Collection of receivables is not just going to the buyer, collecting debts and getting paid. In the B2B world, the transaction process can be very complicated, especially in the invoice exchange stage.
The slightest error in the invoice, ranging from incorrect numbers, the number of items purchased and so on can slow down the payment process. That way, this has an impact on billing that cannot be paid on time.
This problem is known in the invoice dispute stage, a collaboration stage between you and the buyer/supplier in solving invoice problems. Here are 5 problems that often occur in invoice disputes and how to solve them.
Purchase Order
Consciously or not, there are still many companies that do not include or there are errors in their purchase orders. This is proven based on research by Kathy Hoffelder in why firms don’t pay their invoices.
As many as 49% of respondents from 100 finance executives interviewed admitted that they still find their clients forget to include or there are errors in their purchase order attachments. Small mistakes can result in slow transaction processing and the risk of not being paid on time.
“I haven’t receive the invoice”
Sometimes, collection officers need to follow-up by asking the buyer whether they have received the invoice sent. Maybe, you think this sounds trivial, because many companies will certainly take care of a thing professionally.
In fact, this problem was felt by 11% of respondents in a survey conducted by CFOs regarding the reasons why their invoices were not paid. A large company of course will not take care of invoices in the amount of one or two, but thousands and even tens of thousands in a month.
Like it or not, you must continue to follow up to ensure that the finance party can immediately take care of the invoice. If not, your invoice is in danger of being paid late.
Invoice sending problem
Humans are not perfect. Sometimes, little things that have become a habit can still go wrong. One of them, sending an invoice to the buyer. Human error can be one of the causes of delivery errors.
Of course, you won’t even notice if you sent the wrong email. To solve this problem, it is necessary to have a follow-up to ensure that the invoice is sent to the right person. That way, your buyer can immediately process the invoice and pay it.
Unclear invoice template
Invoices need to have templates with clear information sections such as, terms of payment, company identity and also your client, goods purchased and the total payment and so on.
With clear and correctly filled information, your buyers will understand it well. Medium and large scale companies, of course, need to collect data through the data on the invoice.
If the existing invoice does not have complete information, then your invoice will not be processed. Make sure your invoice has the right template!
Other problem
Invoice dispute is not just an invoice. Sometimes, there are other things that also hinder the payment process such as the quality of the goods that do not match, the goods sent do not match, and problems with the services provided.
A study from TermSync stated that 11% of respondents interviewed said that things outside of invoices also had an effect in this regard.
Conclusion
50% of companies spend an average of 4 to 6 hours processing invoice disputes. If calculated, you can spend a very long time just for the process. In America, every company has to suffer a loss of $400,000 per year because of this problem.
To overcome this problem, a more effective operational management process is needed by every company. Trust paper.id to help you. With invoicing, payment and financing solutions, we can assist you to get streamline business operations more effective in managing documents. Click here to find out more about Paper.id!