IRS Form W-9 Compliance Starts Before the Payment: Learn From Procure-to-Pay Expert Debra R. Richardson
Navigating the IRS Form W-9 — Friday, August 28, 2026
For many organizations, the IRS Form W-9 is treated as paperwork.
A vendor sends it.
Someone in Accounts Payable looks at it.
The information gets entered into the vendor master file.
The invoice gets paid.
At year-end, the organization hopes the information is correct.
That approach misses the bigger issue.
The Form W-9 is part of the procure-to-pay control environment. Errors made when a vendor is established can migrate directly into the vendor master file, payment process, information reporting, and ultimately the organization's IRS compliance.
That is why Corporate Compliance Seminars' Navigating the IRS Form W-9 webinar on Friday, August 28, 2026 is being taught by someone who understands considerably more than the tax form itself:
Debra R. Richardson, MBA, CFE, APM, APPM, CPRS.
Richardson brings more than 20 years of experience with Fortune 500 organizations including Verizon, General Motors, and Aramark, with experience spanning accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger, financial reporting, vendor maintenance, fraud prevention, and vendor self-registration portals.
That procure-to-pay background makes a significant difference.
The W-9 Is Not Just a Tax Department Problem
Think about where the W-9 sits in a typical procure-to-pay process:
Vendor Request
↓
Vendor Onboarding
↓
Vendor Authentication
↓
W-9 Collection
↓
W-9 Validation
↓
Vendor Master File Setup
↓
Purchase
↓
Invoice
↓
Payment
↓
Information Reporting
A problem near the beginning of that chain can contaminate everything downstream.
Wrong legal name?
Wrong taxpayer identification information?
Incorrect tax classification?
Bad vendor-master data?
Missing or deficient W-9?
Those problems do not necessarily disappear when the invoice is paid. They can become year-end reporting and compliance problems.
CCS's program therefore goes beyond merely explaining what appears in each box on the W-9. Participants learn a step-by-step review process, how to validate submissions, how vendor information should be maintained in an accounting system or ERP, and how to identify forms that should be returned for correction.
Why Debra Richardson Is the Right Instructor for This Subject
The instructor matters with a subject like this.
You can learn the mechanics of Form W-9 from instructions.
The harder question is:
How do you make W-9 compliance work inside a real procure-to-pay environment containing thousands of vendors, multiple employees, ERP systems, vendor changes, payment deadlines, fraud threats, and imperfect data?
That is much closer to Richardson's professional specialty.
Her work focuses on the vendor process and on turning vendor teams into a first line of defense against payment fraud, regulatory risk, and poor vendor data through authentication, validation, documentation, and internal controls.
Her vendor-management framework currently incorporates authentication techniques, internal controls, vendor-master best practices, vendor validations, procedures for cleaning vendor-master data, and controls surrounding vendor setup and maintenance.
That means attendees aren't learning W-9 compliance in isolation.
They are learning it from someone who understands what happens to the information after the form enters the organization.
More Than 20 Years Inside Major Procure-to-Pay Environments
Richardson's background includes more than two decades of experience with major organizations including Verizon, General Motors, and Aramark.
That experience matters because large procure-to-pay environments expose professionals to problems that may not be obvious from reading tax instructions:
High vendor volumes
Multiple ERP systems
Vendor-master maintenance
Duplicate and inaccurate vendor information
Payment fraud
Internal-control failures
Vendor banking changes
Regulatory requirements
Cross-functional responsibility
Richardson also has experience with major ERP environments including SAP, PeopleSoft, NetSuite, Intacct, and Munis.
For Accounts Payable professionals, that practical experience is particularly valuable.
The objective isn't merely to know what a compliant W-9 looks like.
The objective is to build a process that consistently obtains and maintains compliant vendor information.
Her CFE Background Brings Fraud Into the Conversation
Richardson is also a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE).
That adds another dimension to W-9 and vendor-master training.
Vendor onboarding isn't only about tax compliance.
It can also be a fraud-control point.
The vendor process can be exposed to risks involving:
Fictitious vendors
Fraudulent vendor changes
Business email compromise
False banking instructions
Employee-created vendors
Manipulated vendor records
Weak authentication procedures
Richardson's broader training practice specifically addresses business email compromise and other payment scams and incorporates fraud-prevention controls into vendor setup and maintenance.
That is an important lesson for auditors and AP professionals:
The vendor master file is both an accounting record and a fraud-risk environment.
The W-9 Should Be Part of Vendor Onboarding Controls
A strong vendor onboarding process should not simply ask:
“Did we receive a W-9?”
The better questions are:
Did we receive the correct W-9?
Is it complete?
Does the tax classification make sense?
Are the legal name and other vendor information properly captured?
Does the information agree with what is being entered into the vendor master?
