Getting the Work Signed For
Inside the buyer, somebody has to confirm the work arrived before anything can be paid. They usually do not know that is their job.
Sharedwho controls this stretch
An invoice cannot be paid until somebody inside the buyer confirms that what was ordered was received. It is a tick in a field, it takes four seconds, and the person responsible frequently does not know it is theirs to do.
The evidence described in “Getting the Work Signed For” should be captured while the work is still visible. Used for workforce analytics software, a practical workforce analytics software workflow can provide transparent time and project context, provided people can correct entries and the client’s acceptance record stays separate.
An invoice stuck behind a missing receipt looks identical to one that is simply slow.
As a separate reference point for “Getting the Work Signed For”, see IFRS accounting standards. Confirm current legal, tax and accounting requirements with a qualified adviser where necessary.
Why it exists
So that money is only paid for things that actually arrived. It is a control, it is sensible, and it is the gate suppliers are least aware of.
A cheerful confirmation that the work arrived safely is not a goods receipt. The person who sent it may well be the person who should have entered one, and being satisfied with the work is not the same as the box being ticked.
Who does it
Usually the person who raised the order or who received the work. Almost never anybody in finance.
So the only route to it is through your contact, and it is an administrative favour rather than a chase.
For physical goods
Usually automatic: the delivery is booked in at a goods-in desk against the order.
The failure case is a delivery accepted informally, by somebody who did not book it in.
For services
Much worse. There is nothing to receive at a desk, so the confirmation depends entirely on somebody remembering to record it.
This is why service suppliers wait longer, for a reason that has nothing to do with their invoice.
The message that helps
When the work is delivered: "That's everything — are you able to mark it as received on the order when you get a moment?"
Framed as a reminder about their system, not as a request about your money.
What happens without it
The invoice matches the order, fails to match a receipt, and parks. Most systems do not notify the supplier, and many do not notify the buyer either.
It can sit for months with nobody doing anything wrong.
Finding out whether it happened
Ask accounts payable whether the invoice has matched. They can see it and will say.
If it has not, they will usually say why, and the answer is frequently this.
Partial receipts
Where an order covers several deliveries, each needs receipting. One unreceipted delivery blocks its own invoice and sometimes the others.
Checking after each stage rather than at the end keeps the problem small.
The receipt nobody can give
Where the person who ordered has left, nobody remaining may feel able to confirm work they did not see.
The delivery record and the acknowledgement described in the evidence note are what rescue this, and nothing else will.
Why suppliers do not chase it
Because they do not know it exists. It is invisible from outside, has no name in any conversation, and is never mentioned in the terms.
Knowing it exists is most of the remedy.
What it is in the buyer's system
In a buyer of any size, the thing you are chasing has a specific form: a goods receipt, or its equivalent, recorded against the order by somebody internally. Until it exists, the order is open and the invoice has nothing to match the second half of.
This is why the question "has it been receipted?" is far more useful than "has it been approved?". They are different steps, performed by different people, and the first is both earlier and much more often the thing that is missing.
It is also why a cheerful confirmation from your contact that the work arrived safely does not help. They may well be the person who should have ticked the box, and the fact that they are satisfied with the work is not the same as the box being ticked.
Making it somebody's reflex
For a service, the receipt is usually created by whoever received the work, and it is not a task they think about. It sits somewhere below their actual job, generates no reminder, and nothing goes wrong for them if it is skipped.
So the practical approach is to make it easy and timed rather than to ask repeatedly.
Delivering a piece of work with a line stating plainly what has been delivered, against which order, on what date, gives the recipient everything needed to complete the receipt in a minute. Sending it at the moment of delivery catches them while the work is in front of them rather than a fortnight later.
Suppliers who adopt this get receipted faster and stop having to investigate. Suppliers who do not spend their chasing effort on the approval chain, which cannot act, while the invoice sits waiting for a tick that nobody has been asked for.
The two-line addition to your process
When work is delivered, ask for the receipt to be recorded. A week after invoicing, ask accounts payable whether it matched.
Both are routine, neither is a chase, and together they close the commonest invisible delay there is.