Quick Pay

I directed an Accounts Payable Services group for many years and was continually surprised by suppliers /vendors who failed to provide basic information that would allow my team to pay their invoice.  Many times, disagreements would occur as a result of poorly prepared invoices, with clerical and/or calculation errors and the vendor insisting that we pay it anyway.

Our internal control policies prohibited us from making corrections to invoices, so errors required that we get a new invoice from the vendor.  That always raised a whole other set of problems which included, duplicate billings, multiple inaccurate invoices, and numerous communications to resolve the issues.   Oftentimes, the suppliers own billing department had problems removing the original, incorrect invoice from their system.

“No, not your company, I’m talking about that other company”.

I have seen invoices held up for weeks as the AP team and the person who ordered the service worked to resolve such errors. 

Here are the Top 10 Things that you can do to prevent these problems and get your invoices paid quickly.

1.   Prepare a cover page – an invoice cover page with some basic information will help expedite processing. Make sure that the detail page is attached and all numbers tie to the cover page. Include your company name, vendor number (if you can get it), Invoice number, Invoice date, amount due and services rendered/products ordered.

2.   Vendor Name – Your name should be clearly visible, seems like an obvious thing, but you should see some of the invoices that I’ve seen!

3.   Vendor Number – This is the internal number used by your customer to identify your company. If you can get this information, it will reduce processing time because the AP services team won’t have to look it up.

4.   Invoice Number – It is very important to us a UNIQUE invoice number. If you use the same number over and over, it may cause problems for your customers AP processing team.  Sorry, 010108 can only be used once!

5.   Invoice Date –  Do not advance bill.  Advance bills (unless areed in advance) could be placed in a pending file and the likelihood that they will be overlooked greatly increases. 

6.   Amount Due – This should be on the cover page and a detailed breakdown should be attached. Please make sure the numbers all tie!

7.   Services Rendered -  Information should include products acquired or services performed in summary on the cover page and in detail on the invoice attached.

8.   Approval –  Most companies have an internal limits of authority process.  These approval limits may vary by title, so if the organization that you are working with requires, lets say, a senior level approval for all invoices over $50k, then you may want to bill in smaller increments if you can. This way, your invoice doesn’t have to take a company tour before it reaches AP.

9.   Send to the correct person, get a contact in the AP department and treat them well. Often times, invoices require approval from the person who ordered the service. Sending the invoice to the correct person can reduce delays up to I week. Also, try to find out all of the internal procedures and follow them.  A lot of time, this one thing will expedite the handling of your invoice by days!  Don’t forget to communicate your appreciation for getting it turned around so quickly.

10.  Work with your internal billing department to establish procedures that address issues and expedite processing.  The last thing that you need is to have your own billing team creating your cash flow problems!

Adhering to these suggestions can help you to get paid quickly and establish you as a vendor that the AP group will look out for.  My team definitely had its favorite vendors and I know that they gave them special attention and processed their invoices without delay.