Getting the order
Vendor onboarding, the purchase order, and the difference between who instructs you and who pays.
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No Order, No Payment
In most large organisations an invoice without a purchase order cannot be paid by anybody, however willing. What that means for when you start.
Getting Into Their System
Before an invoice can be paid, you have to exist as a supplier. The process takes weeks, nobody owns it, and it can be started early.
Who Instructs You and Who Pays You
In any organisation of size these are different people with different interests. Treating them as one is the root of most payment confusion.
The Reference That Makes It Payable
An invoice is matched by machine against an order and a receipt. The reference is what lets the machine find it, and it is the cheapest thing to get right.
Reading Their Terms Before You Sign
Purchase terms arrive late, run to twenty pages and override yours. Six clauses decide whether you are paid, and they can be read in ten minutes.
Starting Without an Order
Sometimes you start before the paperwork exists. It is a decision, not an accident, and there is a way to make it survivable.
When the Order Changes Under You
Orders are amended, superseded, reduced and cancelled, often without anybody telling the supplier. Four changes and what each does to the invoice.