Does anything require correction before the vendor is activated?
That is precisely the practical orientation of the CCS program.
Participants will learn how to evaluate W-9 submissions for completeness and accuracy, deal with backup-withholding considerations, maintain vendor information correctly in accounting systems and ERPs, and identify common vendor errors.
When Should You Reject a W-9?
This is where practical expertise becomes important.
Not every form submitted by a vendor should automatically be accepted.
Richardson's own W-9 training emphasizes recognizing when a W-9 should be rejected and returned to the vendor for correction, including issues associated with different tax classifications, TIN/name-control requirements, and common vendor mistakes.
That is a much more useful competency than simply knowing what the form says.
An effective AP professional needs to be able to say:
“This form isn't acceptable yet, and here is what needs to be corrected.”
That prevents poor information from becoming poor vendor-master data.
Garbage In, Garbage Out Applies to Vendor Master Files
One of the most important lessons in procure-to-pay is simple:
Bad vendor data creates bad downstream results.
The organization can have excellent invoice-processing technology, sophisticated payment systems, and automated information reporting.
But if the vendor record is wrong at the beginning, automation may simply process the wrong information more efficiently.
Richardson's vendor-process methodology explicitly focuses on preventing fraud, compliance fines, and bad vendor data through controls at vendor setup and maintenance.
That is why W-9 compliance should be viewed as part of vendor data governance.
Internal Auditors Should Attend Too
This program isn't only for Accounts Payable.
Internal Auditors responsible for procure-to-pay audits should understand how W-9 controls fit into the vendor process.
Consider some basic audit questions:
Who can establish a vendor?
Who collects the W-9?
Who reviews it?
What constitutes an acceptable W-9?
Who can change vendor-master information?
What independent validations occur?
Are vendor banking changes separately authenticated?
How are rejected W-9s tracked?
How are duplicate vendors detected?
How are vendor records monitored?
Those questions move an audit beyond:
“Does the company have W-9s?”
toward:
“Is the vendor onboarding control environment properly designed?”
Richardson's own vendor-process material emphasizes auditing additions and changes to vendor records, ensuring auditors do not edit their own work, measuring adherence to documented procedures, identifying training or process gaps, and documenting the audit process.
That makes this training particularly relevant for auditors reviewing Accounts Payable and procure-to-pay controls.
Controllers and CFOs Should Care About This Process
Senior finance professionals may rarely touch a W-9 themselves.
They still own the consequences of a weak process.
Poor vendor-master controls can contribute to:
Tax Compliance Risk
Payment Fraud Risk
Bad Vendor Data
Operational Inefficiency
Weak Internal Controls
The W-9 therefore should not be dismissed as an AP clerical task.
It is one component of a larger financial-control process.
What Participants Will Learn
The Navigating the IRS Form W-9 program is designed around practical application rather than a simple lecture on the form.
Participants will work through issues involving the purpose and requirements of Form W-9, signatures and certifications, backup withholding, legal names and disregarded entities, vendor records in accounting systems and ERPs, deficient submissions, common errors, and corrective actions. The program also incorporates sample forms and hands-on evaluation exercises.
That practical emphasis fits Richardson's background.
Her work is fundamentally about building vendor processes that operate correctly in the real world.
Learn From Someone Who Lives in the Vendor Process
There are instructors who can explain a tax form.
Then there are instructors who understand the business process surrounding the tax form.
Debra R. Richardson brings that second perspective.
Her background combines:
Accounts Payable
Procure-to-Pay
Vendor Master File Management
ERP Systems
Internal Controls
Fraud Prevention
Vendor Authentication
Vendor Validation
IRS Compliance
She also serves on the NACHA ACH Network Advisory Board, acts as IOFM's Ask the Expert for vendor-master-file questions, and has been recognized multiple times as a leading AP influencer.
That is exactly the type of experience that can turn a two-hour W-9 program from a discussion of boxes on a form into a practical lesson in vendor-process control.
Join CCS on Friday, August 28, 2026
Corporate Compliance Seminars will present Navigating the IRS Form W-9 on Friday, August 28, 2026.
The live program provides 2 CPE credits and is designed for professionals responsible for vendor documentation, IRS compliance, accounting, and Accounts Payable. CCS lists the event from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Central Time.
The program is particularly relevant for:
Accounts Payable professionals
Procure-to-Pay professionals
Vendor-master teams
Controllers
Accountants
Internal Auditors
Compliance professionals
Finance managers
Professionals responsible for 1099 and vendor tax information
If your organization accepts W-9s, establishes vendors, changes vendor records, processes invoices, or makes vendor payments, this is not merely a tax-form issue.
It is part of your procure-to-pay control environment.
And on August 28, you can learn the process from a professional who has spent more than 20 years working in that environment.
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