Last week, I received an email from a supplier informing me they started using a brand new SAP application to manage A/P-Accounts Payable or in plain English the invoices from their suppliers.
As usual, the introduction of a (new) business application is accompanied by new or revised procedures. Generally, it means that because automated processes only work when the process can be standardized, every divergence from these standards creates problems.
And so this company begs her supplier to be very careful when sending invoices per email. Apparently, their suppliers think they will increase the chance to get paid, by sending their invoice to multiple recipients for example the Accounts Payable team and their contact person at the business side. In some cases they even send a paper invoice also in case the mail does get lost.
Obviously, when you receive an invoice 3 times and by 3 different recipients, that creates an additional processing cost and increases the risk of double (or even triple?) payments.
So this company was so desperate they decided to contact all their suppliers reminding them to send an invoice only once!
Invoice in PDF per email is increasingly catalogued as a bad business process because it does not create a win-win but shifts cost for paper & stamps from the supplier to the customer. This cases demonstrates it also shifts complexity! Invoices in PDF and email : just don’t do it!