Sample Appreciation Letter for Capital Summit

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 Capital Summit. At this two-day conference, I learned a great deal that will benefit our operations, and I'd like to share a few highlights.

From government officials, I learned the latest legislative and regulatory compliance updates, which will protect our payroll operations from penalties for noncompliance with IRS and DOL rules.

I networked with several savvy payroll professionals who have tackled some of the same challenges we face. 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 sessions. I'm sifting through this material and will assemble the relevant documents as a department resource.

Thank you for allowing me to attend APA's Capital Summit 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 Capital Summit, or create examples of your own.

[Example]
From IRS experts I learned more details on how health-care legislation will impact our payroll, now and over the next couple of years. I also received more information on Form W-2 reporting requirements regarding our employer-provided health care insurance, the additional Medicare tax for high earners, and the limit on flexible spending account deferrals.

[Example]
Experts from the DOL and UWC spoke about how developments in federal and state unemployment insurance programs will impact employers in 2013 and beyond. Of special interest to our operations are state initiatives requiring monthly wage reporting and proposed model legislation to curb noncompliance penalties.

[Example]
Several federal agencies provided updates on their progress in handling more of their processes online. Of special interest to our payroll operations is the Office of Child Support Enforcement's movement toward electronic income withholding and medical support orders. When fully effective, these online orders will streamline processes and save us time and money.

[Example]
The number of states requiring employers to use E-Verify to establish employment eligibility continues to increase and failure to comply can lead to steep penalties. Representatives from DHS were present to teach us about the most recent E-Verify developments and to discuss the changes to the new Form I-9.