1099s Made Simple: How Ongoing Vendor Compliance Streamlines Year-End
As the end of the year approaches, Accounts Payable (AP) teams are gearing up, confirming tax IDs, reconciling vendor payments, preparing 1099s, and reviewing the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) list for updates.
But what if compliance didn’t have to feel like a year-end scramble?
With accurate, audit-ready vendor data maintained throughout the year, you can eliminate the rush and significantly reduce risk. By leveraging automation and vendor compliance tools built into your ERP, AP teams can transition from reactive reporting to a calm, consistent state of continuous compliance.
The Downside of “Once-a-Year” Vendor Validation
Vendor information changes often—new addresses, tax updates, ownership shifts, and more. If you only validate data annually, these changes can slip through unnoticed, leading to issues such as:
- 1099 errors that trigger IRS fines
- Payment delays or manual cleanup due to inaccurate information
- OFAC violations if payments go to restricted entities
- Fraudulent transactions that damage finances and reputation
Validating vendors once a year may satisfy basic requirements temporarily, but it often results in costly cleanup afterward rather than preventing problems in the first place.
A better approach? Ongoing compliance that protects your organization continuously and simplifies both daily processes and year-end reporting.
What Does Continuous Compliance Mean?
Continuous compliance is a proactive strategy for managing vendor information. Instead of verifying data only during onboarding or at year-end, it involves routine checks that validate accuracy and legitimacy throughout the year.
In real terms, this means verifying vendor details not only when adding a new vendor, but also before each payment run. Tools like Mekorma Vendor Validation make this easy by automating compliance checks directly inside Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and GP.
This proactive approach keeps vendor records current, alerts you immediately when something changes, and provides steady protection rather than a one-time safeguard.
How to Maintain Clean, Audit-Ready Vendor Data Year-Round
Continuous compliance works best with a few foundational practices:
- Automate Vendor Validation: Manual checks are time-consuming and inconsistent. Automation ensures frequent, reliable validation without additional workload.
- Maintain Strong Audit Trails: Use approval workflows, controlled access, and secure data handling to protect sensitive information and maintain transparency.
- Document Every Check: Record each validation event and outcome to simplify audits and demonstrate due diligence.
- Review Vendor Master Data Regularly: Schedule periodic reviews to identify issues early and prevent downstream risk.
When these elements are part of daily operations, compliance becomes routine rather than a stressful year-end task.
More Than Compliance: Operational Advantages
Accurate vendor data improves AP processes as a whole. Benefits include:
- No last-minute surprises during 1099 prep
- Faster onboarding and smoother payment workflows
- Reduced rework and fewer data inconsistencies across departments
- More accurate financial reporting
- Better fraud prevention as impersonation threats increase
- Greater audit confidence backed by clear documentation
Shifting from compliance as a deadline-driven task to a continuous practice strengthens operations and reduces risk throughout the financial lifecycle.
How Mekorma Enables Continuous Compliance & Easier Year-End Reporting
Compliance delivers the most value when it integrates seamlessly into existing workflows. Mekorma Vendor Validation helps AP teams adopt continuous compliance effortlessly.
By automatically validating vendor data at onboarding and again before payments, the solution ensures that each transaction is either compliant or flagged for follow-up. Payments can even be halted automatically when issues are detected, preventing non-compliant or sanctioned vendors from being paid.
These routine checks run quietly in the background, minimizing manual review and reinforcing internal controls. The result? Audit-ready vendor data with virtually no extra effort from your team.
When continuous compliance is part of everyday operations, the year-end rush disappears, and AP processes run smoothly all year.
If strengthening your compliance process is a priority before year-end, now is an ideal time to consider Mekorma Vendor Validation. We’re offering discounted implementation through the end of 2025, making it more accessible than ever to put continuous verification in place for the months ahead.