Work related finance issue. Anybody can shed a light 🙏?

[UserLibra78]

I was required to raise invoice from my company to the business team to pay for any outstanding balance. The cost was set out in the contract.

I sent the business’s finance team a provisional invoice to avoid the issue of them questioning the cost further down the line.

They agreed and confirmed the provisional invoice and gave me the go ahead with official invoice.

I then had to liaise with my finance team to raise the official invoice.

Guess what? Once the customer received the Invoice, they start queries about some of the items listed that shouldn’t be there.

AIBU to be annoy at them for not raising the issue prior to the official invoice?

My finance team wants them to pay regardless as it is apparently a rigmarole to amend the official invoice 😞

Anybody got any suggestion in terms of hitting back to the sponsor in addition to the AIBU?

Are their queries valid?

You are not being unreasonable to be frustrated but equally they aren’t going to pay for services or goods that they have not received so I would think you will have to amend. I presume it’s a bit of a pain but it can’t be insurmountable (if you agree they are correct) to correct it and in your accounting system.

@NoSquirrels

Are their queries valid?

Some of them are.

But the AIBU part is the fact that I sent them a provisional invoice which includes the items of what I think they should paid. If they think they shouldn’t I would have take them off the list before I gave it to the Finance team.

Should the items be there or not? If the invoice is dodgy then they are right to raise it at any stage really

So you want them to pay for your mistake? YABU, regardless of when you sent the invoice, maybe they assumed you’d amend the final invoice which is what I would have done.

Doesn’t really matter if it’s a rigmarole for finance. They need to put the official invoice into dispute and allow you time to sort out the issue.

Unless the customer is happy to pay the invoice and have any differential re credited to their account once it’s reconciled. Depends on the relationship.

Yabu if some of the items shouldn't be there. Yes they shouldve raised when the draft was sent but the fact they didn't doesn't mean they should now have to pay for something they were not due to pay and which arguably whoever created the invoice put on in error and shouldve themselves have checked and ensured was accurate

@WorriedGiraffe

Should the items be there or not? If the invoice is dodgy then they are right to raise it at any stage really

The complicated issue is that the each listed item is then being spilt into several different sections. That is why is so important to review the Invoice.

I learnt a lesson here that I MUST not assume all sections have been completed before I raise the provisional invoice. Is the tone of the response that I received which put the blame squarely on me that I am annoy with.

There is no apologies from the business part that acknowledged they made a mistake in giving me the go ahead.

Why would you wish to “hit back at them”. If it’s wrong it’s wrong, cancel it and re invoice, your companies internal issues are your companies to deal with.

So you sent a client a provisional invoice, they agreed it was in order, you completed all the rigmarole your end to issue the final invoice and only now the client has raised incorrect items on it?

It's frustrating sure. Annoying that the client didn't raise these issues earlier.

But this is just normal course of business surely - I don't see why it's such a big deal at all. Your finance team are well out of order in expecting the client to just pay it because of operational difficulties in reissuing the invoice.

I deal with this kind of situation every day, just email the finance team back. 'Hi team. Thanks for your email. I totally appreciate the difficulties involved in getting this invoice reissued and apologise again for the delay in this coming to light and the re-work needed. However as the client has now correctly identified items xyz which should not be included, the amendment is necessary. Could you please let me know the timescales and how we move forward with the amendment please? Many Thanks'.

Total non issue.

@Newmumatlast

Yabu if some of the items shouldn't be there. Yes they shouldve raised when the draft was sent but the fact they didn't doesn't mean they should now have to pay for something they were not due to pay and which arguably whoever created the invoice put on in error and shouldve themselves have checked and ensured was accurate

You are absolutely right that I should have check the split sections to ensure they have been performed correctly before I send out the invoice.

I am just annoyed that they should have pick out the mistake before giving me the go ahead.

Are you new to the job? It’s really unusual to be so upset about something so commonplace and minor and want revenge like this and also to start a thread about it. And it’s really unusual also not to be able to just cancel and invoice and raise a new one.

@SeeminglyOblivious

So you sent a client a provisional invoice, they agreed it was in order, you completed all the rigmarole your end to issue the final invoice and only now the client has raised incorrect items on it?

It's frustrating sure. Annoying that the client didn't raise these issues earlier.

But this is just normal course of business surely - I don't see why it's such a big deal at all. Your finance team are well out of order in expecting the client to just pay it because of operational difficulties in reissuing the invoice.

I deal with this kind of situation every day, just email the finance team back. 'Hi team. Thanks for your email. I totally appreciate the difficulties involved in getting this invoice reissued and apologise again for the delay in this coming to light and the re-work needed. However as the client has now correctly identified items xyz which should not be included, the amendment is necessary. Could you please let me know the timescales and how we move forward with the amendment please? Many Thanks'.

Total non issue.

That is very very very helpful thank you so much 😀

If you do not mind I will shamelessly copy your response to my Finance team, verbatim.

