Accounts Payable and Receivable Course

Lesson 1 • The Accounting Cycle Overview

Introduces the full accounting cycle and positions AP and AR within it. Establishes the financial context students need before studying either function in depth.

Lesson 2 • Accounts Payable Core Concepts

Defines AP as a liability function and explains its impact on cash flow and vendor relationships. Connects AP terminology to real-world business operations.

Lesson 3 • Relationship Between AP and AR

Examines how AP and AR interact within a company and across trading partners. Highlights the importance of coordination between the two functions.

Lesson 4 • Accounts Receivable Core Concepts

Defines AR as an asset function and explains its role in revenue recognition and liquidity. Connects AR terminology to the order-to-cash business cycle.

Lesson 1 • Customer Master Data Setup

Covers the fields, credit data, and approval workflow for creating new customer records. Accurate customer setup supports correct billing, credit control, and cash application.

Lesson 2 • Duplicate Detection and Cleansing

Teaches methods for identifying and merging duplicate vendor and customer records. Clean master data reduces overpayments, billing errors, and reporting inaccuracies.

Lesson 3 • Fraud Prevention in Master Data

Identifies master data fraud schemes and the controls that prevent them. Builds on change management controls to create a comprehensive anti-fraud framework.

Lesson 4 • Vendor Master Data Setup

Covers the fields, validation rules, and approval workflow for creating new vendor records. Accurate vendor setup prevents misdirected payments and duplicate records.

Lesson 1 • Payment Execution and Reconciliation

Covers payment methods, bank file creation, and post-payment reconciliation. Closes the procure-to-pay cycle and links to vendor statement reconciliation.

Lesson 2 • Vendor Invoice Processing

Teaches receipt, coding, and routing of vendor invoices for approval. Directly feeds into the matching and payment steps that follow.

Lesson 3 • Payment Terms and Scheduling

Analyzes payment term structures and their effect on cash outflow timing. Enables students to schedule payments that optimize discounts and avoid late fees.

Lesson 4 • Three-Way Matching

Explains the matching of PO, goods receipt, and invoice to validate payment. Identifies common discrepancies and the resolution steps required before payment.

Lesson 1 • Credit Memos and Adjustments

Explains when and how to issue credit memos, write-offs, and balance adjustments. Ensures AR balances remain accurate and compliant with revenue recognition rules.

Lesson 2 • AR Aging and Reporting

Introduces the AR aging schedule as the primary tool for monitoring receivables health. Prepares students for the collections strategies covered in the next chapter.

Lesson 3 • Sales Order and Billing

Covers the creation of sales orders and the generation of accurate customer invoices. Accurate billing is the foundation of effective collections and dispute management.

Lesson 4 • Cash Application

Teaches matching incoming payments to open invoices and resolving unidentified remittances. Accurate cash application directly affects AR aging and reporting.

Lesson 1 • Escalation and Legal Referral

Defines escalation triggers and the process for referring accounts to legal or collection agencies. Ensures consistent, documented escalation that protects the company legally.

Lesson 2 • Payment Plans and Settlements

Covers negotiating structured payment plans and partial settlements with distressed customers. Balances cash recovery against relationship preservation and write-off risk.

Lesson 3 • Collections Prioritization

Teaches how to segment the AR portfolio by risk and value to focus collection effort. Prioritization directly improves cash recovery rates and team efficiency.

Lesson 4 • Dispute Identification and Resolution

Explains how to log, investigate, and resolve billing disputes that block payment. Faster dispute resolution directly shortens the cash conversion cycle.

Lesson 1 • Authorization and Approval Controls

Covers approval hierarchies, dollar thresholds, and electronic authorization workflows. Ensures every transaction is reviewed by an appropriate authority before processing.

Lesson 2 • Reconciliation and Period-End Controls

Teaches the reconciliation routines that confirm AP and AR sub-ledgers agree with the general ledger. Period-end controls ensure financial statements are accurate and audit-ready.

Lesson 3 • Control Framework Fundamentals

Introduces the components of an internal control framework as applied to AP and AR. Provides the conceptual model students use to evaluate and design controls throughout this chapter.

Lesson 4 • Segregation of Duties in AP and AR

Defines incompatible duties in AP and AR and explains how to separate them. Proper segregation is the primary defense against internal fraud and error.

Lesson 1 • Core AR Metrics and KPIs

Defines the essential AR performance indicators and explains how to calculate and interpret them. Establishes the measurement baseline for AR process improvement discussions.

Lesson 2 • Dashboard Design and Reporting

Covers the design of AP and AR dashboards that communicate performance to different audiences. Effective dashboards translate raw data into decisions that improve financial outcomes.

Lesson 3 • AP and AR Aging Analysis

Teaches advanced aging analysis techniques for both payables and receivables portfolios. Aging analysis is the primary diagnostic tool for identifying cash flow risks.

Lesson 4 • Using Data to Drive Process Improvement

Applies analytics to identify root causes of AP and AR inefficiencies and prioritize fixes. Connects reporting skills to the process optimization strategies in the next chapter.

Lesson 1 • Working Capital Optimization

Examines how AP and AR decisions directly affect the cash conversion cycle and working capital. Students learn to balance payment timing and collections to maximize liquidity.

Lesson 2 • Credit Risk Management

Develops a systematic approach to assessing, monitoring, and mitigating customer credit risk. Proactive credit risk management reduces bad debt and protects revenue.

Lesson 3 • AR Financing and Factoring

Covers receivables financing options including factoring, invoice discounting, and securitization. Enables students to evaluate trade-offs between liquidity and financing cost.

Lesson 4 • Supply Chain Finance Programs

Introduces supply chain finance tools such as reverse factoring and early payment programs. These programs extend AP payment terms while ensuring suppliers receive early payment.