Nursery Dispute about invoice

[ConfusedMamasWorld]

Wondering if anyone can give a bit of advice on this rather than an AIBU.

My DD started nursery at the beginning of April and so far am having a lot of issues with invoices. As per the rules, I paid the balance in advance for April in full on 22nd March. Half way through April I recieved another invoice with April's balance on asking me to pay, to which I responded with a screenshot of the bank transaction from March and reiterated that I had already paid so could they amend their records. They said they would look into it and I heard nothing back. On friday, i recieved Mays invoice and it is still showing April's balance as unpaid so the full total allegedly due within the next week is £1800. I have again emailed back saying this is incorrect and I need it amended. But the fact that this wasnt dealt with when first raised is making me lose confidence in the nursery. Understandably it's Easter weekend so I haven't had a reply to my most recent email but I have spent all weekend worrying about it. I'm an overthinker which isn't helping.

I'm concerned that DD is going to lose her placement or i am going to be flagged as in debt and be made to pay again due to this error. I'm also not sure how this is going to affect me being able to claim back the childcare % as the invoice needing submitted is wrong so I'm going to be out of pocket if this isn't rectified immediately. I cant afford to lose this money or pay more. I'm a lone parent and not rolling in money, still on mat leave until tuesday.

What can I do here?!

I think nurseries are often bad at admin.

I’d phone them on Monday, and get it resolved.

If you’ve paid them, they aren’t going to take the place off you or charge you again!

Do they have a head office or is it a sole nursery?
Who deals with finance? You need a call or meeting with them on Tuesday
in the meantime, send an email showing clearly you have paid, you are not in arrears and they need to confirm so you can make your claim
it’s frustrating - Hopefully they’re inefficient rather than incompetent

Don’t worry about it they just need the two payments to reconcile. She won’t lose a place don’t worry.

Nurseries are terrible with finances and admin. Don’t worry.

Tuesday.

Our nursery is absolutely brilliant, a really loving and nurturing place. But their financial admin is not great and I think that’s quite a common weak point with nurseries! Personally I’d rather that be the issue than anything actually related to caring for their children, so I just make doubly sure to check the invoices. It’s likely that it’s just not been updated properly on their automated billing software, not that they believe you’re some sort of serial non-payer. I always think nursery admin must be a nightmare, and ours is just done by the ladies who own it and who are working on the nursery floor themselves.

It’s been less than a month since she started so I wouldn’t get too stressed about it. Maybe speak to them at pick-up or drop-off?

Please try and relax, you have paid so she will not lose her place. This is just an admin query but I suggest you phone rather than email again.

On Tuesday speak to manager and show screenshot from your bank account. Might be the case that of the payment did not include your account number/childs details etc will be sat in a holding account as system will not automatically allocate it to correct account. Manager should be able to contact their banking team and get it allocated. Also rewuest manager print you an invoice and sign/stamp it as fully paid and then you can upload it to UC for proof of childcare.

Then set up a direct debit so payments automatically taken each month. You will then only need to upload to UC your invoice and screenshot of bank account showing payment taken. My daughters nursery just takes bank account details when your child starting as they expect you to pay by direct debit.

Every nursery I ever used was a hot mess when it came to invoicing/reconciliation.
You need to be really direct
Eg. I need a receipt for my payment so I can claim it back. Here is a screen shot of my payment.

Re Credit Note needed to cancel invoice billed in error.

Dear admin

Please see the original invoice issued by nursery attached
Customer number __
Invoice no _
Invoice date ___
Charge period: April

I has issued a payment of £ on 22 March to the following bank details
IBAN
Bank account name
With the reference detail _
This was in full payment of invoice

Also attached is a second invoice issued for the same billing period.
Customer number __
Invoice no _
Invoice date ___
Charge period: April

I would be grateful if you could issue a credit note for this is duplicate billing.
The contract states that invoices will be issued monthly / by calander month / or what ever the contract said.....

I would be grateful if you can confirim that you have received my payment of £ on or after 22 March and applied it to my account.

I would be gratefull if you can offset the credit note against the remaining amount and confirm that the account has been corrected to reflect a zero outstanding balance.

I note that you have issued a combined invoice and statement listing the fees due for May and an outstanding amount for April.
Customer number __
Invoice no _
Invoice date __
Charge period May
And
Statement period April
Invoice no for April _
Invoice date ___
This is not correct as the April period had been billed twice.

As I have already paid invoice _ and am awaiting a credit note for invoice _ I will be issuing payment for the May invoice today

I will issued a payment of £ _ on today _ April to the following bank details
IBAN
Bank account name
With the reference detail _
This was in full payment of invoice

I would be grateful of you can provide an amended document for May.

Plus a statement showing the correct balance.

Yours ...

Unless its a big chain with a large admin system input errors can happen. And the admin person may not be trained on /remember how to manage to correct them as they dont happen often.
Eg in some systems they need to allocate credit notes against a specific invoice after they create it otherwise the system keeps recording the old invoice as unpaid

What a invoic needs :
https://www.gov.uk/invoicing-and-taking-payment-from-customers/invoices-what-they-must-include

On next drop off i would speak with the manager on duty amd have a printed copy of the email for the inhouse records and would ask for a name and direct contact number for the admin if its not the manager her/himself.

As for the claim back photocopy the May invoice blackout /mark off the details for April and leave only the correct amount readable
Mark that page 1
Add the email as page 2 and the original May page 3 and two April invoice with paid (on the one used for the claim back) and credit note due (on the "outstanding" one) page 4&5

(Edited to remove underlines)

Did you pay it directly to the nursery or from your bank into a tax free childcare account?

A reasonably common issue used to be parents doing the latter and believing it then had gone automatically to the nursery (it doesn’t).

Oh god, don't send them a message like that unless you want to confuse them further! I agree that phoning up would be best.

I paid directly via bank transfer. I also double checked the details numerous times to make sure they were right and the bank confirmed they matched.

Why would this confuse them ?
It details what they have done and what the OP has done.

The OP will go over the exact same details over the phone with the admin person

The person doing the admin and invoicing may well be doing it alongside caring for children so not been able to have a proper look. Agree with just calling them as that way it will be looked at quicker.

Also, thanks everyone for the peace of mind. It sounds like a common issue so thats reassuring but seems this may not be the last time this arises. The nursery is part of a local chain but is newly opened in the area so perhaps they are just finding their feet. They have been great with DD so far, apart from some communication issues.
The main reasons for documented accuracy is just for claiming back the costs as its probably going to cause difficulty with that. I will see if i can speak to someone face to face on Tuesday at drop off to hopefully get this sorted. Moving forward i agree its a good idea to ask for receipts when payment is recieved.