Think I'm going to lose my job

[Fredthecar]

I filled out a form for someone to get a purchase order raised. I did this because they are a nightmare to get anything done and we were running our of time before year end and it had to be done. I sent it to them to check and then told them to send on to finance.

They obviously didn't check it and sent straight on. The form was queried but I answered the question (wrongly as I now realise) instead of the person who sent the form in. I was then told to raise the order which I did.

However, from a quick chat on Friday I've realised the description is wrong in multiple places on the order. The order has all been finalised and cannot be undone as the invoice has been paid.

So, first thing tomorrow I need to tell my manager what's happened. I think I'm likely to lose my job as I had some basic training last week and we were told not to do these forms. We also have an audit coming up and it is highly likely to be picked up and I think could cause serious problems with our accounts.

Any advice?

Okay so did you fill out the form before you had the training or after? Presumably there was a genuine invoice which needed paying therefore a PO was needed. What was wrong with the description? Wrong category of item, wrong cost centre or have you put a made up description on it? Honestly it could be far worse not to pay on time for a whole host of reasons that unless your requesting a PO was raised was gross misconduct I don't see the issue. What have your appraisals been like? If this is a one off it's highly unlikely you'll be sacked. Be very careful about what you say about the person who is a nightmare though.

Sounds as though you answering the questions raised could be a control issue, but I think you're catastrophising.

Thanks for replying @Needtosoundoffandbreathe. It was after the training so I should have known better. It's all genuine and needing to be paid, although invoice had only just come it had to be all sorted before year end.

Descriptions don't match work that was done.

My appraisals have all been great, no issues.

You're right about catastrophising, I do have a habit of doing that.

How much money (as a % of turnover /profit) was involved in the error in total?
As you the company "needed" it done what was the total cost of failure?

And are the elements you filled in going to result in the company not getting what it needs (eg need 30 training.places for how to count stock v getting 3 items of unwanted stock) or is it a bookkeeping error (eg training is booked in as 3 items of deliverable stock).

Although you said the error has been paid it is always possible to try negoitate with an ongoing supplier to mitigate the loss. Suppliers recognise the value of keeping a customer long term and opting to sort out / unwinding a one off error deal creates a lot of goodwill.

In accounting terms once your manager is aware then you can work out the financial implications and document them with the cost estimates and adjust the accounting records.

Re the error the audit team are looking for material issues but even if the error is material the new process has been implemented and a second error is not possible

Your problem will be if you failed to follow the process which was inplace before your training. Dis you mess up under that process ?
You cant be held to account for not following a new process if you were (a) unaware of the new process (b) not told not to do something (c) not trained in the changed process.

Why did you do it. Was it a mistake or deliberate ignoring of the instructions on the training day? What about the person who was meant to check it but didn't. Will they be in trouble too. The system sounds a bit chaotic and rushed. Why should you shoulder the whole blame.

Seems unlikely to be a sacking offence if it’s a one time mistake. Go in and be honest and apologise. Explain why you did it, to get the job done. Everyone makes mistakes including your boss.

If its only descriptions but the work needed was done to the agreed standard and paid at the correct rate then you have 2 options

1. internal process to document error
2. unwind the error and get proper documentation off the supplier ie go back to the supplier and agree a credit note for the first invoice and get them issue a new invoice for the work net cashflow is zero (although there is an admin cost to both organisations) so thats a relationship issue.

In audit terms if its only moving cost from bucket A to bucket B its not normally an issue.

I assume the descriptions on the invoice are correct? This sounds really easily fixable, just have a chat with the finance team to see if they coded it to the correct place

Set out the facts...

X commissioned the work but did not raise a PO.

The costs can not be accrued for year end, without a PO being raised and the invoice matched to it.

I repeatedly asked X to complete the form, we were running out of time so I filled it out, asked X to check it and send it on.

I then raised the PO using the form.

The details on the purchase order do not match the details on the invoice because the original form was incorrect.

The invoice is correct and does represent the work done.

Ask you boss to advise what corrections need to be made in the system.

The main control issue here is that an invoice had already been received, so someone had placed an order with the supplier and goods/ services received, before a proper purchase order had been raised to authorise the expenditure. Whoever did that committed the company to the expenditure without getting proper authorisation. Was that you?

I have seen this so many times in my years in finance management and have never seen anyone disciplined over it.

What you did was just putting in the paperwork after the fact and isn’t really the issue. Maybe you didn’t exactly follow correct procedures on raising paperwork but that wasn’t what committed the company to the spend. The invoice had already arrived and would have had to be paid in any event.

it looks like the expenditure was valid so no loss has been incurred by the company anyway. I can’t see this resulting in disciplinary action for you, maybe a reminder about correct procedures. The auditors may flag it as a procedural error but that happens all the time and they might recommend more training.

X is at fault here for not raising the PO before placing the order with the supplier.

Of course the costs can be accrued in the year end accounts, they were incurred during the year and the invoice evidences this. Accounts just need to be informed so they can make a manual adjustment. Completely normal.

Looks like OP was trying to clear up someone else’s mess and made some errors as the process is new to them. Some more training needed to clear up misunderstandings.

I can’t see that OP should have anything to worry about here.