Sample Thank You Letter for APA Congress

To: [name of your manager and/or person who approved your request to attend]
cc: Finance
From: [your name here]
Date: [fill in as appropriate]
Subject: Return on Training Investment

Thanks to your support, I recently attended the American Payroll Association's 31st Annual Congress. At this four-and-half- day conference, I learned a great deal that will benefit our operations, and I'd like to share a few highlights.

From government officials and industry experts, I got the very latest legislative and regulatory compliance updates, which will protect our payroll operations from potential noncompliance penalties.

I learned about new methods and technologies that could improve the productivity of our staff and the cost-effectiveness of our processes. I am examining these new practices to see if any would be appropriate for our payroll department.

I networked with payroll professionals who work in comparably sized companies and in similar operating environments. These informal discussions provided some valuable success stories and lessons learned that could help us save time and money. I will study them to see how they may apply to our operations.

[Insert Example of what you learned]

As an attendee, I have online access to all handouts from the conference workshops. I have pulled all the relevant material together as a department resource, which will help us keep our payroll operations running smoothly.

Thank you for allowing me to attend APA's Congress and for supporting my continuing education. I assure you that what I have learned and the contacts I have made will help support our continued payroll compliance and the cost-effectiveness of our operations.

INSTRUCTIONS
Use one or two of the following examples to illustrate what you learned at the Congress, or create examples of your own.

[Example]
The "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and Its Impact on Payroll" workshop that I attended at the APA Congress provided us everything that we were hoping to learn. It verified that our definition of employer-provided health care to be reported on this year's W-2 is in compliance with the regulation. The speakers (including one from the IRS) offered some innovative methods to track the cost for each individual. I think the implementation of these ideas into our system will give us complete confidence that we are right where we should be on health care cost reporting for 2012.

[Example]
At the APA Congress, I went to a workshop entitled "Payroll & Human Resources as Partners." I came away with a greater understanding of the business relationship that can be accomplished by the two departments working together and how to get to that level of cooperation for the good of the entire company. I can't wait to start building the bridge between us, using the methods I just learned. I really wish our HR director could have been there.

[Example]
I want to thank you for sending me to the APA's annual Congress this year. It was as awesome as everyone says. Especially a workshop called "The 10 Most Common Payroll Pitfalls." Since I'm relatively new to payroll, this session gave me ways to watch out for and prevent some errors that I didn't even know existed. The speaker explained how simple little mistakes can end up being major issues, and then showed us how to avoid those little errors. This information will be most helpful in my daily work.

[Example]
This is what we've been looking for! I went to a workshop at the APA Congress called "Paperless Pay Compliance in 50 States." This workshop took a very common sense legal approach on how to set up electronic wage payments in every state. Now I know. We can be paperless in all 50 states!

[Example]
I go to the APA Congress every year, and every year it's the best workshop of the entire event. I'm talking about the "Forum on Federal Payroll Issues." It's always new. And where else can you find a panel discussing the most current and difficult issues facing the payroll professional right now? The panel is comprised of representatives from the same government agencies that write and enforce the regulations and laws that we must operate under. I go to Congress to recharge my informational batteries and this forum is the jump start that I need.