I learnt my lesson for sure. Thank you very much for the help.

ls the tone of the response that I received which put the blame squarely on me that I am annoy with

The most important lesson you can learn here is never to take it personally.

I deal with wonderful, lovely clients that are a pleasure to deal with (even when my company do something wrong).

I also deal with complete arseholes whose emails have the tone of a 1920's aristocrat ordering around the kitchen maid because they pay me, so feel entitled to do so.

Never take it personally. It's just business and you need a thick skin to deal with all sorts of clients.

@Gardeningdream

Are you new to the job? It’s really unusual to be so upset about something so commonplace and minor and want revenge like this and also to start a thread about it. And it’s really unusual also not to be able to just cancel and invoice and raise a new one.

Hi you are right I am new. So there’s a lot of pushes from both sides and the top (manager) as well.

I will just chalk this up to experience and certainly not going to exact any revenge on my customer (I still need them to pay!)

The reason why I started this thread is certain to vent my annoyance + seeking advice on how to proceed, which @SeeminglyOblivious has kindly provided.

Apologies for giving the impression that I was going to raise hell for my own incompetence.

AIBU to be annoy at them for not raising the issue prior to the official invoice? yes highly U

@SeeminglyOblivious

ls the tone of the response that I received which put the blame squarely on me that I am annoy with

The most important lesson you can learn here is never to take it personally.

I deal with wonderful, lovely clients that are a pleasure to deal with (even when my company do something wrong).

I also deal with complete arseholes whose emails have the tone of a 1920's aristocrat ordering around the kitchen maid because they pay me, so feel entitled to do so.

Never take it personally. It's just business and you need a thick skin to deal with all sorts of clients.

Thank you very much for your advice

What is a provisional invoice? I'm a finance director and it is not a phrase I recognise.

Did you mean pro forma invoice?

Should you not have agreed the quote fully before the work?

The aim should always be to ensure it is easy for the client to get the invoice through their systems first time.

I wouldn't know what I was supposed to do with a "provisional" invoice, so it would probably get overlooked or queried

I’m the person responsible for raising income desk at my workplace.

Almost every week I receive emails from clients because there have been mistakes eg items that were originally going to be carried out but weren’t in the end or similar. Our engineer had originally quoted for x but y was carried out.

And what even is a provisional invoice. I guess it might be what we call a breakdown of costs. If the client picks up an error at that stage- great, if they don’t notice until after the invoice has been issued, so what.

It’s a 5 minute job to issue a credit and re-issue the invoice.

@KiloWhat

AIBU to be annoy at them for not raising the issue prior to the official invoice? yes highly U

May I know why you think is highly unreasonable?

1. Shouldn’t be annoy. Part and parcel of the job.

1. Even though they didn’t review the invoice and just gave me to go ahead with the final invoice. They can do their due diligence when it comes to the point of paying without acknowledging that they had made a mistake in okaying the provisional invoice?

By the way i did not agree with my Finance team on insisting they pay for the items that they think shouldn’t be there.

@topcat2014

What is a provisional invoice? I'm a finance director and it is not a phrase I recognise.

Did you mean pro forma invoice?

Should you not have agreed the quote fully before the work?

The aim should always be to ensure it is easy for the client to get the invoice through their systems first time.

I wouldn't know what I was supposed to do with a "provisional" invoice, so it would probably get overlooked or queried

Well exactly, if I got a provisional invoice I’d probably give it to the engineer who ordered the goods or services and treat it like a breakdown of costs but it’s not an official document.

In case the OP doesn’t know a Pro -Forma invoice is issued when there are no credit terms, it enables the client to pay before work is carried out/goods despatched and is followed up by a full vat invoice afterwards.

Are the other items going to be completed eventually ?

If so tell them to pay the part they agree with and then put the rest of the invoice in dispute.

Then you don’t miss invoicing them for the balance .

I wouldn't know what I was supposed to do with a "provisional" invoice, so it would probably get overlooked or queried

How unusual for a finance director.

I deal with finance departments daily in banks, schools, marketing businesses and many others. The term 'provisional' attached to invoices is bandied around frequently in my experience. The implied meaning of 'this is an FYI of what's coming, please have a quick check to make sure it's OK before we issue the final version' is usually well understood by finance teams without further explanation.

I'm confused. Are you new to the job? You sound inexperienced. This is standard. They approved the draft invoice? Are you now saying the draft invoice was wrong? Things were included that shouldn't have been?

Why aren't you angry with the client who is being cheeky. if they had any queries they should've raised them at the draft invoice stage. not now. If you've approved the draft invoice, it's very cheeky to then question the final invoice.

If you need to email the finance team asking for certain bits to be now removed from the invoice then just do so.

But I'll be taking a hard line with the client and sending an email politely saying I'm sorry but since you approved the draft invoice we were assuming that you agreed all costs already specified?

@UserLibra78 because until the job is 100% done they don't know if they are satisfied to pay the invoice. And they are your customer. Its just part if the job.