Customer wants monthly statement

[Guida Rufino]

I have a really annoying customer who always pay late. They're now requesting that I send them a statement of their account every month. In the past I've just sent them copy invoices but for some reason this isn't good enough. I've said more than once that I can't see the point in doing this as it surely only replicates information that they should already have. I suspect their reason for requesting this is that they're really badly organised and need it to verify things. I really don't see why I should take time out of my busy working day to send them information which they should have themselves.

Anyway, they're not a big customer and always pay late so I'm going to say that we will do it but for a small fee, was thinking £5. Am I being unreasonable and has anyone else experienced this. In 10 years or so that I've been doing this job, no-one has ever asked me for this. Honestly if they go elsewhere I won't lose any sleep over it!

 

[ads1188]

I have a really annoying customer who always pay late. They're now requesting that I send them a statement of their account every month. In the past I've just sent them copy invoices but for some reason this isn't good enough. I've said more than once that I can't see the point in doing this as it surely only replicates information that they should already have. I suspect their reason for requesting this is that they're really badly organised and need it to verify things. I really don't see why I should take time out of my busy working day to send them information which they should have themselves.

Anyway, they're not a big customer and always pay late so I'm going to say that we will do it but for a small fee, was thinking £5. Am I being unreasonable and has anyone else experienced this. In 10 years or so that I've been doing this job, no-one has ever asked me for this. Honestly if they go elsewhere I won't lose any sleep over it!

From what you mentioned it sounds like they are badly organised but it is not an unusual request. I've seen in the past a monthly statement be sent to customers with how much they owe epecially if they make loads of small orders.

Customers who pay late can be a pain. How long do you give them to pay? You could always refuse them credit and ask for cash upfront if they keep paying late.

 

[David Griffiths]

If you had a computerised system you could produce this at the drop of a hat.

On the question of the admin fee, if somebody tried to charge me £5 for a monthly statement I'd tell them to get lost. Asking for a monthly statement is not an unreasonable or particularly unusual request.

You are gong to have to decide if you want to deal with this customer or not

 

[Mark@PFH]

I would of thought sending a monthly statement to customers was a standard thing...

You will be suprised how many customers prefer to pay on receipt of a Statement rather than invoices, if they arent using a software that identifies invoices due for payment then requesting a statement is the next best thing.

You might find that sending copy invoices is actually slowing your payment down ...

And yes if you tried to charge 5 quid you are likely to be told where to stick said 5 quid..

 

[Guida Rufino]

I do have Sage Instant Accounts. To be honest, I didn't realise just how easy it was to generate the report and email it. I suppose it's just because they have such a bad history of paying that it's annoyed me so much. I have tried everything to get them to pay on time. We don't release the paperwork from the medicals to them until they pay, they've signed the T&Cs that agree to 30 days, I still have to chase them. They're not a big customer and honestly if they went elsewhere I wouldn't care. I spoke to the lady yesterday and have agreed to generate the reports but let's just say that come the annual price review next year, this will all be taken into account.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Most companies pay once a month at the end of the month or the end of the following month

Companies have quite a lot of internal paper work to chase and put together before they pay, they need to prove the goods were ordered correctly, match wiith Purchase order chack acceptable quality and input the invoice when all is correct, for you and me a five minute job for larger companies a lot of work

Most of the big companies pay at the end of the following month so if you send a invoice on both the 1st Jan and the 28th Jan they would both be paid on the last day Feb

They play by their rules and you either accept them or not, Shell UK used to take about 9 months to pay

£5.00 is just stupid

 

[OldWelshGuy]

We always insited on invoice and statement combined. we would then pass the invoices for payment, and hold on to the statement. When I controlled the buying, there could have been at any given time, 6-10 order books (each person had a book), we stipulated, no order number no pay. I have heard people complaining about this, but the way we worked was simple.

Invoices and statements arrive. statement is photcopied to use as a working sheet. We would pull each invoice and sort them per order book. we would mark our master statement copy wioth which invoices had been passed to whom, and the date. no order number meant it would instantly go into query, and we would then notify the supplier we would not pay ANYTHING on that statement until they provided an order number.

We would then get them back, add the nominal codes, process them allocate the costs etc, and make the payment ON STATEMENT.

The statement is the key here as we had a copy of the total for that period, the invoice number, AND if there was a queried invoice, it would sit in the file, stapled to it would be the invoice being queried.

Now if a supplier told me they wouldn't provide statements or wanted to charge me, then I would find a new supplier!

I have posted this to give you an insight into how I processed invoices, and to highlight the fact that teh statement was the KEY document that allowed us to control everything else IMMEDIATELY. You say 'they should have it' but what you are doing is forcing them to create a statement which takes time.

My system was simple.

provide invoices, provide order numbers for each invoice and i GUARANTEE you will be paid without delay. Fall down anywhere, and you wait

 

[Simonhatfield]

You mention that your customer pays late, and my advice would be to send out Statements as a matter of course as it is often a reminder that your invoice is due for payment.

It really does depend on the size of the company - I work with some large companies who have very clear, but sometimes annoying for supplier payment protocols. For those of us who pay a couple of invoices per month it really isn't an issue, however I work with one organisation who process in excess of 10,000 payments per month - for them to issue invoices even at 30 days is silly and time consuming, so they issue payments, as has been said previously on the 28th of each month. They have a cut off date of the 20th.

Suppliers know this, so many actually get paid ahead of the 30 day credit term by invoicing on the 20th.

It is however important for every company to have robust credit control in place. Accounts systems like Sage allow you to do this, and I would set aside a short amount of time per week to send statements, chase emails and letters at specific times. I see so many people who sit with ledgers with thousands overdue and then chase 3-6 months down the line. If you give 30 days credit, try emailing the day before it is due, with a gentle reminder that payment is due, or just asking for confirmation that the invoice has been processed and that there are no queries with the amount.

Simon

 

[Rhyl Lightworks]

With all the companies we deal with it is normal practise to send out a statement, with a list of invoices, showing what is due, what, if anything, is overdue, and what is not due yet. We have not had to ask for this, it is just done as a matter of course.

Barrie

 

[Tom McClelland]

Most larger companies operating credit accounts with repeat-business clients would send out monthly statements to the entire sales ledger as a matter of routine. These days by email, in the old days by post.