks, rather than an accounting clerk.